The Phone Call

He felt a sharp jab on his left arm. He remained motionless, looking vacantly in front of him, neither showing pain nor any reaction. Next to him, his daughter stood by, explaining to the doctor about his condition.

Presently she informed the doctor about his diabetic problem, high blood pressure and the latest stroke that left him unconscious for a whole night. He ignored the anger in her voice as she complained about his stubbornness to seek medical help as well as his resolute demand of independence.

“He’s already 93 years old, he is slurring in his speech and had it not for me today, heaven knows he might be lying dead somewhere as we speak. I even have to force him to come here today.”

The doctor didn’t reply. Instead, he continued on checking his pulse. “Open your mouth please”. He looked straight at him and remained motionless. His daughter interjected, “You have to speak louder. He has turned deaf but refuses to wear any hearing aid.” The doctor repeated his request in a louder voice. He opened his mouth mechanically.

“We will have to admit him. He requires further tests and he’s too weak to leave the hospital at this stage. You can complete the admission process after this.”

“I knew it! I knew it! Thank you doctor. God knows how close he is to death itself. I am so frustrated at him. We should have come sooner.”

She turned to him and spoke loudly, “The doctor said that we need to admit you to the hospital. You are too weak and need tests done.”

“No, I am fine. Take me home.”

He tried to get up from the bed but felt his head spinning. He last remembered the touch of the cold concrete floor on his feet and blanked out.

He awoke with a terrible headache to the incessant chatters next to his bed. His younger daughter immediately rushed to him and held his hand, “Father?” He felt confused. He tried to speak but no words came out from his mouth. He eyed his surrounding wildly. “You’re at the hospital,” His younger daughter explained, “You passed out when you tried to stand up.”

He looked around once more. Two of his daughters were standing on both sides of his bed. At his feet and directly looking at him was his younger son-in-law. Behind his younger daughter stood his grand-daughter-in-law with his 3 years old great granddaughter and some face he just could not recollect at the moment. On his left, next to his older daughter stood his other 3 grandsons, all anxiously looking at him. And above his head, 2 of his older brother’s sons stood rather awkwardly. There was no sign of his wife or any of her relatives.

He realized his clothes had been changed to hospital’s light blue gown and a light yellow liquid was slowly passing inside his right arm with the help of a needle, stabilized on his skin with the help of a white bandage.

He felt dryness in his throat and motioned for water.  “Is he allowed to drink?” His son-in-law asked the nurse looking at his chart. “Yes. But he shouldn’t drink much at one go.” His older daughter gave him a glass of water. He tried to take the glass and found himself unable to hold it. His left hand was unstable, shaking a little too much as he feebly tried to hold the weight. “Here, drink it.” He felt the cold water on his lips. He drank a little and leaned back on his pillow. His family were now discussing something. He didn’t bother trying to listen. He was too tired and his eyes were heavy.

He was woken up later by his older daughter. He needed to get some tests done, he was told. And, he had wetted the bed and his clothes and bed sheets needed to be changed. He fumbled an embarrassed excuse under his breath. Lately, he had been finding it difficult, almost impossible to hold his bladder and bowel. He had suffered embarrassing situations in the past, but none of his children had witnessed such incidents.

He stayed 20 kilometers away from the nearest house of his children and kept minimum contact with them since the last 10 years. “Rita..” He looked at his older daughter, “Get me Rita.”

The anger and animosity in her older daughter’s voice was undeniable. “We called her on the phone. She refused to come and take care of you.” She said something more but he didn’t hear her any longer. “Call her again. Tell her that I had asked for her.”

He felt her pressing his arm hard. “No! I will not call that nurse whore who stole you from my dying mother’s side again! I curse her! I wish that God punish that heartless, calculating whore!” She started changing his clothes angrily, shoving him deliberately without actually hurting him.

It had been over a decade but his children still refused to accept his second wife. It did not help that she was only 2 years older than his oldest child and was already divorced with 5 children when he fell in love with her. And mentioning her name amongst them meant bringing up fights. He kept quiet.

He felt miserable each passing hour in the afternoon. There were too many tests taken and it started to worry him. By evening, his wife called on his phone. “Aaooh..” He still couldn’t make a proper sound.

“Your daughter called and abused me, accusing me of deliberately making you sick. She said that I deliberately wanted to kill you so I inherit your property! Tell her I don’t want any of your stupid properties. I have taken care of you more than any of them. Tell them that!!”

“Yes. When are you coming?”

“I am not coming ever to that lion’s cave, when you are surrounded by those pack of hyenas! If you want me, get yourself released from the hospital and come home. You’re not even sick, yet they put you there.” He noticed his daughter watching him and changed the subject.

“How are things?”

“Not good. The girls’ tuition fees need to be paid. And this morning, Mr. Zira came again and asked for instalment money for the TV we bought last month. That’s about Rs.10,000 in total to be paid. He kept coming and is now giving me a headache. You’re supposed to just go for a quick check-up. You should’ve inform me first. Now, I have to deal with all these mess. What should I do now?”

“Ask for a few days’ time. I will come home soon.”

“I already did. And what’s wrong with your voice? I can’t understand you!”

His older daughter interrupted, “Is she asking you for money even in this situation?! Give me the phone!”

She tried taking the phone from him. He cut the phone and switched it off and watched her as she sat down, her face turning red with anger. She started texting someone angrily on the phone. “God gives me patience to deal with you!”

