Rajat Pillai's Blog - Posts Tagged "thriller"
That February Night : The Dead Woman Writing (Sample Chapter)
The Dead Woman Writing
Sophie’s car was a new one and a joy to drive but it was getting dark and visibility was poor, the darkness accentuated by trees on either side of the road. Gradually, sharp twists and turns loomed without giving away much of what lay ahead.
She had planned this trip since her MBA days at MICA. The trip occupied the pride of place on her wish list; she’d always wanted to take her parents by road, in her own car, from Mumbai to Goa. Indus Public Relations paid her well, and she’d made the down payment for the small car with savings from her initial three months’ salary.
“Mumma and Pa, next year, I will send you on a week's vacation to Singapore,” she said.
Her mother Anna, known in her locality for her penny-pinching lifestyle, was not amused. “Don't throw away money like this on lavish activities,” she retorted.
Her father Roy agreed with Anna. “We don't want to go to exotic places, Sophie. You just save enough to buy yourself a flat.”
Anna looked nervously outside the car's window. It was unnaturally dark. She felt as though she was going down a coal mine in a rail cart. “I think it was a bad idea to drive through this place so late in the night,” she complained.
“Mumma, we will be in Goa in 90 minutes. Don't worry.”
“We would have reached Goa by evening had it not been for your mother who took so much time to pack for the trip. There are restaurants on the way. Why get everything from home?”
“Why blame only me? Your dear friend Vinayak came in the morning; instead of telling him to spare us today at least, you indulged him with your expert comments on the newspaper headlines and then that lengthy discussion on what is going wrong in the country.”
“Mumma, Pa, please stop! We are here to enjoy, not argue over trivial issues. Also, it was the broken- down truck on Old Church Road and the resulting traffic jam which delayed us by an hour at least.”
Roy took off his seat belt and relaxed. Sophie was driving well around the sharp turns but they would take more than the 90 minutes she’d promised.
“People say that this road is not safe to drive through at night and I have read so many newspaper articles on accidents that have taken place on this road,” remarked Anna again.
“Now that the atmosphere is so spooky, let me scare you a bit, Mum. One of my office colleagues Ravi was driving a bike through this road at midnight on his way back from Goa. He claimed that in the dark he saw an old woman wearing a gown walking backwards on the side of this very road.Wooooooo!” Her eyes on the road, Sophie imitated the eerie sound and thrust her left hand backwards like a claw at her mother's face.
“Don't be silly! It’s not a joke. My sister used to tell me about strange incidents that happened on this road as far back as the 80’s and 90’s.” Anna was jittery.
“Mumma! I don't believe Ravi's story. He is a lunatic who says atrocious things. What happened that night was probably one of those midnight-post-booze bike rides followed by drunken imagination.”
“I really hope so! For our sake I really hope so!” her mother mumbled.
Silence enveloped the three inside the car. And then Roy started to hum along with the Boney M’s 'Sunny' playing in the stereo. His wife had no musical inclination but he had always enjoyed music,especially the old classics. He looked at his cell phone every now and then. No signal. “I don't understand why telecom providers don't install towers here so that people don't feel cut off on this stretch.”
Anna looked outside, took out a miniature copy of the Bible from her handbag and started to pray. Her instinct was telling her that it was not a good idea to be driving in these parts at this time in the night.
Sophie felt excited thinking about the exotic resort she had booked for her parents in Goa. She had already enrolled them for water sports and a motor boat ride to see the dolphins. Another half day was reserved at the ayurvedic spa inside the resort. Sophie had it all planned out, One surprise for each of the four days they would spend in Goa.
They were coming down the slope at a decent speed when there was a loud sound. Sophie looked behind to see what had happened. There was a jerk and before she could react, the vehicle swerved and went off the road on to the grass.
“Sophie! What is happening?” her mother shrieked.
“The brakes, Sophie! The brakes!” Roy screamed.
