Bella All Alone..

Bella opened her eyes only the next day morning and was surprised to find a paper on her bedside table. She took it out and read it...

"So he left,..! I shouldn't have slept like this.. I should have atleast thanked him.." Bella felt deeply guilty and was blaming herself for sleeping so early yesterday.

Suddenly, the nurse entered the room. She was a fat lady in her mid thirties and looked very arrogant and haughty.

She pricked Bella's hands with a needle and Bella screamed silently swallowing up the pain...

She spoke rudely, " I have called at your home at the number you have given many times.. Nobody is picking up.. Don't they care about you at all? " She placed a few tablets on the table and asked Bella to have it after her breakfast..

Bella was not able to walk and she did not like the look of this nurse.. She wondered if this lady would take her to the bathroom.

The nurse immediately left the hall before Bella could indicate her something..

Bella waited for a while longer. Nobody came towards her room.. She slowly tried to get up from her bed.. She felt a cruciating pain radiating to her spine as she placed her plastered legs on the ground.. With tiny careful steps, she walked up to the bathroom and somehow managed to freshen up..

"Atleast my hands are fine.. " She thought but the prick of the wenflon still pained her wrist.. She walked backed to her bed dragging her foot.. She wondered where her aunt and uncle were and why they did not pick up the phone. They may have sometimes come, if they knew, she was not sure.. Staring out of the window seeing the outside view of the hospital, she was startled when the door burst open and the doctor came in..

" How are you doing Ms Lawrence?".. She was not called this name usually.. Even at school, they called her only Bella, so she felt strange someone calling out her father's name.

"Did you move about lately".. The doctor looked alarmed..

"You have to be more careful, you should have called someone from your home by now or you can take the help of any nurse out here.. Try to be more careful.. But I should say that you are terribly fast at healing, .. You are already able to walk and I am sure you will be all fine within a few days.."

Bella liked this doctor. He was very caring and she felt he resembled her father somehow, the way he winked..

She shook the doctor's hand and asked in her usual sign language hoping the doctor would understand.. " Doctor, Can a person like me who is deaf and mute become a doctor?"

The doctor could easily pick out Bella's sign.

"I am not very sure of it and have never seen anyone such as that in my personal experience.. But I should say I have read somewhere that it could be possible.. But it may cost you a fortune. And moreover Bella, you can sometimes cure this deafness with a hearing implant and maybe some speech therapy would even make you speak.. But I cant be sure of it since I don't know how much bad your condition is now.. You should start the treatment and sometimes you may be able to cure it.."

The doctor was neither giving Bella false hopes nor making her feel hopeless. Bella wanted to become a doctor.. her mother wanted her to be a doctor.. And she should atleast try and hope that this time there may be some luck on her side...

Peter had returned to his apartment and had freshened up.. It was a long day and he was really tired. But lying on the bed he could think of nothing but the girl. He believed someone might have reached the hospital from her home by now since the nurse had informed them. But still he was not at rest.. He felt very uneasy.. She was not like whom he thought her to be, she suddenly appeared to him as a bold and beautiful girl who worked hard and lived independently.. She might be the breadwinner of her family.. But he had seen weakness in her eyes every time he saw her.He wished to meet her soon but was still not sure how to face her.

He woke up late the next day.. He found over twenty missed calls on his phone. He had forgotten to check out his phone after returning from the hospital yesterday.. He called Mark.

"Mark, I couldn't make out yesterday's conference either. I met with an accident.. Manage the issue somehow and reschedule it to another time if needed."

He immediately set out for his office. He did not know what this international conference was about but he keeps on missing it.

Back to his office, he got immersed in his work. His company had recently signed for a new book and its content seemed decent.. With his talent at editing and twisting up words he could easily make it a new hit. He had time till next day so he lost track of time as he sat editing the entire day.. It was late night when he finally finished his task and yawned at the watch. He kept the necessary documents in the shelf and suddenly noticed a bunch of papers lying there in a very disorderly manner. He was not used to keeping his things in a mess, so he arranged them orderly.. He stopped as he noticed the drawings.. It was the image of that girl he drew.. He did not remember when he had kept it here or sometimes it could be even Mark.. He took out the paper and gazed at it.. This time not with hatred but with a strange feeling he never felt before..

He took out a paper and started drawing the girl once again,... in a hospital dress.., this time with a slow and artistic phase letting the pencil gently caress the paper.

Isabella, that was her name.. She had looked more beautiful yesterday.. kind and soft.. with a beautiful smile..

As he finished drawing, he stared at it for a long time before he fell off into a deep sleep on the table, exhausted over a long day's work..