Suspense Short Story – A pair of blue eyes
Photo credit: gbh from morguefile.com
“It’s a girl! Congratulations Mr. Mishra!”
He turned and half sprinted down the corridor, then suddenly stopped, letting out a soft voice of astonishment as he took heavily contemplative steps towards Dr. Wankia who was holding his tiny breathing gift. After a slight hesitation, Ashutosh slid his fingers around his baby girl, lifted her off and cradled her in his arms. Moments passed, as he left himself dissolve in those dazzling blue eyes. He could feel a rush of adrenaline streaming through his body. Handing over his first baby girl back to his wife’s arm, he let out that immense cry of excitement. Ashutosh spent the rest of the day calling friends, families and celebrating it like a mad man. Little could he imagine how the life would turn around his happiness.
“She looks so… beautiful. Man, look at those plum cheeks, those tiny sparkling eyes. She is my Goddess!”
“Really Aashu, she is a gem! But I must say, she got the beauties of her mother. What do you say Anillee?” asked Dr. Wankia, enjoying an after party drink at Mishra’s house the next night.
Anillee took that complement with a smile and busied herself with the clean up.
“Sure, but I hope she gets something of mine too,” Ashutosh added with a hint of disappointment.
“Of course my friend, she’ll have your big brains.”
“Come on, I want her to be intelligent too!” Anillee added her own sarcasm as all three joined in a hysterical laughter.
Anillee and Ashutosh was a young happy couple. They barely knew each other before marriage and the learning process was still underway when their first child was born within a year’s time. They decided to name her Pranjal. She was undoubtedly the most envied baby in their neighborhood. Ashutosh grew very possessive about his daughter because of people’s incessant compliments about her daughter. Occasionally, one or two odd friends would comment something about his daughter’s bright turquoise eyes which would slowly brew his skeptics. The fact, that neither Ashutosh nor Anillee has anyone in their known family tree born with such unique pair of eyes, had always intrigued him. More than anything else, it would definitely pinch the esteem of any man with an enviable wife and a beautiful daughter. He often tried to bring up his speculations during casual talks with his wife, which she would either fail to understand or simply chose to ignore.
It was Pranjal’s third birthday. The grandeur of the party elevated with each anniversary. Dr. Parmeet Wankia, being a close friend of Anillee and their family physician, found a new partner for his forbidden habit in Ashutosh; thus was always the last one to leave.
“Ah, our tiny angel’s sleepy. Aren’t you adorable? She’s a priced possession, my friend.” Dr. Wankia was baby-talking with Pranjal which somewhat irked both, since the doctor was already over his alcohol limits and deteriorating fast.
“Hey Anillee, I got an interesting thing for you to see.” Anillee was carrying half sleepy Pranjal who was wearing a pixie dress and clown hat for the party, when she turned to see what the doctor was holding. She took Pranjal to the bedroom and removed her hat, but let her sleep in that dress and quickly returned to the hall where Dr. Wankia was showing Ashutosh an old photograph he brought.
“What is it? Ah wait, wow! It’s my birthday photo!” She quickly said and joined the group.
“My mother took it at your old bungalow, remember, when we went to your birthday, your fifth or… sixth one.”
“Fifth birthday!” She said excitedly counting the candles on the cake.
“Did you notice something? You looked amazingly identical to Pranjal back then. Right?” Dr. Wankia said with child-like enthusiasm.
“Wow, that’s true.” Ashutosh quietly agreed. “You know, what’s missing? Her blue eyes.”
“Ahem, a box full of mysteries! I dare you open.” Dr. Wankia added the cliché.
“I hope we could figure it out someday.” He said in tone of paranoia. An uncomfortable silence loomed over for a while.
“ Okay now, you both had enough for the day. Time to say ‘good night’.” Anillee sensed the tension and quickly tried to change the topic.
“Hey wait. You are a doctor, right. You know about genes and stuff. Tell me, what are the odds?”
“Enough Ashu!” Anillee lost it and yelled. “Come on Parmeet, get going. Both of you are far too drunk.”
But this didn’t end here. Next morning Ashutosh woke up with the same thought lingering in his head. He waited for Anillee to go for shower and then started ruffling through her wardrobe to find the photograph Parmeet brought the previous night. He looked at her wife’s childhood picture. ‘Such a stark similarity!’ Then something else caught his eyes. A small boy was standing beside Anillee, smiling, as she cut the cake. The bluish tinge of his eyes faintly visible in that old photograph intrigued him beyond his own skepticism. His brain was drawing parallels and heart was cooking conspiracies.
“What are you doing honey?” Anillee asked coming out of the shower as she found her husband brooding in their bedroom.
“Nothing just…” He fumbled for words, as if caught in the act of crime. “Interesting photo, isn’t it?”
“Yes, so?” She seemed confused.
“Hey, do you know this kid? Here,” pointing at that photo.
“Ashu, what is this about?” She was now getting uneasy and upset.
“What? I am just asking.”
“No, I know where you are heading. Please don’t annoy me.”
Things grew bitter with time. Ashutosh would question her on everything to the point of annoyance. Small disagreements became more frequent and which would eventually swell up into arguments and quarrel which end either with things hurled around or Pranjal’s screams. Ashutosh was losing his control over his temper and Anillee over her patience, until it went beyond the point of retrieval.
“For God’s sake! Where is thing coming from, Ashu?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me? May we could open ourselves and clear some things from the past and get over with it.”
Anillee pushed the chair backwards in anger and stormed out of the dining room. It all started with a minor disagreement over the breakfast. Fortunately Pranjal was away at her daycare that day.
“Anillee! Why can’t we just talk about it like adults?”