Panicking, she tried to step on the brakes but the car skidded and smashed into a tree. A loud crashing sound broke the silence of the night, sending birds flying out from the trees in panic. From
the rear passenger seat her mother screamed in panic,
“My God! Oh my God!”
Sophie turned to look at her. Anna had bruised her head and was holding an injured wrist. Next to her,her father was unconscious and bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth. She kicked open the door, her nose bleeding and her head spinning. The front left tyre had burst.
“Roy! Roy! Your father is not speaking! Sophie!”
Sophie pulled her father out from the other side of the car and laid him on the grass. She grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the back seat and sprinkled some water on his face. He murmured but was not fully conscious.
“Mumma, just wait here. Take care of Pa while I go to the road to get help.”
Sophie walked on the slippery grass surrounded by the trees to the road. There were no vehicles as far as she could see on either side. Not even the distant light of one. She took out her mobile phone.No Signal. Wiping the blood dripping out of her nose with her handkerchief she started walking on the road towards Sarvanpur. A truck full of goods appeared on the other end of the road. Sophie waved out to it to stop. The vehicle accelerated and zoomed past. She looked at herself. Clad in a black shirt and black jeans with blood stains around her mouth, she must be looking hideaous. Given the legends surrounding this road, she must have scared the hell out of the poor truck driver.
A little later, a van appeared at the turn towards Sarvanpur. Sophie stood in the middle of the road and frantically waved her hands for it to stop. The van skidded to a halt; she could see a young man wearing a yellow t-shirt at the wheel.
“Bhaiyaji, my car hit a tree and my father is seriously injured. Can you please take us to some hospital nearby?”
The young man gave a welcome smile and replied, his tone sophisticated. “You are in luck. This van belongs to the Western Ghats Hospital and is used to carry supplies, equipment and medicines. Give me a minute; let me park this on the side.”
He parked the van on the side of the road and walked with Sophie to her car. He lifted Roy onto his shoulders and started to walk towards the van.
“He is lighter than I expected!” said the young man. It took them some time to reach the parked van.
“Go to the front and turn the keys to start the vehicle.”
Sophie followed as instructed and returned to open the van’s backdoor. A small yellow lamp illuminated the cramped space and a weird mix of acrid smells, a mixed odour of copper, bleaching powder and spirit hit her nose like an invisible assault. The floor was covered with a blue plastic sheet;there were five big brown cardboard boxes, two big oxygen cylinders and three metallic IV stands stacked in a corner. Sophie entered to pick up a brown mattress rolled in another corner. She unrolled the mattress; it emitted a pungent smell.
“I sleep on that sometimes,” said the young man as he placed Roy on the mattress and asked Sophie and her mother to sit next to him. There was a small opening on one side of the van facing the driver's seat; the back door was left open. Anna held the Bible in one hand and her nose with the other. As the van started to move Sophie asked from behind, “What is your name, Bhaiyaji?”
“Is that important for you to know? As of now we need to save your father,” he replied from the driver’s seat.
“Don't get angry brother! I need to call you by some name.”
“Okay! My name is Tommy, if that makes you happy.”
“Bhaiyaji, the place you are taking us to. Is it a good hospital?” Anna asked.
“No need to look any further. This is one of the best hospitals in town!” The man stepped on the accelerator.
The van roared along Vasco Road. Fifteen minutes later, the vehicle entered through a large gate into a compound with a modest single-storied building with a display on the roof, 'Western Ghats Hospital'. The young man placed Roy on a stretcher and rolled it to the Casualty Ward of the building, adjacent to the small reception area. Sophie and Anna followed them from behind.
The Casualty Ward had five empty beds and two nurses who woke up from what seemed like deep slumber on hearing the commotion. One of them had a pimple-pitted face and the other had brown eyes. The beds were like those in government hospitals with metal frames, white linen and green curtains. The plaster on the walls was peeling at many places. Roy was placed on the bed in the
corner. The nurses immediately started to clean the wounds and attached a clip to his fingers which routed the pulse rate to a display monitor on the side of the bed. One of the nurses called up the duty doctor who appeared after five minutes.
