FF: Asleep - C2

‘Congratulations!’ Kripa and Aaliya screamed in unison with their faces hidden behind huge teddy bears. They moved their teddy bears on the side and both hugged their friend Mishti who was standing by the huge mahogany doorway. Huge tears started dropping from Mishti’s dark brown eyes and she sniffed, ‘It’s the hormones. These are so cute! And thank you so much both of you. I don’t know what I would ever do without you two.’

Aaliya was 5’4 and had grey eyes. She had long wavy brown hair and she wore a short dress that matched the color of her eyes. Aaliya bent down and hugged a 5’2 Mishti again, ‘Sweety, that’s why we’re always here for you; so that you don’t have to do anything without us. So where’s baby daddy?’

‘Right behind you two!’ Kripa and Aaliya launched themselves in muscular arms and peered at a handsome, baby face with striking brown eyes. ‘Congratulations Bro! You’re going to be a Daddy soon! We’re so excited for you two!’ Aaliya smiled at her brother.

Kripa wiggled her eyebrows and teased her friend, ‘So now we know why you missed so many hangouts with us,’ Kripa gave a fake cough, nudged Aaliya and continued, ‘Our friends were too busy to spend time with us.’

Prithvi and Mishti reddened and Prithvi grabbed Kripa’s ears, ‘OK, Miss Kripa, time out OK. Stop teasing me and my lovely wife,’ he said gazing lovingly at Mishti.

‘Ow, ow, Prithvi, leave my ear alone! OK, OK, I’ll try not to tease you two. Prithvi, leave my ear!’ Kripa managed to say in between laughter and wincing.

They all laughed and Prithvi went to his wife. He stood beside her and gave a quick peck on her lips while Aaliya and Kripa made gagging sounds. ‘He’s started it again. Look at bro, now we definitely know how all this happened. And look at him; he took a few days off so that he can take care of Mishti. What a sweet husband.’

They laughed again and went into the house. Kripa looked around the house and smiled. The house was very cozy and homely. She looked at her friends and smiled again. She was very happy for her friends.

After some time, she left the house and walked towards the outdoor florist. ‘Hi Aunt Jenny, how are you? How’s little Nick doing? Has he started teething yet?’

Aunt Jenny smiled at the caring, young woman, ‘Hi Kripa! I’m doing great! Nick has started teething and he’s driving Mandy and Rohan crazy! It’s so nice watching them as a family. I thought my Mandy and Rohan would never be together because of the religion barrier and all that. But now they have a kid of their own! I’m so proud of them.’

Kripa gave Aunt Jenny a quick hug and nodded. ‘Yeah, I remember how Mandy always used to cry saying how much she loved Rohan. I’m glad Rohan’s parents agreed.’

‘Yeah, it was all His will. Anyways Kripa, what can I do for you today?’

‘Aunt Jenny, may I have 3 dozens of different, colorful flowers please? They’re for a friend. He’s in hospital.’ Kripa explained.

‘Oh sure. Here, take the mixed bouquets. I’m sure he’ll love them.’ Kripa paid her and walked to the hospital. She had brought 3 tall colorful plastic cups from home for the flowers as vases. She didn’t have a huge budget so she made do with what she had.

She walked in the hospital and greeted Ms. Mary and walked in the man’s room. She saw a doctor there and smiled at him, ‘Hi, I’m Kripa, his friend. I brought flowers for him,’ she walked towards the man and said, ‘Hey, I’m back. I told you I’d be here. Anyways, I brought flowers for you,’ and she put the flowers in front of the man’s face, ‘I’ll just put them in the vase and set them about, OK?’ She did just that and turned towards the doctor who looked stunned.

‘Do you know this patient? What’s his name?’ he asked.

‘Oh, I just met him yesterday and we became friends. I don’t know his name but he seems like a nice person. What are you doing?’ she asked in curiosity as she saw the doctor moving the man’s legs as if it was an exercise.

‘I’m just making sure he gets enough exercise every day. We don’t want his blood to stop circulating to his arms and legs so we have to make sure that we give them enough exercise every day. So we have to do this for anywhere between half hour and one hour every day,’ the doctor answered.

‘Oh cool, can I come and watch sometime?’ she asked the doctor as she saw him place the man’s limbs on the bed and ready to leave.

‘Sure, we do this at 11 everyday. You can come tomorrow if you want.’ Kripa nodded happily and sat on the stool beside the man.

‘Hey, so are you feeling better today? I hope you are getting enough exercise. If you ever need anything, you know you can always ask me. Anyways, I heard the most exciting news ever today. My best friend, Mishti, is pregnant! Isn’t that so cool! We’ve been friends since I was 6 and she was 9. She is like my sister. If it wasn’t her, I don’t know how I would have survived the orphanage. It wasn’t too bad there, but you just had to find a way to keep yourself sane and not get pregnant. Over there, so many young girls got pregnant with the other boys from the orphanage. So I was always tailing Mishti so that I didn’t get in trouble. She was nice and she accepted me. It was nice to be accepted for once,’ Kripa trailed off lost in her memories.

She shook herself and changed the topic, ‘Oh well, I’ll tell you the rest of that story some other day. But for now, I brought a few poems with me to read to you, OK? I really do hope that you like poetry.’ She read two poems from the book. The first one was ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost. It was one of her favorite poems because it was about the choices that individuals make.

‘This next one is written by me so don’t laugh, OK? And don’t cringe. Just pretend to like it. I really like fiction so I thought of it in the context of running away from someone, it’s about fear and, ironically, I named it ‘Fear’! So here goes,

My heart is pounding
Bile is rising up my throat
All I can think of is running.

Shadows cross my way
Moonlight comes out to taunt me
I am afraid to look back.

The night is filled with its music
My feet crunch on the path
I hear other footsteps.

My legs are tired
Tears threaten to spill
Yet all I can think of is running.’