Can't I Touch Your Heart?

Chapter 71 The Leaves Are Falling

Rhea had received the clearance text. She had cleared the second round. That was an important achievement because it wasn't Ember's idea that she had painted. It was her own and she wanted to tell him the news personally. She got on her bike and paddled to the hospital. She ran to  Ember's room and looked inside but Ember wasn't there. The nurse was spreading the washed sheets over his bed. She looked at Rhea and smiled

"They must be out of the theatre by now,"
"Theatre?"
"Operation theatre. Didn't he tell you? He had his surgery today,"

'He didn't...'

Rhea ran towards the operation theatre of the hospital. Then, she saw Maple and Loraine come out of one of the Intensive Care Units'

"Where's Ember?" She asked them.
"Oh, Ember, he's..." Maple looked serious as if he were about to cry.
"Just tell her he is in there. What's with that look as if he died?" Loraine asked.
"Damn! You messed up my perfect prank!" Maple shouted and Rhea slapped him.
"Is this a joke to you?!"
"Erm...No,"

She ran inside and saw Ember. He was sitting and eating. All the anger and worries she had turned to extreme joy.

"Ember!" She exclaimed. He turned towards her "You want some too?"
"You can eat!" Rhea was so happy that she was about to cry.
"Yeah, and it doesn't hurt anymore. Desi food is the best! Ah! I missed it,"
Rhea punched his head and he groaned.
"Desi maar is so not though,"

"Why did you hide this surgery from me?!" Rhea shouted.
"Because you had your competition coming up,"
"What could possibly go wrong?"
"I'm glad you asked," He said.

She knew what he wanted to say and she had no answer to that. He continued eating "Wanna try? It's good," 
"No, first tell me what they did to you. What was the surgery about?"

'I feel so sad you didn't tell me.
I couldn't be with you when you needed me,'

"They removed my intestines. Apparently, they were blocked and were bleeding, causing blood loss and that extreme pain in my stomach"
"Hang on! If you don't have your intestines anymore, how will you survive?"
"There's an ostomy bag for that,"
"What is that?"

"Touch this," Ember grabbed Rhea's hand and placed it on his abdomen. It felt like something soft. A sort of pouch was attached to his abdomen.
"Ember,"
"It is an artificial opening that surgeons make in the abdomen of patients like me. And this bag allows to collect waste materials and then to be transported out of the body."

"Can I have a look at it?"
"It's really disgusting and weird,"
"I still want to look at it,"
"I hope you're not grossed out," Ember raised his shirt.

There was this small white pouch handing right beside his belly button on the right side.

"Is it gonna stay this way forever?"
"Yeah," Ember smiled.
"We really take everything for granted, don't we?" Rhea looked at the ostomy bag.
"It's alright, we are only a moment anyways," Ember smiled as he pulled his shirt down.

"Ember, time to go back to your room," The nurse removed the electrocardiogram.
"I feel like a baby!" Ember laughed as he sat on the wheelchair and the nurse took him to his room. Rhea walked beside them. After they reached his room, Ember lay on the bed and Rhea stared at the blank walls.

"Hey, Ember,"
"Yeah,"
"You once told me that when your mind goes blank, it becomes a canvas. So aren't these white walls a canvas too?"
"Rhea, wow,"
"I just thought of something really amazing,"

He smiled, "So, when are you starting?"
"Let's start right now," 

Rhea ran back home to get all the paint and paintbrushes. What a wonderful experience it was, to carry her paint to Ember and they would paint together. Just like they did at that huge wall in those woods beside the painting shop.

When Rhea reached the hospital again, she found Ember, sitting on the bed with his guitar.

"Are you going to play something?" Rhea asked.
"Oh! Hey, Rhea. No, I was just-"
"Ember, sing something for me,"
"You want me to?"
"Do it!"
Ember struck the strings.

He played a song on his guitar as he watched her paint on the wall in front of him. She dipped the paintbrush into the paint. Ember was watching her intensely and she loved it. She wasn't tensed while painting anymore, it was a weird feeling-Like an elevator ride with puppies.

Finally, when she was done, Ember clapped and showered her with compliments. She laughed,
"The third round is coming. It's in March,"
"It's okay, you've still got one month to go"
"I'll think of something, I have got a lot in my head for now. HEY! Ember, let's paint together! You take that side and I'll take this one!" Rhea pulled him up. He got up on his feet. 

His knees seemed a little bent but were hard to notice in the loose, blue hospital pyjamas. They painted the huge white canvas, bringing the dull room to the life of ideas these bricks had never seen. After they were done, they looked at each others' paintings. Ember was still bad at painting, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. After she would leave, Chuck would whitewash the entire wall to make it ready for painting again the next day.

She would come to meet Ember and they would paint together. She learned so much just by watching him paint. Every day, there was a new idea, lying there on the wall. The blank and depressing white walls were as colourful as they could be. He felt as if he was sitting in some art gallery and told Chuck not to whitewash the walls anymore. He wanted to live, surrounded by those ideas. He liked this, waiting for her to come to him every day with a huge smile on her face, they would paint and laugh, the worldly affairs seemed of so little importance. He didn't want to stop, he could do this for the rest of his life. 

But eventually, he had to. He couldn't paint with her anymore because every day it got more and more difficult to get on his feet. As days passed, Rhea's ideas proliferated, it was evidently shown into her paintings. Ember would guide her to her own paintings as he sat behind her, singing and playing his guitar. He could understand everything that the paintings were saying. Two months flew by like two days.

"Why don't you join me?" She smiled at him. Exhausted by the lies he started believing himself, he stopped playing the guitar and looked at her,

"I can't walk anymore," The smile on her face faded away, "They say I will never walk again," He smiled and looked outside the window, "It's getting colder, and so is my heart. It's getting darker and so are the thoughts.

The leaves are falling
But baby," He looked at her, the sunset faded away behind him, "So am I"

-To be continued

Can't I Touch Your Heart?
Teach Me The Art of Living