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| Before: Paragliding a few days before the d-day. Now: Grounded, literally :| |
8 Dec, Delhi: It was a cold morning (like all mornings usually are, these days). As the alarm went off at 7, I snuggled deeper and pulled the quilt over her head whereas the husband, B, jumped up and was out of the bed and in his football gear before you could say “Jack Robinson”. The fact that the morning scene had played out very differently than it usually does, what with the roles reversed, should have been premonition enough for me.
But it was a Saturday, and I knew B was up and about because there was football practice that morning. The loving, sleepyhead in me wanted to ask him to come back to bed and snore together, but because we’d had a nasty little fight the previous night, the vindictive female dog in me grunted and turned my back, when he sang out a goodbye.
Half an hour later, I was up and helping mom with her pre-Christmas house cleaning, when the phone rang. Seeing it was B calling, I picked up and barked out a hello (I never let go of a fight easily, you see), only to hear him ask if I was able to put her foot down when I had torn my knee ligament last year. Fearing the worst, I asked him what exactly had happened.
“Nothing, really. I think I’ve twisted my ankle”, he said lightly, playing it down.
“Well, what are doing there?! Get your a** down here. Right NOW”, I barked into the phone. Lovingly.
B was ferried home in no time by N-A-J, a kind soul with a deep rumbling bass voice & a heart of gold. (This is biased reporting, of course)
B's ankle had swollen already and he was in no condition to put his left foot down. He was taken to a nursing home immediately. An x-ray was taken.
I learnt the name of a bone in the human body that day. The x-ray showed that the“lateral condyle” bone - the roundish thing that protrudes from either side of the foot – of his left ankle has broken off completely. It could only be fixed with a surgery that would involve wires & screws.
But what had actually transpired? B, an aspiring football player, was doing what he does best - running. After the ball, of course. The ground was slightly damp. His studs got stuck in the mud, and so did his feet. But the rest of his body kept moving ahead, at the speed of light. Witnesses present at the scene of accident, testified later that they did hear a resounding crack. Little did they know that what they’d heard was the sound of a human condyle bone breaking.
So now, B lies, with his foot in a cast, propped up by three pillows, being pampered by his family & friends, waiting for the swelling to go down, so that it can be operated and fixed as soon as possible.
