AbhiRa Short Story: Broken

Part 2 - Akshara

After Abhi had left the room, I quickly grabbed a change of clothes from the cupboard and made my way into the bathroom. I wiped my constant stream of tears away from my cheeks only to be left with even more rolling down my cheeks the next second. I took a few deep breaths before clutching the clothes I was holding tightly around my chest while my legs gave out from under me and I flung my back against the bathroom door for support.

A part of me had always known that something terrible had happened to Abhi's hand. He had tried to hide it from me but I knew my Abhi and his smile. The Abhi which I has seen and interacted with in the past few weeks, ever since the unfathomable fire at the Birla Hospital —was not the same Abhi that I had known from the start

The light from his eyes had started diminishing as the days went by, his smile had become repetitive, stale...almost rehearsed and never the one to fully reach his eyes.

He didn't have to tell me but I knew it was something major that was bothering him. There are times when I'd find him staring blankly at his bandage wrapped hands, lost in his own thoughts, the madness of his own mind.

I'd kept waiting for him to share his pain with him. But he never did. Maybe it was my fault, I should have just asked him straight up.

But I didn't. Maybe because I myself didn't want to know the answer. Didn't and to accept the answer perhaps?  Because somewhere deep down, maybe all this was all my fault?

No, Akshu. You can't fall weak. Not now. Not when Abhi needs you. You have to stay strong for him. You have to stay strong for the both of you.

I wiped my cheeks in my last ditch attempt to get my tears to stop flowing. I quickly changed into my new pair of clothes and discarded the soup splattered one into the laundry basket.  I gave myself a glance over in the vanity mirror, settled down some flyaways, fixed the smudged eyeliner and mascara before making my way downstairs.

"Sensation. You have lose sensation in your hand Abhimanyu. The report even mentions paralysis of the hand. Do you know how big of a deal that is for a Surgeon? Especially for one of your caliber?"

"I know and understand everything, Sir. Aapko ziyaada tension lene ki zaroorat nahin hai. Haath mera toota hai. I'm the one who has lost the sensation in my hand. Agar main nahin understand karunga toh phir kaun karega?"

"Abhimanyu, Harsh is just worried about you...as a father."

"No Tauji. He is not worried about me. He's worried that his precious hospital might have to say goodbye to a well renowned surgeon." Abhi stated without hesitation.

"Abhi..." Manjiri maa just shook her head at Abhi to stop him from talking further.

"Abhimanyu, belief it or not, I'm your father. I also worry about you."

"Okay fine, whatever you say, Sir."

"Chachu, but the report also states that there is a chance for Abhi to make a full recovery..."

"10% Parth and that too with no guarantees. Are you even listening to what you're saying?"

"Haan per, chance toh hai na, for Abhi to make a full recovery, no matter how small the chance is."

I don't know what made me pitch in but I had to. Abhi wasn't making it known but his hope was diminishing by the second.

"Wah. Bas yeh Akshu madam hi reh gayi thi. You know Akshu, all this is because of you. Abhi ki yeh haalat..."

"What do you mean to say? That the fire was Akshu's fault?"

"I never said that Abhimanyu, don't put words into my mouth!"

"Then what Sir? What do you want to say? That it's Akshu's fault that the man behaved indecently toward her? It's her fault the man was harassing her? It's her fault that the fire was started?"

"Abhimanyu..."

"Nahin sir. Boliye. I want to hear ki aapki sooch kaisi hai."

"Abhi..." I held Abhi's one good hand to stop the situation from escalating.

"Ek minute Akshu." Abhi pulled his hand out of mine, "I need to hear this. I need to hear how he's finding a way to blame you for this situation too."

"The fire wasn't Akshu's fault. It was mine. I am the one who beat him up for misbehaving and harassing my wife. And I'd do it again, happily. And not even Akshu, I would have still beat him up had it been Anj other girl too. So if you want to blame someone, blame me. Not Akshu. In fact, main kyun, blame the men with ugly thoughts who dare to misbehave with girls."

I looked up at Abhi with pride in my eyes. My Docman. My angel. The only person who would move mountains to defend me and my honour.

"And as far as the fire is concerned, Akshu went back in to save me because she thought I was still in there. And trust me, had I been in Akshu's place, I would have done the exact same thing. Let's go Akshu."

Abhi placed his hand in mine and started pulling me towards the stairs.

Once we were back in our room, I let go of Abhi's hand and turned around to look at him.

"Akshu...I'm very sorry..."

"For what?"

"For the soup. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did."

"Soup Abhi? You think I'm worried about the soup?!"

"You had tears in your eyes."

"You think those tears were because you flung some bowl of soup away from my hands. Is that it?"

I wanted nothing more than to smack some sense into Abhi at that point of time but I also knew it was doing this on purpose to avoid talking about the real topic. He was trying to plan games to delay the inevitable. And I was done playing.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"About the reports."

"I..."

"Bas Abhi. I don't want to listen to your excuses. I'm going to work right now. I need space to think  and I think you do too. We will talk about this tonight. And you better have a very good reason for why you didn't tell me first."