IshVeer FS: Fire and Ice. [COMPLETED] - Page 22

Kishore crooned from the radio as Kailash sat sprawled on the chaise sofa in his room, drowning himself in the melody of old days and songs. The days that had passed had always been the best compared to the present. Oh, the present was poison, the past... elixir. How he missed those days! He had been a driver, but he was happy, all right. Happier than he'd ever been. Now when everything seemed to be there, happiness was elusive.

Sighing, Kailash got up to pace around the room when he experienced a spasm of pain from his arm and throat. No... it wasn't the arm or the throat, it was his chest. He clutched his left chest, crumpling his kurta as the pain deepened. His face contorted with acute anguish as his knees wobbled in trepidation. Falling to the ground as his hands failed to catch hold of an object, his arm swiped with something and he heard a distant crash.

No, no! That couldn't be, maybe it was severe acidity! He had heard those adages of old age diseases and heart attacks from friends and so. But this couldn't be happening to him in person! He was just 53! But 53 was also not so young an age. He couldn't think more as black edges seeped into his vision and his breathing became ragged. Fear engulfed him. The pain was choking, constricting and excruciating as a few grunts escaped his lips. Just as he lost consciousness, blackness overcame him and the pain ceased to exist.

The last thing Kailash ever remembered was cries and someone shaking his lifeless form and all of a sudden, nothing more.

+++

It smelled of distinct iodine tincture and disinfectant. Dispensary white surrounded her in an eerie fashion while the aura of the hospital itself was abstruse. For some, it was their life's greatest nightmare and for others, the very place of worship as they waited upon their loved ones. They cried. They wept. They smiled with tears. They sat with cold sweats. Or they just chose to remain catatonic with shock. But everyone always hoped that maybe, their loved one inside those OTs or ICUs or wards just pulled through.

Parul's mind had been in the ghastliest of frenzy as she observed every tinge of changes with distant affirmation. It was her uncle this time. What was the prognosis they made? Yes, a coronary artery disorder which resulted in a massive heart seizure. She'd read about that demon - CAD. Being the number one killer apart from macabre, fatal and undetected cancers, CADs too came undetected more than once like a snake biting a person standing in knee high lush grasses. The gall of that wrecked disease! Once it caught its victim, it never went away. Incurable as it is, patients even survived for another fifteen years from the prognosis sometimes. But not always, not always when there was an unawaited massive heart attack. Heart seizures usually weakened the heart muscles. And there was no saying that the sufferers could get back to their old lifestyle.

And there was no assurance that Kailash would recover.

She slipped up her phone and punched in Ranveer's number. Keeping the phone to her ear, she waited for the call to cease ringing. As it did, Parul immediately spoke into the phone, "Hello, Bhai! Woh... aapko jaldi yaha aana padega..."

[Hello, Bhai. You need to come here soon...]

"Why? What happened? Is everything alright?" Ranveer's voice travelled to her, startled. He certainly hadn't been expecting this.

"It's Kailash Kaka..." Parul gulped, "...Coronary Artery Disease and a massive heart-"

Ranveer's reaction was instant, "NO!"

"Yes, Bhai!" she whispered, "Come soon, he still is waiting for you."

Parul cut the call and leaned her head into her palm, taking in deep breaths. A tear slipped out of her eye and trickled down her cheek. It was too much time since she'd been strong. He was her uncle, the who always held her in an affectionate indulgence, looking at her like his own daughter! And this happened to just him!

Oh, why?

Funnily though, people never could fathom the answer for that cryptic question of three letters.

More tears came tumbling down the dam of her eyes as Parul felt a hand encompass her head and lean onto it. Tears wet her hair too for Ishaani itself couldn't control those treacherous drops. They always searched for reasons to overflow!

The day had been their worst. Bhai's phone call, uncle's attack, running around to get this or that, consoling her aunt who was in catatonic shock and stillness. So many things compressed into like, 15 hours?

"I just called Bhai, he will be coming." Parul was sure of his coming. She rubbed off her tears with a back of her hand as Ishaani's countenance had a ghost of a smile, lingering just enough to express the bittersweet moment.

Nobody ever thought that Ranveer's return would be on such an event.

+++

Ranveer Vaghela felt his heart shatter as he heard the news. His father and... CAD? He couldn't believe it. Was this real?

