The dark night

Note: The story happens sometime in early 90′s, so no mobile phones.

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Meena came out of the classroom and walked through the corridor towards the staff room. She saw the peon approach her. She greeted him with her usual smile.
“Madam, there is someone waiting for you in the office room”, he said.

She looked at her watch, it was 3.30 PM, “who could it be”, she thought. She thanked the peon and changed her course towards the office room.

As she entered the office room, she saw Muthu, peon at her husbands office,  along with her school headmaster. She was confused, “Why would be he here at this time.” Before she could ask him, he spoke hastily, “Madam, your husband has been admitted in the hospital.”

Her heart pounced, “what happened to him? Is he alright?” She turned towards the headmaster, “Sir, I need to go.” He nodded in affirmative.

Muthu and Meena walked out of the school. It was cloudy and seemed to rain at any moment. They hired an auto to the general hospital. She was tensed and many thoughts gushed into her mind. “What happened to him?” she asked Muthu.

“He was alright madam, he went to his seat after lunch, suddenly he caught his chest and collapsed in his seat. We immediately rushed him to the hospital madam.”

She started to sweat even in that climate, “What did the doctors say?” she asked

“After leaving him in the hospital, I immediately left the hospital to inform you madam. Few of our office staffs are there. Don’t worry madam, sir will be alright.”

After few minutes they reached the general hospital. She rushed into the emergency ward and spotted few of her husbands colleagues in the corridor. She looked at them with her wide eyes and asked “What happened? Is he alright?”

“Sit down madam, the doctor is inside. Muthu, get a cup of coffee from canteen for madam.”

“No, no…I am alright. Can I see the doctor?”

He lead her to the doctor, the doctor was in his mid fifties. He saw them and looked at the man who lead Meena. He nodded at the doctor.

“Sit down”, said the doctor. They sat in the chairs opposite to him.

“Sir, what happened to him?” asked Meena.

“He had a heart attack. Did he have one before?”

“No, is he alright?”

“We tried our best, but it was already late…”

She didn’t want to believe what he said. Tears, which she held back for so long, poured down. Things seemed to blur and she didn’t hear anything further.

She called her relatives at Karaikal and informed. She said them that she and few of her relatives at Pondicherry would bring his body there in the next few hours.

It was already 7 PM and it was darker than usual. The wind was chill, she got into the mortuary van. Suresh and Rajan, her relatives, sat beside the driver. She was weak and tired and above that she was not able to see her husbands corpse in front of her. Memories haunted her and tears rolled down her cheeks.

She came out of her thoughts when the van jerked and stopped, “What happened?” she asked in a feeble voice.

The driver, Suresh and Rajan got down from the van to check. She heard them talk for few minutes. Suresh came to her and said, “Meena, seems to be an engine problem, we need to get to the nearest town to repair it. Rajan and the driver would take the van to the nearest town, meanwhile we have to wait here.”

She nodded her head feebly. She got down of the van, it was dark outside and it drizzled. She looked at her watch, it was 9.30 PM. She sat under a palm tree along the road side. Suresh and the driver took the stretcher out and placed it in front of Meena. They all waited there for a while until they noticed a truck. The driver stopped the truck and spoke to the driver inside. The van was towed to the truck. Rajan and the driver left them back.

Meena was totally numb, she didn’t expect this when she woke up in the morning. She felt heavy, she still could not believe that she lost her husband. To add to her misery, she was stranded at middle of nowhere with her husbands corpse at night. An hour passed, and there was no sign of the van.

“I think I should go and see what happened to them”, said Suresh.

She turned her head towards him, before she could respond he said, “I will stop the next bus that gets this way and go to the nearest town and see what happened to them.”

“But, do you know where they went?”, she asked.

“They must be at the next town, If I don’t find them there I will get a bus to Karaikal from there and inform others about the situation here.”

“Its already dark here Suresh, we don’t even know where we are. And its drizzling too…”, she replied him in a pleading tone.

“Don’t worry they will return soon, I am going to get them back.”

She was totally lost. Suresh successfully stopped the third bus that passed that way. He got inside and waved towards her.

She wept bitterly, she didn’t think that she would be in such a situation even in her wildest dream. She was scarred and she sat there with hope. She hoped it was either Suresh or Rajan getting back with help whenever a vehicle approached. An hour passed, and still no sign of them. She sat there numb holding the hand of her husband’s corpse.