Strayed and Stayed // You Found Me.

5 - Fuscillade - The Inferno

Fuscillade - The Inferno
Chapter Five.

****

"Meena? You want to come in now?" Kainat smiled at the little girl softly. She had agreed to take back one of her old clients. It had been three hours since Sidharth's appointment. They were going to have a meeting later in the day to discuss that case.

Meena, she was very small for her age. She had a thumb in her mouth as she suckled on it, drool collected at the corner of her mouth and she got up and walked towards her. Her father had this worried look on his face, she felt like there a difficult situation that was getting out of his hands. He was a single father afterall.

"Would you like to come in too, Mr. Iyer?" Kainat asked as Meena settled on the couch.

"Please!" He nodded, getting up quickly and walking inside as well.

"How are you Meena?" Kainat asked. Meena was looking around the room, it was new to her - overwhelming as well. Her fingers were curled and stretching, and her innocent little eyes, they were curious.

"Mhm..." She hummed.

"DSE has been helping her, I believe?" She asked her father.

"It has..." He had a sunken look on his face. As if he was exhausted with life.

"That's good. Mr. Iyer, why don't you help me connect with Meena's teachers? We will work together to make school as easy as possible for Meena. She needs to have social interaction as well... So we'll work on that with you. Is that okay?" Kainat asked, she felt such sympathy for the man.

"About that..." He looked at Meena worried, and then back at her.

"Meenamma... Why don't you go and do the color sets for a while?" He said, pointing to the little table at the corner. Meena grinned, rushing off towards the table at once. It was her favourite.

"What's wrong?" Kainat asked.

"The teachers.... They complained about Meena's habits... I don't know how to tell you... Or say it out loud..." Mr. Iyer said, rubbing with face in his hands and his voice cracked.

"You can tell me anything Mr. Iyer. This is a safe place for not only Meena but for you as well." Kainat smiled softly. He nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Meena is growing ... But she still sucks her thumb... You said it's for comfort..." He said. Kainat nodded.

"She also holds her earlobe and plays with it when she's sucking her thumb..." He went on.

"Yes sir. It acts as a sort of a stimulus for her." Kainat nodded.

"The teachers complained that... Uhm...." His eyes welled up with tears.

"She usually..." He cried, covering his face.

"Mr. Iyer..." Sana said, worried.

"They were so disgusted by her when they complained... I have never seen her do that... I don't know why she does it in school... She... Uhm..." He said, tears flowing relentlessly. She had an idea as to where this was going.

"She was using something else to stimulate and comfort herself?" She asked the question for him. He nodded, covering his face more and crying even more.

"Mr. Iyer... I know you're exhausted with life, and you have very less tolerance to situations... Because I do realise that life was not kind to you..." Kainat sighed. She wondered if she should charge the grown man who was crying like a baby on the couch as well for therapy.