Miracle
with a dark side.
By
Ezra Azra.
Copyright
2024.
__________________________________
Sarojini
was in a deep and continually regressing coma in a hospital bed;
going on five months. The doctors, three medical specialists, were on
the brink of “pulling the plug” on her.
Molly,
Sarojini’s twin sister, would have broken down in sorrow and
despair a long time ago had it not been for a minor fact for which
she was entirely responsible; and a miracle that at the beginning
began out of the blue, totally without Molly’s involvement.
The
minor fact of which Molly deliberately persisted in reminding
herself, was that she had always been determined to never let herself
be involved in a romantic relationship. She could not escape the
belief that her sister’s illness would not have been so
catastrophic had there been no romantic component that had ended so
devastatingly.
Sarojini
had been in the process of planning her wedding, when she and her
intended husband, Allaghin, fell ill in a world-wide pandemic
infection. He died within days. His death intensified her illness so
exponentially suddenly that, within seconds of being informed of
Allaghin’s death, Sarojini crashed into a coma.
The
miracle, that at the beginning began out of the blue totally without
Molly’s involvement, was the random arrival of the stranger
named Dhar-hm.
Four
months ago, Molly did not know who Dhar-hm was. Four months ago she
had seen, on the notice board at the local Immigrant Social Community
Center, a hand-scribbled note by Dhar-hm, enquiring about the
whereabouts of Sarojini, with whom, three years previously, he had
attended a University in the overseas country where they, and Molly,
had been born. Molly had been alerted to the note by an official at
the downtown Immigrant Social Community Center who was familiar with
Molly and Sarojini as regular visitors to the Center.
In
the days after she had contacted Dhar-hm, Molly regarded their
meeting a sheer miracle.
He
had arrived in the town to take up a teaching post for which he had
applied while he was overseas. He had reached out to Sarojini through
the Immigrant Social Community Center because he had remembered she
had said she was heading for that town because she had family living
there. He did not expect any success in finding Sarojini, or her
family, since the last time he had spoken with Sarojini was about
three years ago in their own country overseas. Sarojini had not been
specific about names and addresses of her family in the town.
Dhar-hm
would have not located Sarojini had there not been a world-wide
pandemic at present, which had erupted two years ago.
Sarojini
and her partner, Allaghin, had intended to marry in the other town
where Allaghin lived and worked. Had that happy event occurred, it
would have been highly improbable that Dhar-hm and Sarojini would
have met, ever again.
The
sudden world pandemic struck down both of them, each in their town.
Official nation-wide pandemic protocol forbade non-family persons
from bedside visits with patients. Allaghin, died within days. When
Sarojini, already herself bedridden ill, was informed of Allaghin’s
death, she collapsed into a coma; and so was absent from his funeral
and cremation.
The
already dire circumstances were worsened by Molly not being
considered family enough to be allowed to attend Allaghin’s
funeral and cremation. Nor had his family been considered family
enough to attend Sarojini’s bedside.
The
medical professionals were puzzled by Sarojini’s drastic turn
for the worse. Nothing in the pathology information of Sarojini’s
illness had indicated the possibility of such a serious sudden turn.
The medical professionals’ consensus was that suppressed
negative psychological parameters were the likely culprits; culprits
that could not be examined and treated while Sarojini was comatose.
The
medical professionals informed Molly of their puzzlement, in the hope
she could provide information about problems Sarojini might have been
experiencing in her relationship with Allaghin. Molly had no such
information for them. By her assessment, her twin and Allaghin were
in a perfectly happy relationship on the verge of entering blissful
marriage.
Because
pandemic protocol deterrence did not apply to family bedside visits
to comatose patients, Molly visited Sarojini at least three times a
week.
Dhar-hm’s
talking to Molly about the happy rivalry times he and Sarojini spent
in student-study groups, helped support Molly in her grief about her
twin in a coma. For four months, a few times a week, Molly and
Dhar-hm visited the unconscious Sarojini in hospital. By hospital
rules, Dhar-hm, a non-relative, was not allowed bedside visits. He
would wait the hour-or-so in the hospital waiting-room while Molly
visited her unconscious sister.
Friendship
between Dhar-hm and Molly developed into romance; not smoothly for
Molly.
Molly
listened intently to Dhar-hm’s many accounts of his and
Sarojini’s student activities three years ago. Molly had never
been in a romantic friendship, and so Dhar-hm’s accounts often
triggered jealous-like feelings in her, particularly when her
sister’s name came up. More than a few times Molly’s envy
took her to the brink of asking Dhar-hm if there had been romance
between him and Sarojini. Somehow, she managed, with considerable
emotive discomfort, to never cross that line.
