Thursday, February 21, 2008

The next moment Leo found himself staggering against a ton of people around him; all of them looking inside his eyes, with myriads of unanswered questions in their eyes. Leo found himself lying on the hospital bed, a bottle of saline hanging on his right side and a long-long tube running way inside a vein near his right elbow joint. He looked around and thought "... but I was trying to jog and I fell and I met that Goddess! ... where is she??" He felt like moving himself out of disappointment, curiosity, astonishment and frustration, but the bottom of his leg felt so heavy! He tried to move his right arm far, but alas, that tube was wrekking his whole inside, delineating his body balance entirely. He felt like bursting into a subtle but profound pain inside; but one question popped up time and again, "Was that a dream? Or reality? Am I being trapped? Is someone trying to 'program' my thoughts and my life process?"

Questions after questions dreaded him of his life all the more. Suddenly he felt a darkening veil in front of his tired eyes; a long thin needle felt like going inside his arm, drowning him in a little bit of pain, delivering a blurry white fluid inside him - it was his dose to relax and fall asleep.

Frank has not been going home for the past couple of days since Leo's accident; though he promised to the hospital authorities not to let Leo know of it, once he regains consciousness, and he also promised it to himself he won't see Leo in this excruciating pain. Though an atheist, every now and then he felt like retiring to that "fictitious power" to render Leo fine soon.

Engrossed in all these thoughts, Frank suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the doctor. "Can I see you in my chamber for a moment please? I assume you are with the accident patient Leo," said the doctor. "Yeah yeah, sure. Which way is it?" Frank replied.

Frank rose from that white wooden bench to follow the doctor. It has had literally turned into his living abode since Leo landed up in the hospital. A hardly four feet long chair-like structure, painted white with no cushions, Frank almost forgot that last month only he had to go to the therapy for backache and the therapist told me to minimize sleeping or sitting in weird positions - his insatiable desire to lie on the couch and watch football on the TV. But these things would hardly matter to Frank then.

It was a confusing long labyrinthine way to the doctor's chamber. Every nook and corner he would see somebody weeping: the pain you feel when your loved one is in pain. Frank suddenly felt like he went back twenty years back - to a childhood which was as disturbed as it could be; and how as destiny's irony, even after all that, he and Leo have landed up on the same small
island
on earth today! He could not even feel bad for Leo - his feeling was as eerie as one could imagine.

"Please come in, Mr Frank..." said the doctor.

"Thank you Doctor. So what is it like you want to talk to me about Leo? How long is he going to take to recover? I think we have to keep stricter watch on him - his going out for jogging today morning was too freaking!" blurted out Frank all of a sudden.

"Don't worry Mr Frank. We would be taking special care of him. But I wanted to talk to you about Leo and his past life. How long do you know him?" replied the doctor.

"Oh My God! Is he okay? Why do you want to know of his past life? Is he suffering from another attack again?" Frank was too jostled to reply like that.

"Cool down, cool down, its okay. We just want to be sure about everything about Leo's case. But you didn't reply how long do you know him?" doctor didn't know how better he could handle this situation!

"It has really been a long time Doctor. I have known him since the past twenty years. Things were all red and rosy, till the day a storm brought a female face in his life..."

"What do you mean, Mr Frank? We need to do a comprehensive background check. I am afraid it seems the case would need to be transferred to a psychiatrist!" said the doctor out of surprise and little hint of frustration...

Frank now knew with certainty, that, like the past twenty years, history is going to repeat all over again...

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