“Ba-aba?
See tha-t-t leaf there? Isn’t it ju-s-st beautiful?” She asked, first looking at that leaf then at her baba
‘It’s just a leaf, Arya! I don’t understand why are you so attached only to that one leaf out of that entire plant hanging on the wall” He told
He tried to look into her eyes but like always she seemed to stare somewhere faraway, like she was spaced out but yet right there.
“It’s getting cold Arya. Forecast says there might be a storm. Come on in and shut the windows on your way”
It still seemed as though she wasn’t here. Hey eyes seem to be locked up on that one leaf but her eyes held no recognition, she dint respond even when Baba shouted out for her. Frustrated, Baba comes up till her and lifts her up.
“ARYA! You have to stop scaring me like this. You’re chilling and how many times have I told you to respond while I call out for you?”
Dazed, she nods and leaves not before giving one last glance to that leaf.
“Baba, wh-r-e is Ma a-a-nd D-ada” Arya tried to ask, in a robot-like voice. It wasn’t intentional. It was getting harder for her day-by-day to speak without breaks and this robot like voice of hers just came out naturally. She couldn’t even comprehend what was happening.
By now, Arya had scared away Aryan completely.
“Arya, why are you stuttering so much again? And you have to stop using that robotic tone of yours. It’s creeping me out!” He tried avoiding the question about their parents because she was still too young to know that they were on their own now.
She tried to answer.
“B-a—ab—a” came out the voice like that of a broken robot.
She sputtered out a few broken words but nothing sensible came out. Sighing, Aryan let it go and went away to make some hot coffee.
By now, the clouds were making loud noises, almost enraged followed by heavy rains. The patter of large rain drops hit the window pane, and in an instant darkness swept across the room. The lights had gone out and strong winds engulfed the house.
“S#&t!” Aryan cursed from the kitchen. “Arya, just stay where you are okay? My phone had to be dead now. As soon as I find a torch, I’m coming to you. Don’t move, okay?”
Arya was scared of darkness. Even more scared when she was alone. She let out a noiseless whimper, and moved across the hall, away from the window. She did not know what was the strange feeling inside her were tying knots inside her stomach. She tried to shout out for her Baba, but not even a whisper came out. Slowly, she moved across and accidentally hit the glass vase and fell down. Glass was now all over the floor, some pieces stuck inside her toe and arm. Blood seeped out, yet like a lifeless body she moved across and kept walking.
“Arya, for god’s sake don’t move. I heard the sound of glass breaking. It’s dangerous for you. could you please just stand in one place for two minutes?” Concern and irritation were now sweating out from Aryan in the chilly weather. He opened any random cabinet in search of torch.
But Arya didn’t respond. She was unaware of the danger that would come if she kept walking barefoot with glass pieces all over. She was unaware of the pain that was flooding insider her. Unaware of the hot liquid seeping out of her arm and toe. Unaware of the Goosebumps across her arm. Unaware of the fear that was filling her up. She was out cold, just like a moving stone.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to ask her Baba to hurry up. She wanted to tell him that she couldn’t bear the pain and the storm was awakening her biggest fears. She wanted to but she was numb. So all she let out was,
“Ba—ab-a” it came out as a sing-song, breathless whisper.
Shuffling through the drawers, Aryan found the torch. With the help of torchlight and faint moonlight through the curtains, he moved across the home and found Arya.
What he saw horrified him. Curled up in a ball, Arya was now lying in a tiny pool of blood letting out small whispers of cries. And her eyes. Arya’s eyes were wide open, blank that were staring across the room. And that one tiny leaf. At that one lonely leaf which had stuck through the rain while all the other leaves had fallen apart.
Aryan knew something was wrong. This unusual behaviour of hers, the sudden outburst of robotic voice, her not responding while her name was called out. Those times when she found it tough even to form a sentence and her never focusing her line of sight to a particular thing, always devoid of recognition. So he softly picked up her whimpering body and cleaned up the blood and bandaged her. Once things were a little better he took her to his aunt who was a child psychologist. Something he should have done a lot earlier.
Aryan told his aunt everything right from the start. He expressed all his concerns and fears while looking at Arya who was drawing a leaf.
She had Autism. Her fixation on certain activities or objects, the abnormal body posturing and facial expressions, avoidance of eye contact, flat/monotonous speech, inappropriate social interaction and a lot other symptoms were there. Aryan should have known but he didn’t. His aunt told him that she was still okay because he took care of her well but Aryan couldn’t stop beating himself about it. He could have seen it, recognized it earlier but he couldn’t. He was told that he wasn’t late, he still got her a lot earlier than other recognized but still.
Later that day he went to see her.
‘Hey Hon, how you holding up?’
‘Ba—b—a, are you okay? You-u look—‘
Sniffling, he wondered how he got himself so lucky to get a sister who put him before her.
‘Champ, listen to me. Your baba is not going anywhere okay? Why don’t you sleep a little then I’ll come back for you?’
He kissed her on the forehead, tucked her in and left. He left with a determination and promise that the baba wasn’t going anywhere and is going to do everything about it.
He stayed up all night that day researching about Autism. Everything and anything to know.
Because more than anything, she needed his support and he was going to give it all.
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