Remembrance

In a small,quite room in the city of dreams, he laid on a thin mattress aloof of things around him. Quite introspection can be extremely valuable, they say. His thoughts wandered to one night he never forgets.

It was the last day of March. He was at the local club, having dinner all by himself. The cook had affectionately served him mutton. The silence of the empty dinning hall was broken by a call. A call from his Dad.

Mum and Dad are already back, and I haven't yet finished my dinner!

His parents were at a party that evening, and were already home. The club was just a stone's throw away from their bungalow, and his parents agreed to walk down.

His dad, was a rare visitor to the club. But he received a warm welcome even at this late hour. He sat by the tree with his wife by his side,talked to the staff and had a glass of water before deciding to call it a day. It had been a long day for the Joint General Manager, half a day at office, a siesta and then the party. He asked his son to drive them home.

It was well past midnight as they drove into their driveway, totally unaware of what this new day had in store for them.

He slept in the smaller room of the three bedroom bungalow, while his parents occupied the larger of the rooms.
He had hardly gone to his bed, when his mother walked in to talk to her son, who returned only yesterday from boarding. She felt peace, with him back home after his boards. She finally had her family together save her elder daughter.

It was a hot night, and his father wanted to freshen up before he could get some much needed rest. He left for the washroom while the mum and son were talking.

They were about to sleep, when they heard a thud. He did not pay heed to it but she did.
A second later he heard his mother call on him.

He would never forget that call. That call changed his life forever. His father, who was just tired after a long day, suffered a heart attack and had collapsed on his way out from the washroom.

Two hours of frantic calls and a whirlpool of events later, he was no more the same boy as he walked past the gates of Intensive Care Unit of the local government hospital.

She sat at the entrance to the hospital on a bench sobbing, he wanted to cry, but did not. He covered the forty five minutes of return journey in a stupor, with his father's head on his lap. Things started to hit him now. He was no more the young spoilt  brat. He had to rise up to the occasion and play the lead.

He came back to senses only when the car turned into the driveway, the same driveway where he had drove his father in a few hours back, the same driveway now was filled with people wanting to pay their last respects to his father.

Praise Thy Lord!