That was the only mantra his mind managed to chant as he packed his luggage absent-mindedly. If the wait was only for him, then yes, he wouldn't mind extending it. Extending it only because his Baba would wait for him.

Dialling his secretary in India, he said disconnectedly and so inaudibly into the phone that Puneet just hardly understood it the first time.

"Book my tickets to Mumbai now... I need to leave."

The King of Dalal Street was coming back to India. Back from conquering the European markets. Back as Ranveer.

+++

"Parul, take her home, I will stay for the night." Ishaani communicated with her hands signalling to Amba. Their burst of emotions was over with calm and dreadful composure superseding emotions and fears. Nothing could go wrong. Hope was with them.

They'd just received inputs from the doc that Kailash's condition was stable for the time being but he would remain in the ICU for a seventy-two hour observation for any change of his condition. And he'd told them that they didn't have to worry much now as the patient was responding to the treatment.

But they really couldn't be certain!

"Yes, Bhabhi, I will do that," Parul readily agreed. The idea of a much needed reprieve from all the tumults and storms was surely invited, that too, after a supper as that which they'd had. Not ravenous, of course, but thinly enough. But she knew she never would be sleeping today. Sleep would evade her in the wake of blooming agony. And Amba who hadn't even spoken a word, needed some time to cope up, too.

"Take care! And call back if anything serious happens!" Parul trudged out with a stock still Amba as Ishaani saw them off till the reception. Coming back and taking her seat in front of the ICU, Ishaani rested her head back on the wall and her eyelids dropped shut in tiredness of the hectic erstwhile hours.

Ranveer would be coming. But only for his father. What if he would go back again? What if...

Her mind rallied up different 'what-if' questions as she it slowly lulled into a restless sleep, the events of the day taking a toll on her.

+++

A black limousine rolled out from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Aerodrome and the window glass slid down as the person inside wafted the air of Mumbai. Coming back after seven months, and still, he felt that not a day had passed at all. The gaudy colours of the still closed stalls gleamed neon in the wild and blinding sun which almost touched the skyline of the city. It was too early in the morning. The sun blinded him bright in the eye, white and dazzling and shells of soft pink and yellow dashed the sky in a heavenly glow. Bird flew, crows cacking loudly and the others just contenting themselves in chirping.

He was home.

+++

Ishaani stirred in her sleep as the cold air of the hospital AC struck her in full blast. She never could bear cold while sleeping. Waking up groggily, she looked out into the almost vacant pristine white corridor. No one was awake yet. What was the time?

07:48 AM, her lock screen gleamed.

Sighing as she got up to stretch and walk about, Ishaani made her way to the reception of the hospital to catch the snippet of the morning new on NDTV. The reporter read out fluently as letters in bold flashed out and alongside was displayed a picture of him.

So he was here, finally.

Just as she turned to walk back towards the ICU, her mind taking in all the news, her feet seamed frozen in place. She felt the air change as its flavours alternated from warmth to cold. Ishaani felt sparks fly in her insides. Hew stomach did a flip-flop and her heart thud like a wild creature trapped in a cage. Colour rushed up her cheeks and ears turned pink. Sweat appeared at its ducts on her palm as she realised that only one thing could make her whole body and her surroundings react the way it did was his presence alone.

Ishaani turned back to face the door of the hospital with her pallu flapping, she faced him. After seven months. She saw him. And he saw her. Ishaani didn't doubt that it was her hallucinations making her picturise Ranveer. No. It was he, himself.

As she stood there, looking at him earnestly, Ranveer stopped in his tracks and his lips slightly parted. He certainly hadn't expected the object of his thoughts right in front of him! Both stood there like a person lost in a desert hungrily gazing at the oasis, slaking in its water down his throat.

They were there but not really there.

They were two people who were meant to be together, but couldn't find their way back together. The path was wretched with seven months of longing and self-depreciating.

He came closer and closer till he stood right in front of her.

His eyes, they made her weak. He devoured her with his eyes, crushing and drinking that sight and she allowed him to. But Ishaani did have her tit for tat...

She looked into his eyes like it was the only thing in the whole wide world. As she looked, she could see his heart and his soul. But she didn't know that looking so deep would not be good for her.

Love kills, and she never knew it until it really did.