Shadow Lives - Part 4

Muthu stared at Raj, stunned. And horrified too. How did he guess? He asked Raj.

Raj looked miserable. “It’s Sandy. She was this way with my grandaunt who had breast cancer. Whining and sticking to her like a leech.”

Both of them looked wordlessly at Sandy. Muthu broke the silence. “It’s my lungs. I have about six months, at most.” It felt unreal to say those words out loud for the first time to someone else.

Raj snapped his head up in shock. Don’t overreact, Muthu instructed silently. He watched in relief as Raj stoically digested the news.

“I’m guessing no one knows. When are you going to tell them?”Muthu grimaced. He’d been fighting with that question himself. Mainly, he didn’t want to be treated differently when he told his family. Like as if he was weak and to be pitied. But now Raj knew and he seemed to be handling it well enough. Maybe it won’t be so bad.

“Appa,” Raj prompted gently. “They need to know.”

Muthu decided swiftly. “Tomorrow. I’ll tell the family tomorrow, while everyone is together. Let’s have this one more day to be happy.”

Suddenly they heard a blood curdling scream from downstairs. Muthu froze. “That’s Sarala!”

“Oh my god! The baby!” Raj was already sprinting downstairs, his face ashen.

Muthu hurtled down after him, panic fueling his old limbs.

Downstairs, they collided with Kuhan. “Kitchen!”

Muthu felt like he had slammed into a brick wall when he saw Janaki sprawled on the kitchen floor, unconscious, Sarala keening over her. The children were clutching their mother, crying, looking shocked and confused.

He stumbled towards his wife, dazed. “What happened?”

From the babble of panicked voices surrounding him, he managed to pick out the words “Stroke” and “Hospital”. Only then did he notice the right side of Janaki’s face was twisted ghastly.  

Part 5