Nonetheless,
she felt she needed to consult a professional therapist. After all,
she was a total and utter stranger in matters of romance; and, too,
her situation was complicated by her twin sister in her care being on
the brink of death while in a coma. Molly found herself increasingly
concerned about psychological consequences to herself if Sarojini
were to die in a coma while Molly was having a romantic affair with
Dhar-hm, however temporarily Sarojini and Dhar-hm had been
romantically attached.
With
Dhar-hm, Molly broached her thinking about her need for psychological
therapy. While itemizing all the other reasons for her
needing therapy, Molly was meticulously careful to completely avoid
mentioning her jealousy-envy curiosity about the possibility of there
having been even the slightest romance between Dhar-hm and Sarojini
in their university-student days.
After
Dhar-hm proposed marriage to her, Molly was only minimally relieved
and content to try to ignore her insecurities about her sister’s
possible romantic attachment to Dhar-hm. Her feelings of insecurity
were partially allayed by there being not an iota of evidence in
Dhar-hm’s language, Freudian-slips and other, that he and
Sarojini had ever experienced mutual romantic attachment.
In
their discussions of their eventual marriage date, Dhar-hm and Molly
agreed to wait until either Sarojini recovered from her illness, or,
the gods forbid, Sarojini died while in the coma.
All
along, Dhar-hm had not brought up with Molly her speaking to Sarojini
during her bedside visits. He had not brought up the matter because
he had thought it was common knowledge that a patient in a coma could
hear and mentally process bedside visitors’ talking. Dhar-hm
had taken it for granted that Molly was speaking to Sarojini during
her bedside visits.
Curiously,
Molly, who had to her credit four university degrees and two
international university diplomas, was not aware of that common
knowledge. Curiously, not any of the many bedside medical
professionals attending the unconscious Sarojini, had informed Molly
of that common knowledge. Out of respect for their family privacy,
Dhar-hm had not dared to ask Molly about her speaking to her comatose
sister.
When
Dhar-hm and Molly eventually decided they were on the path to
marriage, Dhar-hm suggested to Molly that at her next bedside visit
she talk to Sarojini about their marriage plans, being circumspect to
not mention names in order to allow Sarojini to think Molly was
speaking about Sarojini’s and Allaghin’s planned wedding.
The
psychological impact of Dhar-hm’s suggestion on Molly was
equivalent to a sudden splash of cold water in her face. In the
first few seconds of her sudden instinctive overall bodily responses,
there was no emotion, only total physiological detonation,
figuratively speaking. Within seconds later, tearful excited joy
overwhelmed her, implosively.
Molly
assured Dhar-hm that at her next visit, she would recount to Sarojini
the happy times Sarojini had as a university student overseas.
Dhar-hm,
recalling the medical professionals’ suggestion of the possible
involvement of negative psychological parameters, suggested Molly
include in her talk to Sarojini a casual mention of the students
Gowrie and Muthal, taking care to not include mention of Dhar-hm.
For
approximately three years at University, Gowrie and Muthal were in
the student study group with Dhar-hm and Sarojini. In a City-wide
influenza infection, Gowrie and Muthal had died before graduating.
The pain of their deaths was especially depressing for Dhar-hm
because he, alone in the group, had not been permitted to attend the
funerals because of the religion of Gowrie and Muthal. Saroj, in
secret from the other members of the group, had taken Dhar-hm to the
burial sites at night to pay his graveside respects to their late
friends, Gowrie and Muthal.
At
Molly’s next bedside visit. While she was talking to her
unconscious twin about Sarojini’s happy student days long ago
in their home Country, Sarojini, miraculously, recovered instantly
from her coma. Of course, the moment was completely explosive,
medically and emotionally, hospital-wide.
Moreso
a miracle since the first word Sarojini spoke was Dhar-hm’s
name; especially to Molly because she was certain that she had never
mentioned Dhar-hm by name in all her speaking to her unconscious
sister.
Molly
could not help wondering, albeit fleetingly, if Sarojini was
resurrecting a long-repressed subliminal university-student wish.
That
last miracle presented a daunting challenge for Dhar-hm and Molly as
they became aware Sarojini had completely forgotten Allaghin, and was
excited by her belief Dhar-hm was her betrothed that had arrived for
them to marry.
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