In most cases when a patient is brought to the hospital, he prepared himself for the impending doom-death. But, Nupur Bhushan was not faint-hearted! She was a patient of severe lung cancer and had to pay numerous visits to the Hospital now and then but had always departed with a merry spirit. But this time, things were different. Now, her deepest intuitions told her that this was possibly her last hospital visit. She lay in the hospital bed, concentrating on drawing in the correct amount of air into her lungs, when there was a slight tap on the door. A boyish figure with killer looks entered the room. It was Samrat. Usually, all the girls went crazy over his killer smile, but today, this very smile had faltered. His face was twisted into lines of worry and a deep shadow of pain had engulfed his ever-charming aura and personality. Inspite of herself, a slight smile played on Nupur's lips on seeing him. "Hi Samrat" she said jovially. Without a reply, Samrat silently perched on the edge of her bed and took her hands into his. He stared at her for a long time and then sighed, "Why are you doing this?"
Nupur smiled again and shrugged, "Doing what?" "This!" exclaimed Samrat irritated. "You very well know that the doctors are saying you have very little time to live and you are lying here smiling away to glory! How could you be so mean?" "Mean?" Nupur burst out laughing. "How am I being mean?"
"Oh well!" said Samrat "Don't act like you don't know! How could you do this to me? How could you leave me all alone and go away like this! This is so unfair!"
That sent Nupur into another fit of laughter. Samrat stood staring at her, annoyed and finally said "Miss Nupur Bhushan, you are truly impossible! Here I am, writhing in agony because you are going to leave me and go away forever and you are sitting here and laughing at me!" This seemed to have some impact on Nupur. Suddenly, her smile froze midway and she said grimly, "I'm sorry Samrat, it's not my fault, you know. I never imagined I would ever have lung cancer of all diseases! I know you're going to be terribly lonely without me?but I just cannot help it Sam! I'm sorry!" A lone tear slipped down his cheek and Nupur wiped it with her finger. Then, Samrat recovered from his sudden flood of emotions and said "Don't think like that. I'm going to do just fine without you. I mean, I'm a grown-up now, I can take care of myself!" Nupur chuckled and said "Okay Mr. Grown-up?go and manage everything by yourself! By the way, don't forget to pick up you shirts from the laundry. And yeah, your watch needs to be repaired and you need to tune your guitar by next week too-"
"That's it" Samrat cut her off mid-sentence and pressed a finger on her mouth. He then planted a short kiss on her cheek but suddenly Nupur kissed him back-on his lips. Samrat was totally startled by her reaction. "Whoa!" he exclaimed "Didn't know that was coming!" Nupur uttered a hoarse laugh and said "Just an experiment! Didn't want to miss out on this experience before death...you know, kissing a guy and all...it's every girl's fantasy!" "Oh!" Samrat sighed, relieved "Thank God you didn't mean it in that sense!" This made Nupur burst into laughter again. But this laughter somehow extracted the last scrap of air from her lungs and suddenly her lungs tightened and her heartbeat began to falter. Her vision turned into a drastic maze of colors...the only distinct image in front of her was of Samrat's. All voices, all sensations began to fade and the world suddenly seemed far away to her. Samrat clung on to her urgently. He hoped against hope that by some miracle her breathing would return to normal and his dearest friend could return to her usual self again. But, seeing her die in his arms was the most painful sight ever. "Sam-raat..." she wheezed?but the only thing which came out was a huge fountain of air...and suddenly her eyes locked shut and she collapsed into his arms. "NO" he howled. "NOOOOO" He looked at her corpse in front of him and howled madly. Tears shot out from his eyes and he simply could not control himself?he had lost a friend?the most prized possession one could ever have!
Edited by Rohini.star - 16 years ago