I hated waiting and especially waiting at a train station, it was simply gross. My train was to arrive in next 10 minutes and there was no sign of Ajav. All sorts of thoughts came to my mind. Hope he was not involved in an accident as after two weeks we were getting married. Finally he showed up and he was not the same Ajav I knew. He looked tired and worried and I knew there was something wrong. He came to me and started crying and I knew it was all over between us. His family has finally told him that the wedding won't go as scheduled as they had hated me from the very beginning.

I don't know why he was crying but I was crying with him. Finally he managed to say few words, but was very difficult for me to understand. "Sweetie, he said. She is in hospital." Sweetie in hospital, well that was a relieve as now I knew he was not there to break up with me. Finally I managed to ask him what happened to which he replied that she tried to kill herself. I was shocked and lost for words and I didn't know what to say. I was simply in shock.

Sweetie was Ajav's sister and she was, just like her name very sweet. She too was engaged and was to get married few months after our wedding. "But she called me yesterday. She wanted to talk to me but I was busy at work and I forgot to call her, I said shaking in shock." "She tried to burn herself and she is in pretty bad condition, he said sobbing." Just than my train pulled in and I had to leave. Instead of going to the hospital to see her I left for work. As I got into the office I ran to my manager and told him all about the incident. To my luck his wife worked in the same hospital Sweetie was in. He called his wife and asked her to check on her.

After about an hour he called me in his office and told me that she was in a very bad condition and he would not suggest me to see her. I was shocked and lost for words. How bad can she be? I thought for a while and than I worked out that everyone must be just playing with me. It was Thursday; pay day, and I was very busy in the office so I thought my manager was just playing with me. I was so busy that time just flown, I worked till 3 and knocked off early to go and see her at the hospital.

As my manager had advised, it was not a pretty sight. She was laying in the bed with an arch cover over her. She was in a lot of pain and she was groaning in pain. I met Ajav's mum as soon as I entered the room and she started to cry out loudly as I walked in. I was shocked and didn't know what to say. Basically I didn't like her at all so I didn't even want to comfort her. I managed to say few words, hoping she would feel better and got her to sit on the chair.

The nurse gave me a gown and walked me into the room. As I went closer the groaning grew louder. She had turned her face the other side so I could not see her well plus the arch over her was blocking a clear view of her. I walked up towards her and she started to cough badly. As she coughed she turned her face towards where I was standing. A sudden grip of fear caught me, as if I had just seen a ghost and I took a few steps back. She was looking horrible and I was just staring at her. She started to call for her mum and I managed to say a few words. "Sweetie it's me, Simran, do you want anything?" As soon as she heard my voice she started screaming and wanted me out of the room. I tried hard to hold my tears and spoke to her gently. "Sweetie it's ok, it's ok. You will be fine."

Sweetie was a very pretty girl. She had long curly hair and she was always full of life. She had gone against the whole family and got engaged to a guy whom she met at the university. I had called up on numerous occasions to tell her that this guy was not good for her but she was not prepared to listen to anyone including her mum. As I walked closer to her I could not even recognise her. Her hair was completely burnt out, her eyes nearly popping out and her lips swollen and burnt out. I couldn't look at her any longer and I quickly walked towards her feet. I lifted the cover and noticed that they were smooth and beautiful as ever. I touched her smooth legs but she pulled them.

"Don't touch me, Simran. Don't touch me, she said with heaps of pain in her voice." I could make out few things she was saying but not other things she was mumbling about. As I walked backed to see her again Ajav walked in and held onto me tightly. "You don't have to do this if you don't want it Sim, he said crying." He walked me back to the waiting room and I sat next to her mum. I knew that nothing could now be done to save her but I kept telling everyone that she would be fine and we could take her overseas for plastic surgery if the doctors locally would not cure her.

I stayed in the hospital till late while Ajav's mum went home to rest. I walked back into her room and sat next to her. "Hey Sweetie guess what, I said with some confidence and happiness in my voice. I have just spoken to the surgeon and mind you they will fix you. And as soon as you get better we will have our wedding together." She said something and I could not make out what. I started to access her burnt body. Her breast was swollen and her whole body was expanding and just to control the expanding the doctors had made slits on her body. "Why did you have to do this, I said with a small giggle in my voice. Because of you stupidity I might have to give my thigh skin now for plastic surgery and you know how much I hate injection." She managed to laugh but started coughing again. The nurse walked in and gave her few painkillers and she told me her chest was infected and she had inhaled a lot of fume, which was making her cough.

My parents arrived to take me home. I kissed everyone bye and went back home. Though she was in such a bad condition and would have scared any normal person, I was not scared. I wanted the best for her and just be with her till her last breath. That whole night I couldn't sleep and I kept turning and tossing in the bad. Why would she do anything like that? The next day I went to the hospital to see her and after few hours I went to work. I again knocked off early and went to the hospital. Ajav dropped me and he went back to work. It was about 4 in the afternoon. I was talking to Sweetie when she started to make a terrible noise. I quickly pressed the buzzer for assistance. The nurse ran in and told me we were losing her and she was taking her final breath.

I ran to her feet and slapped her and shouted for her to breath. As I banged my hands against her feet the heart monitor machine would show few regular beats and as soon as let the foot go off my hands the monitor stopped. I was doing that for over 15 minutes now when the nurses pulled me away. "She has gone, they said. She is no more Simran, you need to let her go." I looked at them all in shock when Ajav and his mum walked into the room. As soon as the nurse told them that she was no longer, his mum cried out loud and lost conscious and as she fell Ajav got hold of her and carried her outside.

We all had a mixture of reactions and feelings about her death. I was angry on myself for not talking to her on Wednesday. I was upset because she was saying things to me but I could not understand her. The day of her funeral I went early to the hospital and dressed her up. I covered her face with cotton wool and wrapped it in white bandage. I later dressed her in her wedding clothes and once she was all done I followed the car carrying her casket to their house. There was lots of crying and full of people. Some were only there to see what she looked like and to gossip why she had killed herself, while other came to share our loss. I was there because I had known her for ages, as a friend, as a sister. I needed to cry but I was supporting everyone there and I showed no emotion at all.

Sitting next to the casket gave me a sense of regret and sadness. If only I had talked to her, I could have changed the whole situation. The beeping of the heart monitor still rings in my ear and so does her painful yells and cries. She had been a friend and sister to me and we knew about each other just too much. We shared and talked about a lot of things. I hate her for not sharing with me her final moments and her pain. I know that she tried hard to talk to me but I couldn't understand her. Wish I had talked to her just for few moments that particular Wednesday rather than telling her I would call her back and forgetting all about it. I hate this life where you think you know everyone and everything but the next moment you don't know anything or anybody. Her death is just mystrey and but I will cherish the final moments I spent with her, my sweet friend Sweetie.

Keyword: Final Moments With A Friend

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