Chapter 6

Bella made her dad’s favorite vegetable porridge and transferred it into a bowl to speed up the cooling process. 

She covered it with a lid. Keeping it aside, she went to her dad’s room across the hall.

When she opened the door to her dad’s bedroom, he was wide awake, staring at one point in the ceiling lost. It’s the same scenario everyday. 

Whenever she came into her dad’s room, she would catch her dad staring at a point, looking lost or thinking something deep according to her. 

Seeing her dad who had lost most of his weight and looking lost at the ceiling, brought tears to her eyes.

Her dad was the most happiest person she had ever known.

Everyone around him liked his company, because he possessed such an irresistible charm to spread happiness and positivity to the people around him.

He had the power of binding people around him and everyone around him loved him. 

He used his cheerful and joking personality to cheer everyone around him.

His presence brought such a pleasure to the people around him as they would be reluctant to be apart from him.

She got her bubbly and positive character from him. 

But fate was too cruel. It took their mom from them, which in turn brought a drastic change in their lives. 

The father-daughter pair lost their bubbly personality while their house lost its bright atmosphere, laughter and vigor.

The once happy family of their home lost all its source of liveliness and looked as if a city that got destroyed in a terrific war.

The aftermath of their home was no better than a destroyed city.

Bella took a few seconds for composing herself. Bringing a big smile onto her face, she greeted her dad happily.

“good morning dad. Did you slept well?” beamed Bella looking at her dad.

Isaac, Bella’s dad, who was lost in the memories of his wife, was attracted by a sweet melodious voice.

The voice seemed to have slowly tickled his ears and reached his heart.

Its as if his heart got enveloped by a warm blanket, which gave him a content feeling unknowingly. 

So he searched for the source of the happy voice.

Seeing his smiling daughter, Isaac came back to his senses and gave a small smile to his daughter.

The smile which he give only to his daughter after his wife’s death.

If you could call it a smile.

Only the corner of his mouth were raised a size of a millimeter on the left side.

His eyes were dull and lifeless like his life.

Bella was happy to see the subtle changes in her dad’s face and proud of her achievement on bringing a little smile on her dad’s face. 

This gave her hope that soon her dad would become normal again and be her old happy dad who would always make her smile.

Isaac gave a small nod to Bella’s question and began to sit on his bed.

Seeing her dad struggling to get up, she was soon by his side supporting him and made him lean on the headboard. 

After adjusting the pillows, she sat infront him.

“Dad…wait a few minutes. I’ll prepare the bath for you. Then you have to eat your breakfast and take your meds too” told Bella in her sweet voice.

Soon Bella went inside the attached bathroom in her dad’s room and prepared the bath.

She made sure the temperature of the water was little warm to help her dad with his sore muscles, as he was laying on his bed almost most of the day.

She came back into the room and helped her dad to the bathroom to do his morning routine. 

When he was finished, she gave him a warm bath. She massaged his sore muscles for better blood circulation, since he was mostly on his bed without moving.

When she helped her dad to change into a pair of clean and fresh clothes, Bella went back to the kitchen to bring back his porridge which was in the middle of the cooling process.

She began to feed him. Its not like he wouldn’t be able to eat by himself.

He have to use some extra energy for doing that. Moreover he would eat a little more than what would he eat normally, when Bella feed him.

So usually Bella would feed him, so that he could eat a little more and gain some health back.

After successful making him eat the whole bowl, Bella was satisfied with her task. 

She wiped his mouth clean of the remaining food debris and fed him his meds.

To make him speak, she sat in front of him and began to talk about how her day went yesterday. 

Usually there is nothing special about her day, but she wanted to spent more time with her dad. 

So she would tell about the students for whom she took classes and also about the toddlers whom she would babysit in their home.

Nearly speaking for half an hour, but not receiving any wordly response from her dad, Bella stopped her ranting.

As usual Isaac listened to his daughter’s story silently. Bella made him lie down on the bed and tucked him nicely. 

She leaned down and pressed a small kiss on his cheek muttering a “I love you dad” to him.

When she was about to walk out of the room, she heard a weak male voice. “love you too honey”.

She turned around to see her dad slowly closing his eyes ready to take rest.

She still don’t know everyday whether her dad told “I love you” to her or in memory of her dead mom.

Because he used to call her mom ‘honey’ and He called Bella ‘his princess’.

Shaking her head, she went out of her dad’s room, slowly closing the door behind her.

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