Pot of Gold

It was pitch dark, Mariyam groped for her glasses and almost miraculously found them. She put the glasses on and suddenly the darkness seemed less threatening and more familiar. As she grew less disoriented, She remembered how she was shifted to the recovery room after being on a ventilator for almost a week. Her back still hurt with the effects of the virus. She tried to put her head up and read the time. It was almost six in the morning. "Old habits die hard.” she smiled at her body clock for never failing her. She looked around to find a nurse or an attendant but there was no one. She thought they must be tired too fussing around her for more than a week or maybe now they were attending another patient gasping for breath and struggling to win the battle called life. She finally perked her head up on the pillows and was able to see the contents of the table next to her bed. To her utter surprise there was a big bouquet, nicely wrapped. Those were her favorite flowers. Mariyam got so overjoyed that she picked up the bouquet and tried to find a card from the sender. She was even more intrigued to see a little black book, almost hidden in the middle of the flowers. Unless someone would examine the bouquet closely, they could not have found it. She wondered who could have sent this bouquet and notebook. With the curiosity of a little girl, she grabbed the black book and started to Turn the pages. She touched the surface of the blank pages with her finger tips. For once in her life, her hands seemed coarser compared to the suppleness of the paper. The blank void of the notebook demanded to be filled with words. Words that defined her, words that meant everything to her ever since she was a young girl. The brand new note book reminded her of the promise of every blank book she had written so passionately into. But the promise of the gold pot was never fulfilled at the end of those rainbows. At the ripe age of 50, she was still struggling to find her voice. She was still struggling to be noticed by the producers. She somehow failed to make any useful connections in the industry. Her failure to launch as a successful playwright had affected the academic ambitions of her daughter. She was most heartbroken when she thought of not being able to support her kid in any way. With all these thoughts rushing through her mind like scenes changing on a fast paced train window, she decided to write something. She grabbed the pen that she had been using to fill out the endless hospital paperwork. As she started writing her name, she felt a crease under the paper and she turned the pages over to find and smooth out that crease. To her utter surprise there was an envelope that had been fixed in the cover of the notebook. With her heart galloping, she opened the envelope. Mariyam could not believe her eyes, there were crisp new $500 bills! What in the world was this? Who could have sent her this money? She practically jumped out of her bed and frantically made sure the door was locked. She then opened the envelope with the doubt that it had been her over imaginative mind playing tricks on her. But the money was still very much there, she counted and recounted. Each time, she counted, she could not believe that it was $20,000. This was beyond her wildest imagination. This money could take care of all her worries. It was enough to pitch in her daughter’s monthly university expenses and to start working on her dream project. The book she had been wanting to publish, the play she so much believed in. This money seemed like all she ever desired from life. For a moment, she stood next to her bed, staring at those bills and wondering if all this was actually happening.

The hospital room was now lit with sunlight and she could hear the nurses rushing through the corridors. It was a matter of minutes when her attendant would show up with the daily dose of her medications. The combination of bitter pills and the nurse’s sweet smile was something she had gotten used to now. She snapped out of her daydream and collected the $500 bills, put them back in the envelope and then clumsily looked for a place to hide her new found treasure. Her head started to spin and she felt compelled to sit and focus. She perched on the bed and looked around the hospital room. She had no clue how long the doctors would keep her there. She heard someone trying to enter the room, she quickly put the envelope under her pillow. It was her nurse, with her usual smile and dose of medicines. Her smile deepened and she exclaimed joyously, "Good to see you up on your feet again! How are you feeling?" She asked Mariyam with genuine delight. “I am feeling much better, I think, I think I am really good to go,” she responded. “Well well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Dr. Parks will be here shortly, let’s see what he has to say about it. Believe me, we are more in a hurry to send you back home than your desire to leave. The hospital has a record number of patients waiting for each bed. This current wave of Covid seems more ruthless than the last one. Those of us who have survived are fortunate. First Covid, then lost jobs then the hard winter and to top it all off the recent power failure. It seems like a never ending tragedy.” For the first time Mariyam saw a human face behind the persistent professional smile. The nurse left as soon as Mariyam swallowed the bitter pills. First time in a while she was able to think about other people’s problems. Recently things were so hard on her that she could not see beyond her own trials. Now as she regained her precious solitude she excitedly began making a list of all her expenses. She was going to put half of it for her daughter’s college expenses and use the other half to produce the play she always wanted to. The play that would bring the nation's attention to her talent, to her community, to their suffering, to their story. For no obvious reason, she decided to share a part of her treasure with the nurse who was attending her for the last two weeks. She felt so good about this thought that she smiled at herself. This would be the actual selfless deed that might grant her the much needed brownie points from God. She knew how the rich were occupying the castles in heaven. It’s give and take everywhere really. She rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes with a sense of accomplishment that had eluded her so far in life. “Oh yes,” she said to herself, “Success in this world and the hereafter, now we are talking.” The room was quiet again, the doctors were standing around her bed, her heart was sinking, there was hardly anything that they could do. Everyone was wondering about her deep childlike smile. Her nurse was standing next to her, she had tears in her eyes. She had seen so many deaths but this one had shaken her to the core. She could see a little black book next to Mariyam…