Epitome of my Happiness

Part 1 Mother

An ambulance was rushing, tearing through traffic with a deafening noise. A girl in her late teens was crying, sitting next to the patient in the ambulance. The patient must be her mother. The word,

“Amma…” she uttered, tears in her eyes, told us that.

The woman was being inserted with a few tubes in her nose and an oxygen mask on her face. It seemed she was breathing with the help of a ventilator.

The girl was continuously wiping her tears. Her reddened face and puffed-up eyes made her look pitiful. The ambulance attendant who was with them was checking the ventilator often.

“Bhaiya, please ask the driver to go fast…” She pleaded.

“It’s a peak hour. See the traffic. Our people don’t learn to give way to the ambulance. Heartless people…” he said wearily.

The girl cried, biting her lip.

“Is she your mother?”

The girl nodded yes.

“What happened to her?”

“She was alright until two days ago. Suddenly, she struggled to breathe. She could not do anything on her own. Yesterday, I took her to the clinic. The doctor scolded us for being careless and asked me to admit her to a multi-speciality hospital. I admitted her to the Maridian Hospital. They treated them for the whole night. This morning, the doctor called me and said she needed dialysis, and we have to spend seventy to eighty thousand rupees per day. I don’t have that much money to spend. I pawned my chain to pay for the hospital. I will have only a few thousand in my hand to pay the ambulance. That’s why I’m taking her to the government hospital.”

“Don’t worry, she will be alright…” he said, checking the ventilator.

Suddenly, a man on a bike came from the left side and rode the bike before the ambulance. He occupied the space that people gave for the ambulance. Of course, he was fast, but since it was peak hour, he couldn’t ride any faster, which caused the ambulance to slow down.

The attendant in the ambulance opened the small window in between the patient cabin and the diver’s cabin and asked,

“Why did you slow down the speed?”

“I don’t know who he is. See, how he is riding the bike, blocking our way…” the driver shouted.

The girl in the ambulance looked at the man riding the bike and gritted her teeth in anger. She could not see him as he was wearing a helmet.

When they reached the hospital, the man went straight.

“Don’t know why people are so senseless. Don’t he know the patient is struggling for her life?” The attender murmured.

LIFE? the girl gulped down.

The attendant stopped the ambulance and took the woman to the ICU ward of the government hospital. The girl rushed behind them with her report, her nerves getting the better of her. The attendant called the hospital staff and handed the structure to them.

“Bhaiya, won’t you come?” The girl asked.

“We are not allowed here, madam. The doctor will scold us.”

“Ok, wait here, ” the girl rushed inside.

The doctor in the ICU saw the patient in the structure and asked,

“What happened?”

The girl gave the reports to the doctor. The doctor read it and looked at the girl shockingly. Without wasting time,

“Come on… ECG…” She ordered.

The nurses started the action faster. The girl stood there, unable to hold her tears.

“Please stay outside…” the doctor said.

The girl came out crying and prayed to God.

“Hey Devi Maiya, please save my mother. I have no one other than her…” she sniffed.

A nurse came out and called her,

“Madam, the doctor is calling you.”

The girl rushed inside. She handed the ECG report, which showed only a SRAIGHT LINE. The girl raised her head with eyes that flowed, and she looked at the doctor.

“She is no more…”

The girl rushed to her mother and cried, falling on her mother’s lifeless body.

“Ammaaaa…”

“Dear…” The doctor touched her shoulder.

The girl looked at the doctor crying miserably.

“Don’t you bring anyone with you?”

She nodded no.

“We have no one doctor…” she choked.

“She just came here. If we follow the rules, we will do a post-mortem. It would take four or five hours to complete it. If you don’t want to do it, you can take her with you without papers…”

“Doctor, I have no one. I don’t know what should be done. I would like to donate my mother’s organs and her body to the medical college…”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded yes.

“ok… wait…”

“Sister, bring the form…”

A nurse brought the form and extended it to the girl.

“Do you want her to fill it up in this condition? Don’t you have a sense?” The doctor chided.

The nurse started filling it up hurriedly. The girl signed on it and handed it to the doctor, and cried, covering her face. She went to her mother and clutched her hand.

“Amma, I’m unable to do your funeral. I have no money to do it, but I can only afford to pay for the ambulance. Please forgive me…” She cried for a while and walked, looking at her mother again and again.

Coming outside, she burst out crying. People around her looked at her miserably. The ambulance driver rushed to her and hesitated, unsure whether to ask for money. When the girl saw him, she wiped her tears, removed five thousand from her purse and handed it to him.

At the same time. The doctor came out and got stuck to see the ambulance attendant.

“Is that you who brought them here?” She asked.

The attender nodded slowly.

“Don’t you have curtesy? Heartless fellows…” The doctor chided glancing at the girl.

At the same time, the dean of the hospital came for a rounds. She left place glaring at him.

“Why did she scold you?” The girl asked.

“We could have saved your mother if we had reached a little earlier. She thinks our ambulance speed is not enough to save a life. How could she know a mischievous idiot blocked our ambulance and lessened its speed? If he hadn’t interrupted us, we would have saved your mother. He was the reason for your mother’s death.”

The girl gritted her teeth angrily. Yes, he was the reason she became an orphan. She didn’t know who he was. Yet, she hated him from the core of her heart.

“Did you note his bike number?” She asked.

“I didn’t, but the driver should have…”

“Could you ask him the number?”

“Yeah, come…”

She went to the ambulance driver.

“Yeah, I noted it. It’s, DL Ah2108”

The girl noted it in her basic model cell phone, which was being tied with rubber bands because it was broken.

“Will you tell me if you see the bike anywhere?” She asked.

“Sure… but what are you going to do?”

“I will not leave him. I’m going to file a case against him for restricting our ambulance…” She said furiously.

They looked at each other.

“You have my number. I called you this morning for an ambulance.” The girl said.

“Yes, I will save it… Your name?”

“KHUSHI… Khushi Gupta…” She said.

To be continued…