under the orange sky

part 3

Impatiently seated outside is a tired and sad-looking patient.

Family and friends waited outside the "dead or alive" theatre, going back and forth across the corridor, creating the impression that someone was about to die inside.

With yellow old-looking plastic coverings over it, a cheap fluorescent light extends across the hallway.

The CNN life news channel was on the stupid box outside the corridor to "entertain" the patient and their family. Every single individual in the corridor has an I-hate-this-place expression on their face.

The hospital was an odd place Some of the people wear wearing disinfecting masks to protect themselves from becoming sick, while the others would wear their air-pods and read some terrible junk magazine.

When coughing and sneezing sounds occur, people cover their lips and nose. As though there had been a crime scene and there was some blood taint on the crevice between the tiles.

When drops of saline strike the ground, workers clean the floor with a particular yellow combination that emits a pungent odor.

Which makes the hospital smells like old panties and sanitizers.

And right on the corner, this strange-looking old lady in a worn-out blouse and shoes sat in the hallway's corner, pointing in every direction and murmuring to her 'friend' who did not exist, or a friend I didn't particularly see. She was talking to herself.

It felt as though I was in some kind of 'haunted hospital'.

The procedure was done a few hours later.

Precisely 3 hours 40 minutes later. All I did was pace around the waiting room, staring at broken families and worried boyfriends.

I see pria aunty walk towards the doctor's cabin.

"Ma'am, she's lost function of her kidneys, they're gone."

the doctor said as I stood outside the door, trying to hear everything.

"So now what?" I could see Pria aunty dropping her head.

"Transplant?" she asks curiously

"I'm concerned that's risky, a transplant from an unrelated donor is risky, Kady's situation is time sensitive, and sometimes that's all we have."

"Let me give her mine"

"It won't be a good fit for her if it's a parent donating; perhaps a sibling would be a much better match."

I walk away from the conversation. It was excruciating pain I could feel the pain in my body. It felt like physical pain. Like someone stabbing The feeling is more than I could bear. A quick intake of breath and my lungs fill with steam. A squeal escapes; it is not much of a noise. My arm covers my face, and I run. I run from the doctor's cabin to the waiting room. The pain was too much to even to make the smallest of noises. I run in my mouth open and top half of me soaking.

I try to calm myself down, pull myself together. I didn't understand why I felt this way, what triggered me to be sitting in the waiting room letting my tears drip down on the sanitizer-scented floors.

I see Kavya sitting right opposite of me, I wipe my tears and walk to her