章 16: Chapter: 16, Blackout.

Neha's Point of View:

I woke up in the morning when the sunlight came through the gap from the curtain and fell on my face. The aftertaste of sleep began to subside and consciousness began to return. I woke up when I was done with sleeping completely. When I was about to get up from the bed, I felt a sharp pain in my back. Not only I had back pain but also a severe headache. I couldn't move my neck due to that headache. I looked at the clock on the bedside table. Shit !! Damn, it was already 10 o'clock in the morning! Today I have missed the damn three, those important three classes in a row. Shit, why am I such a sleepyhead?? The first class was scheduled to start at 8 am. Despite having severe headaches and back pain, I struggled to get out of bed. But somehow I managed myself to drag into the bathroom then I took a shower. I was ready to go to university. I had a serious headache but I still had to go to university. Because firstly today is the last date to submit our assignment and secondly this will be the first class we will do together after we became official. Only last night I just saw Esha and we kissed, but why does it feel that I only saw her for the last time? Ah, why am I missing her so much? If I don't see her, my day will probably be ruined. I realized that the pain of my migraines rose. I have been suffering from migraines since I was a child so I take some medicine prescribed by a doctor. I opened the bedside drawer for medicine. All of my medicines were there except aspirin. I hurriedly packed my bag, got out of the house, drove myself to the university. I had so many headaches that I couldn't even drive properly. Well, the university was quite far from my home. The distance wouldn't be that much but it was after all Dhaka city and the traffic here is so long that most of the day is wasted while stuck on the road. There was a severe traffic jam on the road then and I was having migraine pain at the same time. I couldn't bear the pain anymore. I saw a pharmacy on the other side of the road and parked my car on the side of the road. That time I started looking for my phone in my bag so that I could call Esha and ask her to reserve a seat in the next class for me. But I searched everywhere in my bag but couldn't find the phone. Then I searched in the whole car. That means I left the phone at home. Shit! Dammit! What the fu*k I did! How can I be so careless! I hardly hold my anger and I got out of the car with annoyance and walked to the opposite side of the road and entered the pharmacy located on that side.

The shopkeeper asked me, "What do you need, madam?"

I said, "Do you have aspirins?"

The shopkeeper said, "Yes, there is madam. So how much mg do you need?"

I said, "What's the highest dose? Isn't it 500mg?"

The shopkeeper remained silent for a moment and then said, "Aspirin is a little terrible. 500 mg is the highest high dose. If it is a little more than that, anything terrible can happen, madam. Including death!"

I said, "I know, brother. I have a severe migraine. The doctor told me to take aspirin. He prescribed me 500 mg. But I couldn't get the prescription in a hurry. I even forgot to bring my mobile phone. Fortunately, I brought my wallet."

The shopkeeper said, "But madam, there is a government ban on selling aspirin without a medical prescription. But your condition seems very bad. So I'm selling it to you."

Then I bought aspirin and a bottle of water from the shopkeeper and came out of the shop. On the way out of the shop, I saw Sara standing there in front of the entrance.

Sara looked at me and said with a light smile, "How are you, Neha?"

There was no limit to my annoyance at seeing her. I replied, "Look, I don't have time to talk to you here on the street. I'm not feeling well. I'm getting late. I have to go to class."

Sara was surprised and said, "Oh my God! Why are you feeling not well? Did you spend a sleepless night with Esha lat night or did you feel bad all these times?"

Listening to Sarah's words, it seemed as if my whole body was on fire. I somehow calmed myself down and said, "Look, I don't have time to listen to all this nonsense of yours. I'm going, bye."

With that, I started walking forward. Suddenly Sara pulled my bag from behind and said, "Please stop. I have an urgent matter to talk with you."

I turned around and said angrily, "Ughh, what's the damn matter?"

"I know you have a severe headache. This headache will not go away easily. I am a chemist so I can say for sure now if you suddenly take this 500 mg of aspirin it will give you instant peace but later on it can do a lot of damage to your body. such as kidney damaging. The doctor who suggested you take 500 mg of aspirin, shouldn't have suggested it. He should have known aspirin is banned in many countries around the world."

I said in an annoyed voice, "Stop lecturing me." Then I looked straight into her eyes and said, "I've never told you about my headaches or what medications I'm taking. How do you know all this?"

Sara looked me straight in the eye and gave me an unreal smile. Her smile felt inauspicious as if a shiver of fear went down my spine. I swallowed a gulp. I then immediately took my eyes off of her and somehow managed to tell, "I'm leaving. I'm getting late."

Then I got in the car and took out the medicine and water bottle from the medicine bag. The color of the medicine packet looked strange. The color of the medicine that I bought from the store and the color of it seemed different. However, it is true that the name was written correctly on its packet "Aspirin". Maybe Sara's annoying arrival while I was having a severe headache is confusing everything inside my head. I took medicine and started driving without any delay.

After a while, I suddenly started to feel very unrest. My left side of the chest was in severe pain. I couldn't drive. I couldn't even pay any attention or focus on the driving. My body started sweating profusely. I was feeling my neck getting tight. It was as if someone had pulled me from behind, so I couldn't move my neck. I still managed to drive all the way to the university campus, parked the car in front of the gate, and walked inside. I saw everything was incredibly blurred in front of my eyes. My head was spinning. At the same time, I was having chest pain and difficulty breathing. I still managed somehow to drag myself to the university cafeteria with great labor and difficulty. It felt to me that every time I was moving forward, every step I took to go forward, it was a battle between death and life. I couldn't do it anymore. Death seemed imminent in front of me. I saw vaguely at a distance the lady I love. I also didn't understand whether seeing Esha was a dream or a reality! But whatever it was, seeing her seemed to give me an impossible peace deep down on my mind. Maybe in dreamland, I looked at Esha and hugged her with a sweet smile. The love which was formed of that non-existent dream also embraced me with its arms outstretched and at the same time, I fell into a deep sleep in its embracing warm lap.