The doctor was a middle aged woman dressed in a blue sari and white coat. She looked at Sophie and her mother seated on two plastic chairs at the entrance of the Casualty Ward.
“Doctor! My father.....”
“I’m Dr Leela. Don't worry, we’ll take care of your father.”
She went to the patient's bed, examined Roy, dilated his eyes, checked his chest with a stethoscope and gave him an injection.
Dr Leela walked over to Sophie and said, “Your father has suffered serious injuries to his head. I have asked our senior doctor, Dr Mrinal, to come here. He lives on the other side of the premises. We will take a decision on what to do once he is here.” For some strange reason she kept looking towards the casualty door.
“Doctor is there a bigger hospital nearby where.....” Sophie was interrupted before she could complete the sentence.
“There are no big hospitals nearby. Also, the nearest hospital is an hour’s drive from here. Why are you trying to go to some other place? This is one of the best hospitals in town.”
Sophie did not reply.
“By the way, what is your father's blood group?”
“O+ve.”
“Good! Let’s wait for Dr Mrinal.” Once again, she glanced at the door of the casualty ward and left.
Sophie was puzzled. What should she do next? She was stuck in the middle of some godforsaken place at this time of the night. For once she agreed with her mother, it was not a good idea to have
undertaken this trip. They could have stayed at a motel in Sarvanpur and started early the next morning. There was no point thinking about what had happened. Instead she needed to focus on the situation at hand. With a muddled mind, she stepped outside for some fresh air. The young man stood next to his van, smoking a cigarette. She walked towards him trying to see if she had any alternatives.
“Bhaiyaji, do you have your cell phone with you? I need to make just one call.”
“My mobile phone is sans signal when I am here,” he said.
“Can you please drive me down to Sarvanpur? I will pay you as much money as you want,” Sophie requested.
The young man did not make eye contact when he replied, “I don't need your money. I just checked the fuel meter; there’s not enough fuel for us to reach Sarvanpur. One of the ward boys in the morning shift has a moped. I guess, I will go with him at dawn and fetch a can of fuel for my van.”
“Just a second, Bahiyaji. I saw the dashboard of the van while turning the keys, there is enough fuel.”
The young man reacted as if he was not expecting that remark but almost instantly, the casual look was back on his face. “Ah! There is a problem with that needle on the dashboard. It is always at half way mark. Besides, why are you trying to go to some other place? This is one of the best hospitals in town.” He looked away from her.
“That up to me to decide, don't you think so?”
“You are free to do whatever you want. All I know is that the van is low on fuel and I cannot help.Sorry.”
There was no use talking to him. When she returned to the entrance of the Casualty Ward, she saw that the brown-eyed nurse was offering coffee to her mother. Anna placed the Bible on her lap and gratefully sipped from the Styrofoam cup.
“I think my mother has also injured her wrist. Can you please have a look?”
“You should have shown it to the lady doctor. Wait, I will call her on her extension,” the nurse replied.
“I think it just requires some preliminary first aid. Just to pull through the night. In the morning we will go to some hospital in Sarvanpur and get a proper scan done,” said Sophie.
The nurse was visibly affected by the suggestion. “Why are you trying to go to some other place? Please don't go anywhere else. This is one of the best hospitals in town.”
As she spoke, the nurse with the pitted face came up from behind asking about the commotion. “She wants to take her parents to some other hospital in Sarvanpur.”
“You know that it is not polite of you to say that. Don't you?” the second nurse shouted.
“Excuse me!” Sophie was livid.
“What is all this planning to go somewhere else?”
There was a momentary silence in the casualty ward. Sophie was bewildered. “What is the problem? I will do whatever I feel like, none of your business.”
“Then you can go ahead with whatever you want to do,” the brown-eyed nurse replied.
