A Teddy Bear Love Story Chapter-8

Anatika meant to be forever. That night she was handled over to the Cancer expert team and she was saved somehow. When Sarthak was inside the room at their last meeting, his dad gave Anantika’s mother number of an NGO. If Anantika had some chances of survival, the NGO would be paying for her treatment. She had chances to survive. The NGO came forward to bear her treatment expenses.

Unaware of it, Sarthak was in agony of losing his friend. He was moved with the fact that he would never be able to see her again. Her treatment ran for a week and a week later doctors managed to keep her alive. He didn’t know what exactly happened, until Anantika’s mother called Sarthak’s dad to thank him for providing her the number.

His dad was happy that he could help them in anyway. His dad took a half day leave from office and went to take Sarthak from school. Sarthak was confused. He had no idea that they were meeting again. His dad took him to the hospital and there she was…lying on the bed, holding the same teddy bear. Alive..!

“Anantika,” He screamed with happiness and ran to her. He stood next to the bed and held her hand. She was sleeping and he was waiting for her to wake up. He never left her hand. He didn’t want to. A week without her made him realize that he need to held her forever and only then she wouldn’t be going anywhere.

An hour later, she wakes up. His hand was sweating now. She felt the hand in her hand and said softly, “Sarthak.”

“You didn’t go to ‘dying?’” He asked, astonishingly. He dropped his bag and leaned ahead on the bed to climb.

“You want me to go there?” She asked.

“I don’t want you to go there alone. I missed you, wherever you want to go, you can go, but I will come along.”

“I know. I can’t take you there. So, I  am staying here with you.” She was lying on the bed and only her lips were moving.

“I was so scared that I won’t be able to see you again,” Sarthak confessed.

“Sarthak, I am scared that I won’t be able to see you.” She uttered.

“Why? You are here with me, no. You aren’t going anywhere. You will surely see me, when these bandages will be off.”

“You know Sarthak, when I was suffering from cancer and I used to have headaches, the pain was just unbearable. My soul used to scream inside me. Each passing moment was death to me.  Every second I begged god to pardon me and wished that I was blind. If there were no eyes, there wouldn’t be a cancer.”

“And?” Sarthak was horrified with what she went through.

“And god listened to me. I am alive, it is just that, he took my eyes. He listened to the wish I made in every moment of pain. Now, I am alive for everyone but everyone is dead for me. I can’t see a single person. I don’t know where this life took me and why?”

Sarthak looked at the bandage on her eyes and started weeping noiselessly. He remembered the first day of her in the school. There was a certain mystery, beauty and grief altogether in them. Everything just managed to get in those eyelashes. The fact that she won’t see him again developed an emptiness in his heart and tears filled it. 

“But you can feel us all,” He counted the good things.

“I can feel you even if you are miles away. I don’t want your hand to hold me. Please leave me alone Sarthak, things are changed. I don’t want to spoil life of people around me. Life of my mother is spoiled of me and I can’t help it. But, I will not become the reason of your spoiled life.”

“Anantika, what are you saying? We are friends. Anantika means forever and so is our friendship, isn’t it?”

“Leave me alone,” She shouted and left his hand.

“I won’t. I won’t leave you ever,” He dug his head near her hand and started sobbing. Her hand could feel the moisture his eyes left on her hand.

She was crying too. However, all the destruction was happening inside the bandages, her eyes were covered with. Her eyes were not totally useless. They could still cry. Now, the only purpose of her eyes was tears. Only and only tears.

“You have your choices Sarthak. You can go right now and I won’t even stop you or you can stay but on certain terms.”

“I want to accept every condition of yours but just don’t ask me to leave you,” Sarthak cried somewhere from her hand.

“First, you will never cry seeing my condition.”

“Accepted.”

“You will never blame yourself to make me friend, you can blame me.”

“Accepted,”

“You will buy me a teddy bear on every birthday.”

“Accepted,”

“I need a hug,” 

“Accepted,” He said and wrapped himself around her. He wept for a while. As he promised, it was his last weep. He kept crying and she kept holding him with one hand and wrapping her teddy in other. There was no one around except those two little hearts folded in each other and the happiness of each other's existence  was genuine. 

When his dad entered the room, he found them slept. She was tired of pain and he was tired of crying. Pain always comes with tears. He picked Sarthak’s bag and when he tried to pick Sarthak in his arms, he just couldn’t. He looked at those innocent faces and then didn’t disturb them.

Years passed and Sarthak never cried for her. She took admission in special school for disable children and he used to visit her almost every day. They used to sit together on the same bench.  She cried in front of him several times but he never, not even a single tear fell from his eyes. He meant everything when he accepted her terms. She was happy that everyone around was happy that she existed, not sad that she lost her eyes.

Sarthak surely couldn’t see her milky eyes but he had something very beautiful to cherish. He had everything.

“You knew that I love you from starting, no?” Sarthak asked her.

“Teddy Bears never speak that they love us. They just stay with us and we know that they love us. This is the best thing about teddy bears.”

“So, am I your teddy bear?” he asked.

She smiled and said, “Yes you are…”

“And you know what… Teddy bears actually say I love you. It is just that, we never listen.” He said and passed her a key ring. It had a teddy bear with a heart on its tummy, proclaiming, ‘I Love You’

She took it, said thank you and they waved each other bye. She got a hold on her stick and went in her hostel room by counting her steps. The room was dark, though her whole life was the same. She put the key ring on her desk and opened the window. Sunshine spread in her room. It was stuffed with teddy bears. There were around 50 teddy bears in different sizes and colors.  Every teddy bear was proclaiming ‘I Love You’.

A fresh breeze hit her occupied face. She was still thinking ‘How a teddy bear can say ‘I Love you’?’. She couldn’t get the answer… She could never get the answer.

*****

Anantika was right, that Teddy Bear never speaks. We all are teddy bears for someone, maybe a special person, friends, brother, sister or mother. There is always a person we love blindly. We don’t need eyes to trust have a trust on them, we just do because we feel secure when they are around. We all are teddy bears, we don’t need to say 'I Love You', we need to feel it. This is the fact and this will stay forever, like her name,  like their relation, like their love. Yes, we all are teddy bears and we all have A Teddy Bear Love Story… Blind but Alive.

*THE END*

Author

-Himanshu Appie Chhabra

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