The Night Owl

 

In the Raatwadi area of Konkan where you wouldn’t spot a soul in the range of miles, in such a deserted region there stood a crooked hut-like structure also known as Rajan uncle’s house. 

As soon as Arun knocked at the door, Rajan uncle hastily let us in and guided us to the only room in his house. A girl of about 17 slept with tattered, dirty clothes and her face was stained with tears. She looked miserable and I immediately knew that no matter how tough this case was to solve, I’ll give my best to cure her. I asked Arun for my bag with the necessary equipment, pulled a stethoscope out and moved towards the girl just when a strange rotten pungent smell took me aback. I let Arun take over and made my way out of the room before I would throw up. Rajan uncle followed me with a glass of water. I gulped it in one go and sat on a half broken bench outside the house suddenly feeling weak. 

 

"Doctor, you are our last hope. Please cure my daughter somehow..." Rajan uncle's eyes were filled with tears. 

 

"When will she be up?" I ask. 

 

"At 3:00 am, around 15 mins from now."

 

"Okay...Is it that way daily or just today?"

 "Has been happening for two days, from what I have noticed."

 

Hmm...critical. Does Rajan uncle realize that this might as well be a case of addiction to inappropriate pills? 

 

I cover my nose and enter the girl's room where Arun is sitting like a statue. Arun gets himself in motion and comes towards me urgently to say something but is interrupted by Rajan uncle. 

 

"1 min to go...she shall be up anytime" 

 

And sure enough, she did wake up. Her eyes wavered between me and Arun uncertainly. I asked Rajan uncle if I could talk with her alone. Rajan uncle immediately left and locked the door behind him. Arun poked my arm after every other second. Annoyed, I asked him to leave the room too. 

 

I asked the girl few supposedly relevant questions hoping to gather useful information. And I sure did...except, I couldn't spot anything evidently abnormal about her. Her eyes were fixed, not wavering, her voice was steady and when I asked her to walk with her eyes closed, she could easily do that with perfect balance. All of that made me doubt her consuming pills. However, it didn't necessarily mean that she wasn't involved with substance. I made a mental note to look into her blood report when I got back to the clinic. 

After about half an hour, I got up to leave and found Arun sitting on the bench outside, tapping his feet restlessly to the ground. As soon as he saw me, he anxiously asked me if I was fine. 

"Yeah...A bit worried about that girl though. Her state of mind seems alright and as a matter of fact, she was totally in her senses. What bothers me is her unnecessarily long sleep-"

 

"Stop right there. I've been wanting to tell you, it's not her 'sleep' that shall bother you but the fact that she wakes up that should."

 

"I'm sorry, what?"

 

"Her heart wasn't beating, I checked."