“You people know how helpless we are right now and you can treat us with arrogance,” Sophie retorted.
“We are arrogant? We? Can you believe this woman? You must hear how you speak, young lady.” The pimple-pitted nurse spoke.
“Alright! Let’s not create a scene here,” said Sophie.
The brown-eyed nurse whispered to her colleague. “This woman has a Bible.”
Sophie was getting increasingly upset at their eccentric behaviour. There was something creepy about the hospital, the whole place in fact.
The beep on the monitor connected to Roy slowed down at that moment and the nurses rushed back to his bed. A middle aged man with grey hair and brown eyes entered through the casualty ward door,followed by the lady doctor on duty.
“I am Dr Mrinal. I’m sorry I took time to come.” They both went to Roy's bed while Sophie and Anna looked on from a distance. The doctor had piercing brown eyes and was smartly dressed. Dr Leela
trailed behind him like a tail.
Dr Mrinal looked concerned. “I think he is sinking. We need to take him to the ICU”. The nurses swung into action and called in the young man who had driven down the victims from the accident site. They placed Roy on a rolling stretcher and took him to another section of the hospital behind the curtain.
“Doctor! What is the problem?”
“His condition is critical due to the blood loss. You people sit here while I attend to him in the ICU,” Dr Mrinal told Sophie.
From the other end of the room, Anna called out frantically. “Sophie! Sophie! I’m feeling weird. Hold me, please!”
“Mum! Are you giddy?”
Sophie held her mother's hand as she was about to collapse. With the help of Dr Leela, Sophie placed her mother on the other bed. Anna was weak, sweating and pale. Dr Leela took out a diabetes test kit,pricked Anna's finger and put the drop on the test strip.
“Sugar reading is extremely low. I will put her on drip.” The doctor prepared for the intravenous drip for Anna, but she kept looking towards the door from time to time.
“What is your mother's blood group?”
“B+ve. Dr Leela, she has had no blood loss, so why is her blood group detail required?”
“Who is the doctor here? You or I?”
Sophie knew by now that this night was going to be worse than she had imagined.
Sophie’s car was a new one and a joy to drive but it was getting dark and visibility was poor, the darkness accentuated by trees on either side of the road. Gradually, sharp twists and turns loomed without giving away much of what lay ahead.
She had planned this trip since her MBA days at MICA. The trip occupied the pride of place on her wish list; she’d always wanted to take her parents by road, in her own car, from Mumbai to Goa. Indus Public Relations paid her well, and she’d made the down payment for the small car with savings from her initial three months’ salary.
“Mumma and Pa, next year, I will send you on a week's vacation to Singapore,” she said.
Her mother Anna, known in her locality for her penny-pinching lifestyle, was not amused. “Don't throw away money like this on lavish activities,” she retorted.
Her father Roy agreed with Anna. “We don't want to go to exotic places, Sophie. You just save enough to buy yourself a flat.”
Anna looked nervously outside the car's window. It was unnaturally dark. She felt as though she was going down a coal mine in a rail cart. “I think it was a bad idea to drive through this place so late in the night,” she complained.
“Mumma, we will be in Goa in 90 minutes. Don't worry.”
“We would have reached Goa by evening had it not been for your mother who took so much time to pack for the trip. There are restaurants on the way. Why get everything from home?”
“Why blame only me? Your dear friend Vinayak came in the morning; instead of telling him to spare us today at least, you indulged him with your expert comments on the newspaper headlines and then that lengthy discussion on what is going wrong in the country.”
“Mumma, Pa, please stop! We are here to enjoy, not argue over trivial issues. Also, it was the broken- down truck on Old Church Road and the resulting traffic jam which delayed us by an hour at least.”
Roy took off his seat belt and relaxed. Sophie was driving well around the sharp turns but they would take more than the 90 minutes she’d promised.
“People say that this road is not safe to drive through at night and I have read so many newspaper articles on accidents that have taken place on this road,” remarked Anna again.
