10 New Apartment
Aviana, Hayden and Joanna were getting ready to leave the hospital. After Hayden woke up, they remained in the hospital for a few days because Hayden needed to be examined to ascertain he had no other underlying health problem. After a few days, Hayden was fully recovered. He could walk, run and even eat on his own. Given that Joanna cared too much for her son, she didn't allow him to take walk outside the hospital and if she did, she had to be there to supervise.
After they were done with signing of papers, and had packed their belongings, they exited the hospital. An ear-to-ear smile played on their faces. It displayed how happy they were. As they walked out, Aviana looked back and heaved a sigh of relief. The past few days had not been easy for her. Waking up every morning with the hope of finding Hayden awake only to get disappointed, wasn't easy for her. She had been worried and gloomy all through. But now, he was at their side, and they could be a happy family once again. They held hands as they walked out of the hospital premises.
Devin stood outside the hospital, leaning on his car. As soon as he saw them, he approached them. He had been informed earlier of their discharge and came as soon as possible. Aviana recognized him as soon as she saw him walk towards them.
"Ma'am, this is for you," said Devin as he handed to her some document. Aviana, surprised, held the document and read through it, one word at a time, careful not to miss any important information. She tilted her head quizzically, a look of puzzlement crossing her face. The more she read, the more confused she became. On seeing how much she struggled to understand what the document entailed, he explained briefly,
"As you can see, the document entails details of an apartment bought under your name. It's yours,"
"What do you mean? I don't get you?"
"The new apartment has been given to you by our company as compensation for the damages caused during the accident. It now belongs to you and your family. If you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way," he said as he got ready to leave.
Aviana stood there, still trying to process the information. Her mind flashed back to that day when the accident happened, the young man whom she met that day. She had been engulfed in the situation that she forgot to ask for his name. Suddenly recalling, before he could get into the car, she shouted as she ran towards him,
"Sir! Sir! Sir! Wait! Wait!" Devin didn't expect to see her run towards him.
"Tell me, who sent you, who's your boss? Is it the young man at the accident scene? If so, what's his name?" she asked rhythmically, without a single breath, panting heavily.
Devin still dumbfounded, responded, "Ethan Urkel is his name, ma'am. If you need anything, you can ask." Reaching out to his pocket, he handed over to her a card, with the office phone number and left. Aviana watched him get into the car and drove away.
Joanna and Hayden were still trying to process what they had heard.
"New apartment?" Joana asked, unable to understand what just happened, breaking the silence.
"Aviana, what's going on here? What did he mean by new apartment?" Aviana glanced at the card and then at her mother. She didn't know where to start.
"Mother, do you recall the young man I told you about?" Joanna tilted her head quizzically trying to recall the young man. Seeing that her mother struggled to remember, she continued, "The young man I told you took Hayden to the hospital and paid the hospital bill,"
Finally remembering, she responded, "Oh, that young man. What about him?" she asked, still puzzled, trying to understand where her daughter was heading to.
"He's the one who gave us the apartment," said Aviana as she handed the document to her to see things for herself.
"What? But why did he give it to us?" she asked still unable to understand.
"Mother, you were here when the young man said everything. Well....the man said, the apartment is compensation from their company for the damages caused during the accident," she explained.
"Who is he?" asked Joanna.
"If you ask me, who will I ask?Maybe we should go and have a look, who knows, it might be better than ours.
The taxi screeched to a halt in front of the apartment. As soon as they set their foot on the pavement, they froze.
"Sis, are we still in LA?" As Hayden voiced the question that all of them were asking themselves in their mind, Aviana shook her head and said,
"I don't know. It doesn't seem like it, atleast." Of course they had good reasons for being so shocked. LA was a city of sprawling high-rise buildings and crowded buildings. With one of the highest average rent amount in the world, the whole city was filled with multi-storeyed buildings which emphasized quantity of houses over quality. Atleast, they thought so until they drove here. It was a sheltered copse packed away in the middle of the city that has somehow avoided the fate of being in the shadow of a skyscraper. Although there were buildings present around, they were only 2 or 3 storey making it so, that no one got the feel of living in a packed megalopolis. It looked like a two-storey building at first glance. But the wide, open balcony on the second floor established the fact that it was a villa, not an apartment. The area was atleast 700sq yards, with the house occupying three-quarters of the plot. On the sides, beautiful gardens had been planted.
"There's a swimming pool!!!" As Hayden let out a scream of excitement, running inside as soon as he saw a hint of blue water to one side, the spell was broken on the other two.
"Aviana, are you sure we are at the right address?"
"I think so, mother,"
"But you said it was an apartment! What did you do that made him give us such a valuable villa?" This question stymied Aviana too, who was thinking along the same lines. Shaking her head, she said,
"I don't know, mother, but I think I'll find out,". They walked inside. They became more surprised. Everything was well arranged and decorated. It was as if everything was prepared earlier. The house was like what she had seen in movies. It was beautiful.
