You lost me!

The body of Param was lying on the bed.  Strict lockdown had been implemented in the town. Param had a big family which included three sons, three daughters-in-law, five grandsons.  Such a big family it was. All were at home. The home was quite big. Every subfamily was having separate rooms. Only the kitchen was one. Two weeks before one of his grandsons was sick and he came out Covid-19 positive. After him, all men came out positive. Fortunately, nobody was serious. They were all asked to stay quarantined in their rooms. Medicines were provided. Param’s age was a worry. He had crossed, 85. All others got okay within two weeks except Param. All others reports came out negative except Param. Now everybody was worried for their “Pa”. Yes, everybody used to call him 'Pa'.

They all were treated by their old family doctor and best friend of Param named Dr. Rahul.

As Param was Covid-19 Positive, nobody was going in the room of Param except one oldest servant and Dr. Rahul.

Suddenly one day, Dr. Rahul asked all family members to come together in the main hall. He looked very nervous. He said with a handkerchief rubbing his eyes, “I am Sorry. Pa is no more. We lost him.”

By saying this, he left the house.

Everybody rushed towards Pa’s Room. All ladies started crying. But all of them hold themselves outside of the room. Everybody started looking at each other. Nobody was brave enough to go inside the room. It was obvious; they were worried about their health as Pa was Covid-19 positive.

Sad faced transformed into fearful faces.

Love, affection humanity lost and fear, practicality, selfishness won.

Everybody asked the eldest son to go inside being elder. But he refused and said, "Why he should go alone?" They just remembered that his servant, Ramu would be inside the room. They called him out. All were wearing PPE kits including Ramu as per the instruction of Param.

Ramu came out. They asked him "What happened to Pa?" Ramu told, “Glucose Saline was going on. All of a sudden, he got a breathing problem. So I called Dr. Rahul. Dr. Rahul came soon. Probably Pa had understood that he is going to die. So he asked Dr. Rahul to keep his Saline bottle for the next 4 hours even after his death. And do not move his body for that time. Let all my family members come one by one to see my body. Keep a plastic curtain for safety and ask every family member to say something loudly about him and nobody else should hear this conversation. After saying this, he immediately got an attack and he died. I think we should fulfill his last wish. After all this home, business, and property, everything is given by him.”

Ramu went inside and started searching for a plastic curtain. He got it inside the room. Then he immediately put the curtain in front of his bed so that everybody can see him and come inside one by one.

Ramu asked his eldest son to come in.

With hesitation, he came in. He saw that Pa looked like sleeping silently with saline going on. He said with a cry, “Pa, Why you left like this? I was about to make your will. Now your favorite son means me. I will not get all that I deserve to get. Now everybody will ask for their equal share.”

Then the second son came in. He bowed down to Pa and said, “I am sorry Pa. I would not be able to come to your last rites. Due to the risk of the corona, as nobody is here, I want to confess one thing and say sorry for that. I have created you in business and stolen approx50 lac from your account. But seeing this will help me now in settling if I do not get my share properly. After all, I am your son and I am smart like you were. Thank you, Pa. I will miss you.”

Third Son came in, “Pa, Why you left so early? I will miss you. But how we will do your last rites? About property, don’t worry. I have made your will and before your last rites, I will arrange to take you a thumb impression on the will. I know you wanted to give all the property to me. Of course, I am your favorite son. But let all the others go out after saying last words for you. I will come again for your thumb. Don’t worry. Nobody will come back as all of them, fear of corona.”

All sons restricted their wives and sons to enter the room and all of them were asked to go back to their room.

Now all three brothers started discussing the last rites.

Elder one said, “We should call Municipal Corporation for this job as I will not take the risk for our family.”

Everybody nodded.

They called Municipal Corporation and told them about the death. The municipal corporation asked for a death certificate from Doctor and some charges to complete last rites as per Hindu rituals on their own.

The third one said, “But we need to wait for tomorrow as his saline needs to get completed.”

The middle one said, “Yes. But we should first open his mobile through his figure so that we can update his Insurance policies and bank accounts online.”

Elder said, “Okay, can you go and take his mobile and touch his figure for opening it.”

Middle one said, “ No no Ramu will do it.”

But the third one said, “Are you guys okay? If Ramu got to know this, we may end up in jail.”

Middle one said, “Then what to do? If we do not update his policies and accounts online, afterward it will take a long time for the legal procedure to complete that activity. And we will lose the interest of the money due to this delay?”

The third one said, “Do one thing. We will ask Ramu to cut his right hand thumb and bring for us to complete last rites.”

Elder one said, “Brilliant. We will do this. We will sanitize this thumb of him and use it everywhere we need. Our problem will be solved.”

The third one said, “Okay, I will take the risk and cut off his thumb.”

He goes into the room and takes the cutter with him. He says to him, “Sorry Pa. I need to cut your Thumb for legal procedures.”

As soon as he touches the body, he feels some movement. Initially, he gets afraid. But then again he feels movement. Now he gets afraid and ran away from the room.

All his brothers’ starts shouting at him and said, “You are a coward. Come, we all will go inside.”

Now, all of them go inside the room. Elder one goes with the cutter in his hand.

As soon as he touches the hand, Pa opens his eyes and says “Stop!”

Now all three opens their mouth with a fearful shout and they ran away.

Suddenly, Dr. Rahul enters with Ramu.

They tell Dr. Rahul that there is a ghost inside the room.

Dr. Rahul laughs and says, “Ghost is not inside the room. Ghosts are in front of me.”

All of them replied, “What?”

Dr. Rahul replied, “You people are ghosts because humans do not behave like this. What you were trying to do? Have you all lost your mind?”

The elder replied, “What you are saying? We have seen the ghost of Pa. Please go inside and see.”

Dr. Rahul said, “You go inside and see that our Pa is alive.”

All three said, “What?”

Pa came out and said, “No. Your Pa is already dead. I am no more your Pa. You lost me sometime back only.”