"Thud, thud, thud!!"
Mishi could hear her heart drum off beats with threatening boom in her brain....
They were in the Greenville Airport...
Rajshri was sitting on the wheelchair as her accompanying medical personal administered a mild sedation to her...
Mishti tore her eyes from the airfield beyond the glass partition in the lounge to where Kuhu, Kunal and Abir stood.
Their friends had come to see them off and Mishti was grateful to Kuhu for letting her stand by Rajshri. She would not be able to give a logical reply to what they were saying to her in her incoherent condition.
They were about to board the chartered flight to New York...!
The realisation was hitting her hard ....a flight journey.....!!
After 12 years...!!
The memory of her first flight to US 12 years back was clearly etched in her mind....how she embarrassed all by her shrieks and tantrums....she was damn sure that she was going to die then....
She never wanted to leave...but..!
And over these years she had thought she had gained control over the insecure feeling....but now as she eyed the aircraft which was supposed to hold her hostage for the next three hours....the old fear resurfaced with much more magnitude......and this time ...she didn't even have the warm comfort of her Badimaa.....
Mishti dug her nails into her hand as she followed Rajshri with hesitant steps waving a reluctant bye to her friends who waved at her....
By the time they reached the stairs Mishti saw Kunal jog to her...
"Hey Mishti ...its okay to be sad...it's sad to leave your friends and the place you grew up...but .it will go away ...mein hoo na...."
Mishti submitted to his sideways hug in a relief.
And from a distance Abir too let out a sigh....
He was on nails seeing the terror in her eyes....
The way she was acting weirdly after they reached the airport had made him check on her every moment he could lay her eyes on her....
The way she looked at his Citation Cessna,...
The way she kept close to Massima holding her hand to get some assurance ...,
The way she took hesitant steps as if she was betting her entire life by getting into the flight......
It was then he realised her fear.....she was claustrophobic..!!
Whenever she used to feel stressed she opted for the open field even as a child...