“Now that the atmosphere is so spooky, let me scare you a bit, Mum. One of my office colleagues Ravi was driving a bike through this road at midnight on his way back from Goa. He claimed that in the dark he saw an old woman wearing a gown walking backwards on the side of this very road.Wooooooo!” Her eyes on the road, Sophie imitated the eerie sound and thrust her left hand backwards like a claw at her mother's face.
“Don't be silly! It’s not a joke. My sister used to tell me about strange incidents that happened on this road as far back as the 80’s and 90’s.” Anna was jittery.
“Mumma! I don't believe Ravi's story. He is a lunatic who says atrocious things. What happened that night was probably one of those midnight-post-booze bike rides followed by drunken imagination.”
“I really hope so! For our sake I really hope so!” her mother mumbled.
Silence enveloped the three inside the car. And then Roy started to hum along with the Boney M’s 'Sunny' playing in the stereo. His wife had no musical inclination but he had always enjoyed music,especially the old classics. He looked at his cell phone every now and then. No signal. “I don't understand why telecom providers don't install towers here so that people don't feel cut off on this stretch.”
Anna looked outside, took out a miniature copy of the Bible from her handbag and started to pray. Her instinct was telling her that it was not a good idea to be driving in these parts at this time in the night.
Sophie felt excited thinking about the exotic resort she had booked for her parents in Goa. She had already enrolled them for water sports and a motor boat ride to see the dolphins. Another half day was reserved at the ayurvedic spa inside the resort. Sophie had it all planned out, One surprise for each of the four days they would spend in Goa.
They were coming down the slope at a decent speed when there was a loud sound. Sophie looked behind to see what had happened. There was a jerk and before she could react, the vehicle swerved and went off the road on to the grass.
“Sophie! What is happening?” her mother shrieked.
“The brakes, Sophie! The brakes!” Roy screamed.
Panicking, she tried to step on the brakes but the car skidded and smashed into a tree. A loud crashing sound broke the silence of the night, sending birds flying out from the trees in panic. From
the rear passenger seat her mother screamed in panic,
“My God! Oh my God!”
Sophie turned to look at her. Anna had bruised her head and was holding an injured wrist. Next to her,her father was unconscious and bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth. She kicked open the door, her nose bleeding and her head spinning. The front left tyre had burst.
“Roy! Roy! Your father is not speaking! Sophie!”
Sophie pulled her father out from the other side of the car and laid him on the grass. She grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the back seat and sprinkled some water on his face. He murmured but was not fully conscious.
“Mumma, just wait here. Take care of Pa while I go to the road to get help.”
Sophie walked on the slippery grass surrounded by the trees to the road. There were no vehicles as far as she could see on either side. Not even the distant light of one. She took out her mobile phone.No Signal. Wiping the blood dripping out of her nose with her handkerchief she started walking on the road towards Sarvanpur. A truck full of goods appeared on the other end of the road. Sophie waved out to it to stop. The vehicle accelerated and zoomed past. She looked at herself. Clad in a black shirt and black jeans with blood stains around her mouth, she must be looking hideaous. Given the legends surrounding this road, she must have scared the hell out of the poor truck driver.
A little later, a van appeared at the turn towards Sarvanpur. Sophie stood in the middle of the road and frantically waved her hands for it to stop. The van skidded to a halt; she could see a young man wearing a yellow t-shirt at the wheel.
“Bhaiyaji, my car hit a tree and my father is seriously injured. Can you please take us to some hospital nearby?”
The young man gave a welcome smile and replied, his tone sophisticated. “You are in luck. This van belongs to the Western Ghats Hospital and is used to carry supplies, equipment and medicines. Give me a minute; let me park this on the side.”
He parked the van on the side of the road and walked with Sophie to her car. He lifted Roy onto his shoulders and started to walk towards the van.
“He is lighter than I expected!” said the young man. It took them some time to reach the parked van.
“Go to the front and turn the keys to start the vehicle.”