“We always begin quietly honey until you start bringing up your doubts and questions out of nowhere. Why are you being so paranoid? Why are you making it so hard for me?”
“You think it’s easy for me. Do you know what it feels like to hear all those stupid things people say about Pranjal and you.”
“You listen to them, because you can’t answer them, Ashu? You can’t even stand up to your own wife and child because you don’t trust us.”
“I try to but you never help.” He said coldly. Anillee thought her head is going to explode.
“Fine. Then trust others and live alone with your skepticism. I can’t stay with you anymore. And if you can’t bear Pranjal, then I’ll take her too.”
“NO! Pranjal stays with me. And go the hell, where you want to and with whom so ever…” Ashutosh left the home, banging the door shut, leaving a hysterical Anillee behind.
“I can’t believe it, Ashutosh! How can you be so foolish?” Dr. Wankia said half way through removing his scrubs. He had just completed his regular clinic duty at a private clinic when the receptionist told him that his upset friend is waiting for him at the office. Ashutosh headed straight for a bar after the disastrous breakfast, cooled himself with a couple of drinks and cried over it for couple of hours at a nearby park. After sobering himself, he picked up Pranjal and went to Dr. Wankia’s clinic. The little girl always found something interesting at the clinic to keep herself busy as Ashutosh waited for the doctor for some serious unchargable marriage counseling.
“I know, Parmeet, but I got so angry. I am really sorry for that.”
“It is one thing to be short tempered, but to doubt your wife is a serious offence my friend. You simply walked out of the circle of trust.”
“I didn’t want it to get this ugly, but it is this thing,” Ashutosh paused and decided to skip the details. “I think I went too far with this.”
“These things happen, buddy. Don’t worry, I got some work to finish here,” Dr. Wankia said moving towards the wash basin to clean himself up, “then we got some repair work to do at your home.” He wiped his face, went to Ashutosh and patted his shoulder, “It’s going to be okay, Ashu. I know her since childhood; she got a heart of a baby. She’ll forgive you.”
“Hey, what happened to your eye?” Ashutosh noticed the odd dissimilarity of his eye colour.
“Oh damn, my lenses!” the doctor hesitantly searched for one missing contact lens.
“You… wear lenses?”
“Ah, of course. I have heterochromia after a freak accident at the clinic. It would look weird to have 2 mismatched eyes, right, so I started wearing these. It’s a long story. Anyways, I am leaving now, see you at your home tonight.” Ashutosh had fixed his stare on Dr. Wankia, who managed to find the lost lens, picked up his suit and car keys and hurried out of the room. The bluish tinge of his one eye was storming Ashu’s mind as if the jigsaw pieces are coming together at last.
“Daddy, can we go home now?” Little Pranjal came hopping into the room.
“Of course dear, just one last work to finish,” he said running his hand over that old photograph of Anillee’s 5th birthday.
Ashutosh jammed his leg hard on the accelerator and the car growled and screeched through the road.
“Daddy, please drive slowly. I don’t like it this fast.” Pranjal squeaked from the backseat, buckling herself tightly.
“Hang on sweetie; it’s going to be alright.” His heart was racing. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he was clear about what must be done. The chase will be over soon. The answers lay in front of him- inside that the red Indigo car ahead with a red cross and a caduceus sticker pasted on the rear windshield. Ashutosh could feel growing rage over powering his conscious as he pressed harder on the accelerator towards the tail of the Indigo. The truck ahead of that car suddenly slowed down and it veered sharply to its left to avoid the truck’s rear.
“Dad NO!” Ashutosh wheeled hard over, reacting just in time to avoid the truck but lost control over the vehicle which turned turtle off the road before hitting a roadside tree. The car smashed into the tree with a violent thud and shards of glass flew through the air. Breaking through the loosely hanging front door, Ashutosh crawled out of it and staggered a few feet when a horrifying realization struck his conscious. He turned around to see the leaking fuel tank in flames and her daughter screaming at the back seat of his car. He barely managed a few staggering steps towards her and watched her helplessly burying her face in those little hands as a monstrous flame erupted from the fuel tank followed by a blinding explosion.
“Mr. Mishra, can you hear me?”
“Wait, wait… nurse. Hold on…”
“Ashu.”
He felt someone murmuring close to his ear which was the first sound he sensed in a very long time.
“Don’t panic. Now, slowly open your eyes.” Dr. Wankia’s voice was soft and distinct.
He struggled to move anything at all. Every part felt rigid and immobile. Then concentrating harder, he gently opened his eyes and blinked twice before he could finally see the images unfolding before him.
“How are you feeling now?”
“What… what happened?”
“Just relax. Everything’s fine.”
“Oh God!” Bits and pieces of memories started filling him up as he saw Anillee standing at the bedpost with laden eyes, one hand covering her mouth, trying to hold back her emotions.
“Where is Pranjal, Anillee? Where is she?”
“It was a horrible accident, Ashu. You barely survived.”
“NO. No, no, no…” Pain was shooting through his body. Anillee broke down in front of him, holding his hands.
“I told you Ashu. She was your priced possession. Come.” Dr. Wankia held him by his shoulder and assisted him to sit right up.
“No, Parmeet please. What happened to my daughter? She was with me.”
“Your car exploded after the accident and the heat and dust damaged your cornea severely beside other serious injuries. You were practically blinded, but you survived. She couldn’t. Anillee gave her consent for the transplant. She’s now a part of you Ashu, as she was always, in spite of your doubts.
Ashutosh looked up facing a scarred reflection of his own on a distant mirror. A distorted horrid face stared back at him through a pair of eyes with a faint speck of blue.
__END__
