On Bed No.7

By A.Bhagirathraj

Every day her father chooses the NFC road to drop her at the college. I see her every day. follow the bike, not because i want to , but because it's in my way. wishing she should not turn back and see my face filled with pustules . Her forehead is big , her lush long hair is underrated, she always ties it up straight. When she widens her eyes for a selfie, they seem rounder for me. Her face carries the look of a responsible woman with confidence shining inside.she is a few inches taller than me. i know, i know that's weird, but I like her. Back in our school days, if I ever slipped into class late, her hand would rise in that familiar wave meant only for me. I want to feel, how it seems to be her. what she really feels when i stare at her. 

You know! She looks Beautiful. 

hold up my mother interrupting with her calls.Like she found that I'm looking at her. 

Her father takes a right turn from the ECIL signal, and I go straight. but today my mom called so my times , that with rolling up my eyes I answered it. Her voice exploded through the speaker "as****le come to hospital..faasstt". The first word made me flinch , I remember that, ahh.. I forgot to bring breakfast from the restaurant. By the way it is only 8:30, too early for having breakfast. 

I reached the hospital , asked the receptionist uncle. He said "On bed on.6". I know what you thought,on reading the title. hehe. 

My grandfather, his leg is fractured. Today is his 4th day here. For me I am afraid of being old, the white hair, too slow to walk, unbrushed teeth, losing of the jaw line, skin like having no bones, fear that Death is tomorrow. 

One day everyone will take you for granted. 

The windows became dark at 7:30 pm . He was in bed and my eyes were trying to stay alive. The nurse had warned me: if the saline bottle empties and the valve isn’t closed, blood will flow back into it. So I stayed alert.I heard someone getting down from the bed no. 7, I

thought no one else was in the room. It was a three sharing ward curtains as walls for each bed. I walked to see the other bed. 

A man in his 50s was standing close to our side curtain , as if he was listening to our words . He stood still,dead still. He turned around, looked at me,his face not having a feeling, took his phone out of his pocket, dialed some numbers , and in a few seconds he started counting from 1000.Hit the phone hard to the floor. My foot went backward, and I shouted "nurse".she rushed in,she had no idea about him. panicking,She tried calling security,no one picked up the call. She dialed 119 . her face went pale ,He was not even the patient. After the call she whispered that “we'll have to tie him up”. Nodded my head, with a weak and hesitant voice "uncle sit on the chair please". The nurse shot me a look that screamed:"seriously dick head". Still we managed to tie him to the wheel chair. Oddly, he was not trying to free himself, instead counting numbers. Now it's 940. and now only the three of us were on the floor.Trying to figure out why is he counting the numbers ,it's like a timer. "TIMER". looking at the nurse i wishered to myself "BOMB". 

The nurse and I bolted out of the room . Wait, I forgot something .oh, my grandfather. looking at him I said "sorry". He said "Dumbshit! Properties are still on my name dumbass". I was like "sorry,sorry". 

We locked the room. The nurse told the whole matter to the head officer. The officer with his tensed face said "pretend like nothing".But my thoughts were going on. "what! by now he may have reached 773 number". The head officer was calling the police again and again. To show the urgency. The visitors here are not allowed to go out. We got stuck in the reception waiting area. I can't see that officer now, if he ran away I swear he is such a very dirty asshole. 

The police arrived. The proud air I was breathing in , a pride of respect for the police now I have . I said to my grandfather "see the nation has changed a lot, MY COUNTRY IS CHANGING they took only 15 minutes to reach here”. 

he looked at me "you dumb! The police station is only about 1km from this hospital" . After listening to this, I moved my eyes of gratitude away. 

My grandfather "I said I want to go to a government hospital ,but your father,dumbass". I am seriously, not laughing. There were mostly 30 police men. One of the officer ,said all the current should be cut off ,lock every patient's room, and search the washrooms, bags,everything. !!Oh so the head officer of the hospital did not run away. The nurse ,the head officer, and some 7 police men

went up to that man, and the others were searching for the bomb. An uncle beside me said "Wow what a fabulous hospital even the police are giving security to this hospital". "Yes uncle and there is no bomb at all". I did not want to slip. 

Again after some time , the floor cleaner came to me and said that I have to go up, the police officers are calling me. 

!!"ahh god i have to go to the 7th floor by stairs and the freaking current they cut off". 

I reached there on the 7th floor. I was taken to that room where that person was there. I wonder where the nurse is, she is not here. she looked like her. Remember, I told you that there is a girl I see near NFC road, her father drops her, my classmate. ! yes so more or less the nurse looks like her to me.about 15 officers were here. The main one named RAGHAV started investigating me and my answers. ok! so that man reached like literally about 345. and still we don't know where the bomb is. The other police men were investigating him. The questions were over with me. I asked officer Raghav " Is there a bomb in the hospital?" . He said " NO, the bomb is not here, it may be in any other hospital there are only 64 patients which is a very low number for a bomb attack”. I came back to my normal state of mind. The different names of hospitals were shown in front of him. but he is not responding, he is full of sharp arrows on counting numbers. 

I don't know what insect crawled in me. I opened the timer of my phone. The exact time gap he is taking while going to the next number is 10 sec. I said this to the officer Raghav, and told him to read the hospital names out loud. so that we can read his face . He started doing it. He called out over 17 names. Me and the other police men were on their phone timers . He is on 126. I don't know if this will work or not. We got very little time. Officer Raghav was reading the name. my eyes were sharp on the timer. And the next number he counted was fast, exactly about the 7 sec gap he gave. The name was Life Care Hospital. He hesitated and in the tension he counted the number fast. I shouted the name out loud.That man started counting faster. His face made us feel Life Care was the hospital. The officer made some calls. That man is on 73 . God do something!!. The other police person called the hospital and said everything to them. And some police men were also on their way to that hospital. 

Now we have to wait for the call that a bomb has been found. The number reached 57. 

only one thing going in my mind "GOD bomb should be found" , "bomb should be found" . officer Raghav sat still silent only his eyes are

moving like something is going in his mind but to act as if he was in full confidence, he sat still. me observing the every move of the man. !Oh the number is 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, GOD!!! .12, 11, 10 ,9 , 8, 7. The officer's phone did not ring, he took out his pistol,loaded it with disheartenment. It seems he will kill him.. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and with a big enough laugh he said 1.the phone rang and he lifted the call to hear "Sir we found it". "Yes !!, yes , I will get the national award". saying to myself,showing attitude to that man. And even the middle finger. 

“SOUND OF A FALLEN STEEL GLASS” 

What the Fuck!!!. so this all was a freaking dream. So where am I?.oh, ok so I am in the hospital's reception hall,I am sleeping on the chair. God , worst dream ever. 

ok let me tell you something. 

Every day her father chooses the NFC road to drop her at the college. I see her every day. follow the bike, not because i want to , but because it is in my way. WAIT, WAIT WAIT WAIT, i think i said this before is this a dream again or I am in a loop. GOD Dammit!!!. 

(I understand there are grammatical errors. As dreams are not perfect.)

By A.Bhagirathraj