Hope Believe Magic

Discharged

When AK went into the private recovery room to see Shivu, his heart broke at the sight. She was sitting on the bed with her knees up. Her hands were holding her knee tightly with her chin on top of her knees. She had cried a lot. He could see that her face was pale. She was still sniffling and her eyes and nose were red. He took a deep breath before walking up to her. He heard him entering but did not look up. He turned over the "Do not disturb" tag on the door knob. Then he shut the door behind him and walked into the room. He climbed on the bed next to her. His back resting on the headrest, he extended his leg. Then he slowly picked her up and placed her on his lap, hugging her. She hugged him tightly and her entire body started to tremble. She was crying uncontrollably. He felt so helpless but he held her tightly. They stayed that way, without speaking a word, for almost an hour.

Finally she started to take long breaths, still sniffling, she said, "Naan Yaarukku enna dhroham panninen, AK. Kadavulluku yen enna pidikkave illai? Yaarum aasa padadha edhavudhu naan aasa pattena? Oru kozhandhai thaane AK ketten. Adhu thappa?" He patted the back of her head and slowly kissed her forehead and said, "Illai maa. Nee endha thappum pannale maa. Nee romba yosikkadhe. Ellam seri ayidum. Ippidi azhudhutte irundhena un udambu enathukku aagardhu. Naan thaan eppovum un kooda irukken la maa." They held on to each other a little longer without saying anything else, until they heard a knock on the door. Shivu quickly moved from his lap and he stood up. The doctor came for her rounds and checked Shivu. She said, "Actually AK, if you want you can take her home. Avangalukku discharge papers and instructions kudukaren. Shivu, unfortunately, this happens more frequently that you think and mukkavaasi perukku normal pregnancy and delivery aagum even with a single tube so don't get dejected maa, ok?" Shivu nodded and gave a fake smile.

Once the doctor left, Shivu went into the bathroom to change into her regular clothes and sat on the wheelchair that a nurse pushed. AK was clearing up her personal item while the nurse pushed her along to the lobby where her parents were waiting for her. Some of the hospital staff were whispering saying, "Abortion paavam." A patient, who was visiting, heard this half baked whispers and clicked a pic of Shivu with her parents and posted on Twitter, "Just saw Shivathmika. Apparently she aborted the baby." Some news channels got a whiff of this and overnight rumours spread saying, "AK and Shivu were headed for divorce and so she aborted her baby." People, who had nothing better to do, trashed her saying she was heartless. Some said AK was having an affair and what not but AK couldn't be bothered about all this. Right now his only concern was to protect his wife and take care of her health. He called one of his politician friend, who was extremely influential and told him to take care of it before it fell into Shivu's hands. He made sure she did not have access to social media for the next couple of days.

Shivu rested at her mom's place for a couple of days but on day three she told AK that she wanted to their house and he quickly obliged. Once they reached home, he helped her freshen up and tucked her in their bed. He kissed her forhead and said, "Maa one week ku naan un kooda ve thaan irukka poren. Director sir kitta kettu shooting push panitten. Avarum ok solittar. Mathavangaloda scenes eduthukaren nu solittar. So I am at your service" he said bringing a faint smile to her face. Then he continued, "Ippo nee rest edu naan unakku oru super vegetable soup panni eduthundu varendhu unakku ooti vidaren. Naan pogava?" She pulled him close to her and hugged him, "Konja neram kazhuchu ponga. Enna cuddle pannuga please. I just need your bear hug now."

He hugged and rocked her till she, finally, after 3 days, went to sleep peacefully.

Brinda Subramanian