BECAUSE OF HIM

It was already 7:40 p.m on the clock hanging above the door. I was fiddling with the sheets covering my legs when the nurse came in my my dinner. It was a simple porridge and some soup. Throughout the day, the nurse visited me frequently. A part of the reason was to check whether I was having another breakdown like this morning when I woke up. It's even surprising to me. Even though all these years Dad accompanied me whenever I fell sick, I still wouldn't go to see a doctor.

Thankfully, I haven't been seriously ill anytime. Either I would catch a cold or have an upset stomach. Nothing to worry too much about. But this time was different. I would have normally panicked and run back home by now. But I didn't. Was it because of him that my nerves are calm?Must be.

I was lost in my thoughts, when the door opened and he walked in. He came straight towards me and stopped right in front of the bed.

"I'm sorry Jane, I couldn't come to you sooner. I was busy in a surgery. Did you wait for me for a long time?", he said while looking at me with those beautiful pair of eyes. It's true that I was waiting for him so that I could see him once again and also to ask him where he's been all this time.

"Jane?" I snapped out of my thoughts and realise that I've been staring at him all this time. "Do you have something to say to me?"

"Yes!" I blurted out and further continued, "Where were you all these years?" I waited everyday for seven years hoping that he would return after giving up hope. 'Does he know how hard each day had been for me without him? I had no one to talk to, to share my laughter with. Yet I had to move on with my life. I had a father to take care of. After all at the end of the he was the only person there for me.'

"Do you know how I've been?" I asked. He stared at me not knowing how to reply.

Finally, he speaks, breaking the silence. "I know that I've let you down, Jane. If it wasn't for my family's pressure for me to complete my higher studies overseas, I would have never left you."