Things were going to get weird between us. Why couldn’t I have flirted back with him? Why on earth had I asked him that question? I’m so stupid, I told myself.

‘Okay, I’ll sleep here for a bit,’ I said.

Aunty V got off the bed and stepped out. She switched off the lights on her way out.

‘Ma?’ I kept my voice low.

‘Hmm?’

‘Are you afraid?’ I was hoping that she would say no. I needed her to be strong and invincible. Seeing her like this was taking everything out of me.

‘A little,’ she admitted.

I sat up and looked in her direction in the semi-darkness. ‘Why?’

She sighed. ‘We’ve still got another four months before the baby is born. So much could go wrong!’

I shook my head vehemently. ‘No, it won’t. It’s going to be fine.’

‘Just saying it won’t make it happen, you know,’ she replied. Her voice sounded as if she was tired but smiling.

‘Ma, if you rest enough it’s all going to be fine,’ I told her. I was trying to convince both her and myself.

‘I’m already resting,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘There are times when I can’t wait for life to get back to normal.’

I had only thought about how much my life would change once the baby came. I had never considered how difficult it would be for Ma. My feelings over this baby had changed slowly—I was no longer embarrassed. All I wanted was for Ma to be okay and for the baby to be born without any hiccups.

I didn’t want to say anything to her which would sound trite or clichéd, so I lay back down and shut my eyes. I went to sleep holding on to the dhub dhub sound I’d heard.

The next day, Ma was discharged after her doctor came to check on her. All of us probably looked like roadkill, especially since we had rushed over from the party. I avoided looking at Raghu.

Ma’s doctor, a tall woman with short grey hair, said that she needed to be very careful. The pain was not good news and the bleeding was even worse. But it was going to be fine if Ma took all the precautions and rested well.

‘Complete bed rest. Lying down. Not even sitting up,’ the doctor told us all.

Ma looked at her, horrified. ‘For how many days?’ she asked in a strangled voice.

‘At least the next ten days. We can’t take chances, Chitra,’ the doctor said sternly.

Ma wasn’t even allowed to walk back to the car. She sat on a wheelchair and was wheeled out. Raghu offered to bring the car around. Papa nodded. His grip on Ma’s file was tight and his knuckles were white.