It had been 3 nights he had been in the hospital. He noticed that it was only his older daughter that stayed over at the hospital with him. She had been taking leaves from work and the toll of looking after a stubborn, old father who had walked out on them began to take its toll on her. She had started to become increasingly impatient and cranky. His younger daughter visited briefly once a day, bringing him lukewarm soup. She had refused to stay over saying she had much work at home.

“Besides, I am way too fragile in health. I’m afraid I might catch some illness if I stay at this dirty hospital.”

He noticed the two daughters increasingly bickering over his property. More than once, he heard them quarreled with words like ‘inheritance’, ‘property’, ‘will’. His only son had not come to see him once.

“Father, you need to pay the hospital bill. How do I withdraw your money?” His younger daughter asked him presently. He looked at both his daughters, an engineer and a police officer respectively.

“How much will it cost?”

“About Rs.20,000 so far. Maybe more, maybe less. Do you have that much?”

The daughters looked at him expectantly. He had retired with a good amount of money and received his pension salary from the government every month. On top of that, he had few apartments in the city from where he received the rents on a monthly basis. He struggled to remember how much money he had at the bank. It was middle of the month and he was yet to get his pension salary. His wife’s expenses were not cheap and he had been giving in to her for fear of divorce. He had yet to pay his second wife’s children tuition fees, daily allowances and monthly instalments. He stopped buying medical insurances atleast 5 years ago. He found himself struggling to respond immediately.

“No.”

Later his older daughter told him, “I won’t have the money to pay for your hospital bills on my own. You know about how many mouths I have to feed. You should ask my sister to pay – it’s the least she could do; she is married to a wealthy man and have no dependents.”

By evening, his grand daughter-in-law came to give him food, “Lucky you stay here at the hospital. At home, everyone is fighting about how to pay for your hospital bills. And, mother didn’t like that you had written a will giving everything to her younger sister despite the fact that she has never taken care of you.”

He found himself listening half-heartedly as he struggled to hold his urine. He watched her continue speaking and felt a sense of embarrassment coming over him as felt him passing his urine, unable to control any longer.

“What is that smell?”

“Nothing. Can you open the window, I feel suffocated inside.”

The young girl did as told and went out to wash the dirty dishes. He moved uncomfortably as his wet trousers stuck to the wet bed sheet. He quickly lifted his blanket so the smell evaporated before the young girl came back.

His older daughter came a few minutes later, bringing him fresh change of clothes. She looked particularly annoyed and angry. “What is that smell? Did you soil yourself again?” He pretended not to hear her. She moved his frail hands as she went to lift the blanket just when the young girl came back into the room. “Oh, just as I thought! Here, hold the blanket Mimi..” she motioned the girl to come and went on to start taking off his pair of trousers. He felt his face hot and he protested feebly, “Nonsense. Staying with all this terrible smell is more shameful than exposing your frail naked body for a few minutes. Now, lift your buttocks.”

He quietly did as told and looked vacantly at the old, white plastered wall across the room. The young girl giggled nervously as she lifted to blanket to cover him insufficiently as he was changed. He ignored her.

“Now, take this dirty clothes in a plastic bag over there and wash at home. Tell your husband to bring me another pair of underwear for your grandfather.”

He ignored the other patients and attendants watching him as he stood naked waist down by the bed. His older daughter changed the bed sheet presently and muttered under her breath.

When he was back on the bed, she sat next to him, “I talked to my sister about your hospital bill. She refused to pay anything! Not even a cent! And, you have written a will in my absence leaving everything to her!”

He could feel the anger and hatred in her voice.

“And now, your leech wife has sucked you all dried up, leaving you unable to even pay for your own hospital bills. Your only son hasn’t called once to check-up on you, your wife and other daughter washed their hands off you. And as usual, it’s all on me. I don’t have that much money to pay everything on my own. I don’t even know what to do now!!”

He knew she spoke the truth. “Then let me get out now.”

She struggled to keep her voice, visibly shaking as she replied, “We can’t just leave like that! We don’t have the money to even check out!!”

Quietly, he turned his heads outside the window. The sky was particularly clear, having rained a few hours ago. The setting sun had turned orange like a lit Chinese lantern, peeking from behind the cotton clouds in orange, yellow and purple hues. Beneath it were the dark green mountains and valleys that waited patiently with its dark yellowed rice-terraced patches and silver snake-shaped rivers. He took a deep breath as his eyes met with the first, lone silvery star.

He awoke several times during the night from nightmares he could no longer remembered when daylight came. His younger daughter offered him a banana and cup of tea for breakfast but he declined. Instead, he asked her to open the hospital window and stared outside. He noticed his younger daughter coming inside the room, but he ignored her.

“Father, its Rose.”

He turned to find his older daughter handing him the mobile phone. 

“Allo”

“Hello Grandpa! How are you?!”

Her voice was far and she was shouting on the phone. He could hear vehicle horns and noises at the background.

“Not good.”

“Yes, Mama told me. I’m sorry! I just came back from my field expedition. There was no phone coverage. Are they treating you well? Are you comfortable? Can you eat?”

He felt the sincere concern and care in her voice.

“Yes…”

“Okay. I am at the train station. I’m trying to book the ticket so I can come right now okay?”

 “Umm.”

“Mama told me you wanted to leave the hospital. Are you worried about the hospital bill? Don’t, okay? I will take care of everything, you just focus on your health and getting better okay? I’m here okay? Don’t leave the hospital okay?”

“Come..”

He felt his throat dry as his lips began to quiver, before finally exploding into tears as he listened to her voice. His daughters stared at each other confusingly as they watched their father cry publicly for the first time in their lives.