A Short Story - My Father, Who Was Not There!

 My father, who was not there

(A short Story)

Dr. S. Padmapriya

My father, S. Shiva was my best friend. He was somebody on whom I had relied upon, in

every situation. He was the one, who gave me great advice so that I could succeed in almost

every aspect of my life. He helped me to choose the companies that I worked with. He was

the first one, who had accepted my first relationship. He was the apple of my eye. My mother

had died many years, ago and he was the only one, I had. He loved me a lot. Every day, for

the past many years, he had the habit of waiting for me to return from work, at the gates of

our house. But today, my father was not there, waiting for me. I was flummoxed because he

had never missed this routine of waiting for me at the gates of our house for the past many

years. I knew that something was amiss!

My search began. First, I visited the house of Raja uncle, our neighbour. I asked if my

father was in his home. He replied in the negative. I received the same answer in over a dozen

places of our acquaintance. The sun was beginning to set. I was beginning to feel worried. I,

then remembered, how my father’s behaviour had turned a bit quaint over the past few

months. I remembered now that lately, he had become more forgetful. I remembered that he

had begun restricting, meeting people. He seemed to have lost his desire to meet his old

friends. Many times, he had put salt into our cups of coffee and tea, instead of sugar. These

were small and subtle changes but they had been continuous ones. I had not noticed these

warning signs. The reason for my callousness was that in spite of the several spells of

forgetting and confusion, he had never missed his routine of waiting for me at the gates of our

house. And that one sign had misled me.

   It was, at that moment that I decided to register a case with the local police to locate my

father. We finally, found him. He was wandering, a few kilometres away from our house. I

realised, the gravity of the situation. I took my father to a good doctor. The neurologist said

that he was suffering from dementia.

    At least, now, we know what his ailment is. We, the caregiver and doctor will

together, take good care of my father and we will always keep him happy.