TURNING AROUND

Can you move a little? She turned around and looked at the speaker. A young mother, with a tonsured two year old. She moved nearer to the wall, allowing the mother and child squeeze in next to her. They both had an hour to kill before the doctors came to the OPD. She looked furtively at the child’s head. Black lines on the right side of the tonsured head stood out ominously. The child had bandages on his wrists and elbow.
She was wallowing in her own misery….She would not be able to bear the trauma. She had made up her mind. She was not going to fight back. She just wanted to give up the fight… She had decided to tell the doctors that she would not go for Chemo. She looked at the child again. Gently, she touched his wrist. Does it hurt? She asked. The child nodded. Then he said, When I grow up I will also become a doctor and give everyone injection. To punish them? She asked. No, he said, to make their ‘oowa’ go away. She looked at the child’s confident face with awe.
Her turn with the doctor… So shall we start your treatment today? Dr. Harsh asked. She could not say what she had come prepared with. The child’s optimism had rubbed off on her. I can’t give up now, she thought in panic….and, then calmed herself down….I won’t give up!….. Fine, doctor, she said. I am ready for my Chemo.
OOWA- childspeak for hurt, pain