Sophie followed as instructed and returned to open the van’s backdoor. A small yellow lamp illuminated the cramped space and a weird mix of acrid smells, a mixed odour of copper, bleaching powder and spirit hit her nose like an invisible assault. The floor was covered with a blue plastic sheet;there were five big brown cardboard boxes, two big oxygen cylinders and three metallic IV stands stacked in a corner. Sophie entered to pick up a brown mattress rolled in another corner. She unrolled the mattress; it emitted a pungent smell.
“I sleep on that sometimes,” said the young man as he placed Roy on the mattress and asked Sophie and her mother to sit next to him. There was a small opening on one side of the van facing the driver's seat; the back door was left open. Anna held the Bible in one hand and her nose with the other. As the van started to move Sophie asked from behind, “What is your name, Bhaiyaji?”
“Is that important for you to know? As of now we need to save your father,” he replied from the driver’s seat.
“Don't get angry brother! I need to call you by some name.”
“Okay! My name is Tommy, if that makes you happy.”
“Bhaiyaji, the place you are taking us to. Is it a good hospital?” Anna asked.
“No need to look any further. This is one of the best hospitals in town!” The man stepped on the accelerator.
The van roared along Vasco Road. Fifteen minutes later, the vehicle entered through a large gate into a compound with a modest single-storied building with a display on the roof, 'Western Ghats Hospital'. The young man placed Roy on a stretcher and rolled it to the Casualty Ward of the building, adjacent to the small reception area. Sophie and Anna followed them from behind.
The Casualty Ward had five empty beds and two nurses who woke up from what seemed like deep slumber on hearing the commotion. One of them had a pimple-pitted face and the other had brown eyes. The beds were like those in government hospitals with metal frames, white linen and green curtains. The plaster on the walls was peeling at many places. Roy was placed on the bed in the
corner. The nurses immediately started to clean the wounds and attached a clip to his fingers which routed the pulse rate to a display monitor on the side of the bed. One of the nurses called up the duty doctor who appeared after five minutes.
The doctor was a middle aged woman dressed in a blue sari and white coat. She looked at Sophie and her mother seated on two plastic chairs at the entrance of the Casualty Ward.
“Doctor! My father.....”
“I’m Dr Leela. Don't worry, we’ll take care of your father.”
She went to the patient's bed, examined Roy, dilated his eyes, checked his chest with a stethoscope and gave him an injection.
Dr Leela walked over to Sophie and said, “Your father has suffered serious injuries to his head. I have asked our senior doctor, Dr Mrinal, to come here. He lives on the other side of the premises. We will take a decision on what to do once he is here.” For some strange reason she kept looking towards the casualty door.
“Doctor is there a bigger hospital nearby where.....” Sophie was interrupted before she could complete the sentence.
“There are no big hospitals nearby. Also, the nearest hospital is an hour’s drive from here. Why are you trying to go to some other place? This is one of the best hospitals in town.”
Sophie did not reply.
“By the way, what is your father's blood group?”
“O+ve.”
“Good! Let’s wait for Dr Mrinal.” Once again, she glanced at the door of the casualty ward and left.
Sophie was puzzled. What should she do next? She was stuck in the middle of some godforsaken place at this time of the night. For once she agreed with her mother, it was not a good idea to have
undertaken this trip. They could have stayed at a motel in Sarvanpur and started early the next morning. There was no point thinking about what had happened. Instead she needed to focus on the situation at hand. With a muddled mind, she stepped outside for some fresh air. The young man stood next to his van, smoking a cigarette. She walked towards him trying to see if she had any alternatives.
“Bhaiyaji, do you have your cell phone with you? I need to make just one call.”
“My mobile phone is sans signal when I am here,” he said.
“Can you please drive me down to Sarvanpur? I will pay you as much money as you want,” Sophie requested.
