An unusual love story

Ray of hope

As soon as Samyu reached US she got busy with the winding up. There were tons of things to do. She had do give at least a 4 week notice period. She needed to train someone to take her position and had to help with the hiring process. Of course her workload only increased as they wanted her to complete a lot of projects. Obviously her manager wasn't thrilled so she was dumping everything on Samyu. Meanwhile, Samyu also needed to put her house out for sale. It wasn't the best market for buyers and it was winter so that process was slow too. Samyu was also quietly doing some research.

Abhi and Samyu managed to call each other at least for a few minutes every day and Mithu was very aware of it. If she was unhappy about it, she did not say anything but did not enquire about Samyu either. One day Abhi woke up to multiple missed calls from Samyu and messages starting with a regular "Are you awake? Call me" to "ABHI CALL ME" followed by 10 "URGENT" messages. Abhi freaked out and rushed out of the room to avoid Mithu getting disturbed. He went up to the balcony and called Samyu, "Maa enna ma acchu are you ok?" Samyu was at office but she quickly answered, "Thank God you called me. I have messaged you a phone number. It is for Apollo hospital ophthalmology department. They open at 8. Call them at 8 sharp and ask for an appointment with Dr. Jonathan Brown. He is a resident doctor. Tell them that you have been referred by Katie and you need an appointment today. Take Mithu to him. Ayo ange almost 7:30 ayiduchu. Neenga freshened up pannni, appointment vaangina aparam enakku call pannunga I'll tell you the rest. Ippo I am finishing up something important so bye bye bye. Ummmmmaaaaa, I love you" and she hung up before he could grasp any of what she was saying.

Abhi did as he was told. He called the hospital and got a 9:30 appointment. He woke Mithu up saying, "Mithu kutty, ezhundhukko da. Unakku oru good news. Inniki nee school poga vendaam." Mithu tossed in bed and smiled with her eyes still closed, "Haiya jolly" then she frowned, "Aparam enna yen ezhupareenga? Enna thoonga vidunga daddy please." He kissed her forehead and said, "Seri 15 more minutes. Adhukulla Daddy Kulichuttu varen. Unna inniki oru Pudhu doctor kitta kootittu ponam." Mithu nodded saying, "Seri seri kulikka ponga" she hadn't paid attention to what he had said. Abhi quickly showered and came out to get Mithra up. Lakshmi akka came in to clean the house and offered to help Mithu. Abhi accepted the offer and used the time to quickly call Abhi. She answered immediately. He said, "9:30 appointment vaangitten maa but avar yaaru enna konjam sollariya?" That's when she explained, "Abhi naan inge vandhadhulerndhu konjam research panittu irundhen to see if there are any alternatives for Mithu. Donor ku wait panni panni Ithana varsham aachu. While doing that I came across Dr. Jonathan Brown. His recent research on stem cell procedure for vision recovery has been very successful especially in people who were not born blind. He is from Johns Hopkins Medical center. Enkooda padicha oru ponnu ange than work pannara so I called her and she told me that Dr. Brown is visiting Chennai to train people with this procedure. Actually avalum Dr. Brown um.... are in a relationship. Anyway adhu vera kadhai. So I thought it might not be a bad idea for him to evaluate Mithu. He is there for a month. I am not sure about the other details. He isn't seeing a lot of patients directly except some celebrities and few referrals. Adhu thaan." Abhi was touched to hear about the effort Samyu had taken, "Thanks maa" he said for which he got a frown from her, "Idhu thaan enakku unga kitta pudikkadhu. You still see me as an outsider la? Naan unga wife, Mithu oda amma va irundhirundha thanks soleerpeengala?" She said. He immediately felt bad and apologized, "Ayo sorry sorry sorry. Thanks vaapas  vaangikkaren. Innime solla maaten ok?" Samyu pretended to still be upset, "Adhellam mudiyadhu. Naan thirumba varum podhu extra va edhavudhu pannanum Appo thaan naan seri aaven." He gave her a naughty wink and said, in his base voice, "Avvalo thaane kuduthutta pochu" and she immediately blushed. They quickly hung up the phone.

Abhi and Mithu were sitting in the waiting room. They were 15 mins earlier. Abhi filled out the required paper work and handed it to the young lady at the front desk. She also grabbed the medical records from him and scanned the documents into their system. It took her a few minutes before she handed it back to Abhi. At sharp 9:45am a tall, handsome African American man in white coat walked out of his office. He was in his mid 50's. He had a nice smile. He walked up to Abhi saying, "Mr. Abhi..man..yu? Did I say that right?" Abhi stood up and shook the man's hand nodding, "Yes you did but you can call me Abhi". He then turned to look at Mithu and said, "You must be Sanga..Mitra...you are a gorgeous young woman." Mithra smiled and shook his hand. He walked ahead gesturing them to follow him into his office. He offered them both a seat. Dr. Brown said, "Sorry about the delay but I wanted to review her chart first and I have some good news for you. Sanga..." Abhi interrupted saying, "You may call her Mithra or Mithu." Dr. Brown laughed and said, "I like Meetu. So Ms. Meetu, I might be able to help get your vision back with the stem cell procedure. That way, we do not have to wait for a matching donor since she wasn't blind at birth. Although, we do need to run a few tests and I am here only for a month. Since Meetu is just a child, I would like to do this procedure myself. I will be back in three months. I have a list of tests written down by then. It looks like your wife lives in the US and she reached out to my girlfriend" he said. Immediately Mithu pinched Abhi's arm but he just nodded grinning sheepishly. He did not know that Samyu had claimed to be his wife but he did not want to say anything to ruin anything. Thankfully Mithra stayed quiet too.

The doctor listed a bunch of tests to be do done in the next couple of months but this gave new hope for Abhi and Mithu.

Brinda Subramanian