Vrunda Kulkarni

Drama

5.0  

Vrunda Kulkarni

Drama

Another Chance

Another Chance

7 mins
9.7K


“We will try our best.”

With these words, the doctor left.

She watched him as he went. All her hope lingered on that one man.

She longed to see her son smile, line up toys instead of playing with them as he used to. She gazed around in search of her son’s father.

But of course, why would he be there? How did it even matter to him? He had no more care for his son left. It had been about two months, since he had left them. He lived in the same house, but he wasn’t emotionally connected with her and her son anymore.

Memories swept past her eyes. A year back, they had begun to be concerned about the lack of their son’s interest in playing with kids of his age. They would bring him to the playground, but he would never want to go and join the kids of his age. He would sit in the corner of the playground with that one specific toy of his. She wondered why he would never give out a shriek of laughter at cartoons on TV as the other children of his age used to. She would often invite a couple of her friends and their kids, just so that her son would interact more with the other kids of his age.

It was just two months back, when she was reading an article about autism, when she began to suspect on the chances of her son being autistic. She read through a large number of articles, documentaries and books. She began to watch him more closely, and making small notes on his repeated behavioural patterns. She often discussed this with her husband, but he seemed to be convinced that this was all her misunderstanding, and that his son was a very much normal child.

After a few weeks, she decided to take him to the doctor. After several tests done by the doctor, he had diagnosed her son as autistic. Her weeks of dread, suddenly hit her all at once. Unfortunately, it had all come true. The doctor had told, that being diagnosed at an earlier age, there are some chances of him becoming almost completely cured of the disorder and its symptoms. He prescribed some medicines and behavioural treatments to be conducted by therapists. The doctor had recommended regular visits by a therapist to keep track of his improvements and six-monthly visits to the doctor him.

“Excuse me.”

She looked up to see a nurse. She was wearing a blue uniform with her hair neatly tied up. Her name tag read ‘Amira’.

“Madam, you need to sign on some papers. If you could go to the reception… Or would you rather have me to bring them here?”

“I will go to the reception.”

She got up. She completed the forms and came back and sat down. Once again she fell back into her thoughts.

The news of her son’s autism had made her really upset. She had convinced that she would not let it affect her child in any way. The doctor had told that many autistic children still grow up to be very successful people. She was going to make sure he gets all the medical care he needs, and make sure and hoped that he too would grow up completely cured of the disorder and successful. Though she was sad, about the autism matter, she was happy she was alert and took her son for medical care quick enough.

Upon telling her husband this news, he too seemed shocked. At the beginning it seemed fine. He had accepted the fact, and he too tried to help out. But in a few weeks time, it had begun to affect their marriage. They had started to have rather frequent arguments, disagreements, and misunderstandings. It slowly turned into very little communication in the whole day. They barely talked. He seemed very distant. She used to think it was just the shock of his son being autistic. His lack of interest and responsibility of taking care of their son often made her very angry, but to her, paying attention to her son’s needs was her primary concern.

There was some noise, and she suddenly jerked out of her thoughts. She decided to give another try on calling her husband here. She picked up her phone, dialled the number and called him. Yet again, he didn’t pick up. She had even sent him a message. She just couldn’t believe it! Her son was here in the hospital, fighting against death! Could he actually care so less that he didn’t even come to the hospital!

The doctors rushed out of the operation theatre. It seemed like they were in a hurry. She didn’t want to disturb them, but she couldn’t help it. She stopped one of the doctors.

“Is he going to be okay?”

“I can’t say yet. Let’s hope for the best. We will do all that we can.”

Her heart sunk again. She was hoping to hear some words of reassurance. She didn’t understand what to do, whom to call. She had been feeling so helpless.

She had taken her son to the garden in front of their house in the evening and had also bought a ball along. She had invited couple of kids from the neighbourhood for the evening and had hoped to help him learn to play ‘Catch the ball’ along with the other kids. After almost an hour of playing the same game in different ways, he seemed to have got the hang of the game and got involved in it.

Unfortunately one of the boys got engrossed into the game, threw the ball up so high. Her son, in attempts to catch the ball, chased behind the ball which had entered into the road, and got hit by a motorcycle.

Just then she heard someone running.

“Sir! You are not allowed to run in the hospital!” said one of the nurses.

“Yes yes. Sorry.”

That voice seemed familiar to her.

She turned around, and saw her husband there. He looked terrified, angry, frightened all at once. He was sweating.

She looked at him. She had really begun to think that he might not turn up after all.

“I am sorry it took so long. My phone has been dead. It was when I got home and put it to charging that I saw your messages and phone calls! How is he now? What did the doctors say? Is he going to be okay?”

She looked at him with disbelief. How could he suddenly be so interested in them then?

“Look, I know I haven’t given you and Jai enough support when both of you needed it. I am really sorry. I just didn’t understand how to handle all of this suddenly. I had lots of dreams for Jai, and with the whole autism thing, I didn’t think he would be able to do anything. Within the last two months I have read a lot about autism. An old friend of mine, his son has autism. I used to visit him sometimes. I understand now. Just because he has autism it does not mean, he won’t be able to succeed in life.”

He paused. It looked like it needed more persuasion.

“When you messaged me about his accident, that shock was the worst thing I could imagine. The thought of losing him…It’s the worst thing that could happen to me. I am going to be a lot more supportive from now on. We will do everything that he needs. We will give him all special care he needs to be treated. Okay?”

She felt a choking sensation in her throat as she was fighting back her tears.

“Okay…” She whispered back.

“Good news! We saved your son. He will regain consciousness in a while. You can meet him now.” Said the same doctor who had said he would try his best.

She could not control anymore. She burst out crying. At the same time both her husband and son came back to her.

Both at once, took off and entered their son’s ward.

They saw him lying there on the bed.

A moment later they were sitting with their son on either sides of the bed. She looked up at her husband, and he looked up at her. They exchanged smiles...after ages.

Today it seemed like not only Jai got another chance to live, but both his parents also got another chance.


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