The young man did not make eye contact when he replied, “I don't need your money. I just checked the fuel meter; there’s not enough fuel for us to reach Sarvanpur. One of the ward boys in the morning shift has a moped. I guess, I will go with him at dawn and fetch a can of fuel for my van.”
“Just a second, Bahiyaji. I saw the dashboard of the van while turning the keys, there is enough fuel.”
The young man reacted as if he was not expecting that remark but almost instantly, the casual look was back on his face. “Ah! There is a problem with that needle on the dashboard. It is always at half way mark. Besides, why are you trying to go to some other place? This is one of the best hospitals in town.” He looked away from her.
“That up to me to decide, don't you think so?”
“You are free to do whatever you want. All I know is that the van is low on fuel and I cannot help.Sorry.”
There was no use talking to him. When she returned to the entrance of the Casualty Ward, she saw that the brown-eyed nurse was offering coffee to her mother. Anna placed the Bible on her lap and gratefully sipped from the Styrofoam cup.
“I think my mother has also injured her wrist. Can you please have a look?”
“You should have shown it to the lady doctor. Wait, I will call her on her extension,” the nurse replied.
“I think it just requires some preliminary first aid. Just to pull through the night. In the morning we will go to some hospital in Sarvanpur and get a proper scan done,” said Sophie.
The nurse was visibly affected by the suggestion. “Why are you trying to go to some other place? Please don't go anywhere else. This is one of the best hospitals in town.”
As she spoke, the nurse with the pitted face came up from behind asking about the commotion. “She wants to take her parents to some other hospital in Sarvanpur.”
“You know that it is not polite of you to say that. Don't you?” the second nurse shouted.
“Excuse me!” Sophie was livid.
“What is all this planning to go somewhere else?”
There was a momentary silence in the casualty ward. Sophie was bewildered. “What is the problem? I will do whatever I feel like, none of your business.”
“Then you can go ahead with whatever you want to do,” the brown-eyed nurse replied.
“You people know how helpless we are right now and you can treat us with arrogance,” Sophie retorted.
“We are arrogant? We? Can you believe this woman? You must hear how you speak, young lady.” The pimple-pitted nurse spoke.
“Alright! Let’s not create a scene here,” said Sophie.
The brown-eyed nurse whispered to her colleague. “This woman has a Bible.”
Sophie was getting increasingly upset at their eccentric behaviour. There was something creepy about the hospital, the whole place in fact.
The beep on the monitor connected to Roy slowed down at that moment and the nurses rushed back to his bed. A middle aged man with grey hair and brown eyes entered through the casualty ward door,followed by the lady doctor on duty.
“I am Dr Mrinal. I’m sorry I took time to come.” They both went to Roy's bed while Sophie and Anna looked on from a distance. The doctor had piercing brown eyes and was smartly dressed. Dr Leela
trailed behind him like a tail.
Dr Mrinal looked concerned. “I think he is sinking. We need to take him to the ICU”. The nurses swung into action and called in the young man who had driven down the victims from the accident site. They placed Roy on a rolling stretcher and took him to another section of the hospital behind the curtain.
“Doctor! What is the problem?”
“His condition is critical due to the blood loss. You people sit here while I attend to him in the ICU,” Dr Mrinal told Sophie.
From the other end of the room, Anna called out frantically. “Sophie! Sophie! I’m feeling weird. Hold me, please!”
“Mum! Are you giddy?”
Sophie held her mother's hand as she was about to collapse. With the help of Dr Leela, Sophie placed her mother on the other bed. Anna was weak, sweating and pale. Dr Leela took out a diabetes test kit,pricked Anna's finger and put the drop on the test strip.
“Sugar reading is extremely low. I will put her on drip.” The doctor prepared for the intravenous drip for Anna, but she kept looking towards the door from time to time.
“What is your mother's blood group?”
“B+ve. Dr Leela, she has had no blood loss, so why is her blood group detail required?”
“Who is the doctor here? You or I?”
Sophie knew by now that this night was going to be worse than she had imagined.
