"What? A crash? Are you serious?"
"It's impossible! "
"How can it just happen. Those poor people."
"Oh what are we gonna do?"

A flood of reactions by my friends followed my passing on the message. I was just too stunned by the mishap to speak anything. We were rushing to the emergency room with all vital equipments in tow. There has been a plane crash at the airport  nearest to us. A plane to Moscow had crash landed and the injured and the dead were being brought to our hospital. On entering the building I could see hubbub all around. Ward boys and nurses, wheelchairs and stretchers with the smell of blood and death. Strangled cries and soft sobs filled the air intercepted now and then by heart breaking screams.

We stood stupefied and at a loss to know what to do. Suddenly I heard my instructors voice, angry yet polite, "Sorry ma'am, you have to realise that it's not possible. We don't have anyone who can help you." A quivering  female voice replied, " But we need someone. Please. We need someone to stay with  him.  I will not leave until then." The voice had a thick Russian accent. I moved closer to see a young lady in a tattered bloodstained dress and being supported by a nurse. She was beautiful with dark hair and eyes. But her face wa bloodless pale and tears shine shone in her large doe eyes. She had multiple injuries on her limbs and a deep gash on the side of her head where she had pressed a cotton to it. She was losing balance and yet was refusing and resisting the nurse who wanted to tow her away.

"But you are injured ma'am and you need treatment."

"I won't leave Sir with anyone who can't understand Russian. Look he understands English perfectly but when he regains consciousness...if he ever does," she suppressed a sob, " I want him to be in company of someone who can speak his language or it's I who has to stay."

"Ma'am," my exasperated clinical instructor tried to reason, " Why are you getting paranoid? He will recover slowly"

"He will recover physically, I hope," her voice broke, "but he will be scarred forever, his fiancee is critical and may not survive. How do we break the news to him?"

"That's our role. We are the ones who will deal. You maybe his secretary but it's not your job. You just undergo treatment. You are injured too."

"That's what I was trying to say," her voice was thick with tears. If someone can't soothe him in the language he knows then  how?" She started sobbing. I who was watching all this just realised that it was time my little endeavour will come handy. All these days of learning the basics of Russian would finally pay. I thought about nothing else.

"Can't anybody help me?" The lady demanded. I couldn't stand still anymore. She needed treatment and if a Russian speaker, however meagre, was needed for the person she was talking about  then I would do it. I walked up to them nervously and said "Да Мем,"(Yes Mam...Da Mem)

Her head shot up and she looked at me in surprise.

"Привет,"(Hello...Privet) I said unsure of how to convince her. "Спасибо, Спасибо, Как тебя зовут?" (Thank you, Thank you, What's your name?...Spasibo, Spasibo. Kak tebya zobut?) She wailed and almost jumped on me to hug me. I was moved by that touch.
" Мена зовут Шрея, " (My name is Shreya...Mena zobut Shreya) said I.

Mr Das, my clinical instructor cleared his throat, " Shreya you cannot just stay here. Your clinical hours are over. You go back to your hostel." Crisp and clear disapproval. " But it's my wish isn't it? And she needs help," I started  to protest, but they were cut short by him, " You will do as you are told. Or else you know about grades."

Suddenly I felt a surge of anger. If someone needed help I was ready. It was my right to decide what I would do in this situation of emergency. I looked at him straight in the eye and said with defiance, " No. I will stay here. I am ready to take permission from the warden if  it's the case but I will not abandon her. As for grades they are not more important than a person's life." My clinical instructor was taken aback. He looked at me in that unbelieving way. Finally he said, "Well...Hmm...Okay if you want you can stay for the night but your safety is your responsibility. "

" I know sir," I said walking to the door, " I will take care." With those words I took the hand of that last gently and she supported in my shoulders and started limping towards the door.

" I don't know much Russian. Sorry," I apologised. " She smiled," It's okay dear. You must know enough to make my Sir comfortable. I honestly don't know how to say to him about his fiancee." I stayed quiet as I honestly was a novice in these matters. "What is love?" was the  question I always asked to myself. Now as the nurse I had to convey the message to the patient. I was at loss. How do you say to someone that the person he loves may not be with him again?

To change the topic, I took out the patient history collection format, pushed open the door to the ICU and asked, "So you are from Moscow? Why did you and your boss go to Ireland? Oh! first inform me the details of the patient, and then you must seriously get some treatment. "I was looking at her as she hobbled on her less injured leg and wondering at the depth of the feeling and devotion for her employer. I could hear the steady beeps of the heart beat monitor. My heart was racing. My hands shook thinking of how in a moment a life can be snatched away so easily. Life is uncertain. Just an illusion.

"So what is his name? And how old is he," I asked casually and went to the bed and drew back the screens.

The clipboard in my hand fell to the ground with a clank. The same brown golden hair, the perfect face and the beautiful eyes now closed. The perfect lips which could kiss so passionately as I had seen in movies. Those were covered be an oxygen  mask. His handsome face was marred by a scar above the right eye. But he was undoubtedly the same man. My head reeled and I knew I could fall. I was staring at a man I had worshipped throughout my life, Alexei Vasiliev. Unresponsive and helpless my hero lay before me.

A/N Whoever reads this must know that I really am a student nurse and my name is real. All the other characters are fictional. Any resemblance with anyone is pure coincidence. But yes a Russian film star I am crazy on ,does really exist and I really am trying to learn a bit Russian just for his sake. All the words written in Russian are learnt and not copied🙂. So only my friends know who that man is for whom I write this.😍  Anyway  if you like this then read on to find what happens next. And don't forget to please check out Daydreams and Hands Of Time from my collection.