UNDER THE SKY LANTERNS - PART 41
By Archana Vinod
THE DUMPING SITE - IN A WHILE
The air reeks of petrol, garbage and blood.
Faint lights flicker over a barely conscious Roli. She has now been discovered and freed from the sack, but her bare torso and ravaged below remains obscured within the gunny bag until Siddhant wraps her with the saree retrieved from the crime scene.
A bit off, the sidekick is interrogated by the cops.
Anand flashes his cell phone light as Siddhant kneels down, wraps up the disheveled girl in her tattered saree and lifts her off the ground. He carries her in his arms to his car.
Two of the cops assist him by flashing a searchlight on his path and opening the rear door to his car.
Anand gets behind the wheel whereas Siddhant gently loads Roli into the back seat and gets in himself.
ANAND: Ready, Siddhant?
SIDDHANT: Just a minute.
With utmost care, he settles down and places her battered bleeding head onto a safe and firm surface - his lap.
SIDDHANT: Ready.
Anand starts the car.
In a while, they are on the streets, zipping past the city traffic with blaring sirens of the police jeep on their tail.
Siddhant's blank stare comes to rest on Roli's ravaged body. She is laid out limp on the back seat, her head still resting on his lap. All of sudden, he has fleeting and terrifying images of the havoc wrecked on Roli as he runs his eyes over the fearsome bite marks, bloody scratches, blue and purple bruises on her face, cut lips and bleeding head. Oh my God, what have they done to her, he wonders painfully. How can they do something like that?
He notices blood seeping through the bandages on her head and soaking into his lap. He leans forward and gently mops it up off her face and the back of her head with his handkerchief.
He is shaken beyond words. It is hard to digest the turn of events - just yesterday he saw her all pepped up and bubbly but tonight she is fighting for her life. She is barely alive! Sad, angry tears spring to his eyes. He reaches out for her limp hand and holds it gently.
Hang in there buddy, he assures her silently, you're going to make it. I know you will... you're a lioness after all.
IN A HOSPITAL ELSEWHERE - AN HOUR LATER
Prakash is soaked up in his own retch and diarrhea. He throws up another pint of blood.
His punctured hand has doubled in size by now and has turned a fearsome shade of purple. He writhes in intense agony and goes into a convulsion as blood begins to ooze out of his nose and all other openings in his body!
They push him off to the emergency room.
DRIVER: (to his sidekick) The doctor thinks that it could be a viper which bit him.
SIDEKICK: Is he going to make it?
DRIVER: I'll be surprised if he does. Question is: what the hell was he doing there?
AT ANOTHER HOSPITAL - MEANWHILE
The emergency team is ready for them as they arrive. They swiftly but gently remove Roli from the car and rush her off to the emergency room.
Siddhant paces up and down the hall as Anand settles down on a vacant chair. Just then, he notices a flustered Jamanlal walk in through the door with Vikrant.
VIKRANT: Siddhant! What's happening?
SIDDHANT: They've taken her in for a series of tests.
His eyes dart towards Jamanlal who looks unusually quiet and expressionless. He almost looks numb!
Just then, a doctor cloaked in a crisp white overcoat hurries towards them.
DOCTOR: Has any of her concerned relatives or guardians turned up?
JAMANLAL: I'm her father.
DOCTOR: Ok, sir. We'll need your signed permission to perform a surgery.
The word "surgery" sends a chill down Jamanlal's spine.
JAMANLAL: Surgery? How bad is it?
DOCTOR: I can fill you in with the details in a while. We're also out of O-ve blood, so you'll need to get the prescribed from the blood bank.
JAMANLAL: B-blood--- (his hands tremble as he takes the chit from the doctor)
SIDDHANT: O negative? That's my blood group as well!
DOCTOR: Wonderful! That makes things easier and quicker then! You can go to the room at the end of this corridor. The nurse will set you up for the transfusion.
Jamanlal glances blankly at Siddhant and notices dried up smudges of blood on his hands, shirt and pants. As he does, his heart sinks with a thud to his guts...
That must be Roli's blood, thinks Jamanlal painfully, what did those animals do to my girl? Did they hurt her a lot?
He looks over at Siddhant's face again. This boy... he saved her. He saved my daughter...
On the other hand, Siddhant hurries off to give his blood as instructed by the doctor.
A police officer joins them in the hall. He is NITIN SHARMA.
Anand nods quietly to acknowledge his presence.
Nitin walks off to the doctor's cabin.
Jamanlal is restless and paces up and down the hall.
OPERATION THEATRE
A team of two doctors and nurses gather around a sedated Roli to perform the surgery for her broken arm and head. She is clothed in green scrubs and laid flat down on a table.
Outside, Jamanlal and the rest of them wait with bated breath.
... TO BE CONTINUED
Anupamaa
