The wind was howling away outside the window, causing the motorcycle canvas covers to flag madly.

There is going to be heavy rain soon, I thought.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash of lightning, followed by loud rumbling of thunder and the rain came pouring down.

Looking at the huge raindrops splashing onto the ground reminded me of a story I read long ago…

A young girl was admitted to hospital for no apparent reason. She seemed to be wasting away and no amount of treatments could bring a change for the better in her condition. She just lay there in her room, listless, ignoring the people who came and visited her.

The girl would sometime go to the ward common room but she did not talk to any of the other patients there. She just kept to herself.

One day, an old man was admitted to the hospital for a bad cough that did not go away.

For some season, there was an affinity between the girl and the old man and they hit it off right from the start. The girl would sit with the old man and tell him what was on her mind. The old man never told anyone what they talked about.

One day, while looking out of the window, the girl pointed to a plant climbing up the opposite wall. “You see the plant there?” she asked the old man softly. The old man looked to where she was pointing and nodded his head solemnly.

“When the last leaf is gone from the plant,” she told the old man conversationally, “I would no longer be here.”

It was then late autumn and many of the leaves on the plant had changed color. There were not many leaves left on the plant. Soon after, as each leaf fell, the girl grew weaker and weaker, until there were only a handful of leaves left on the plant.

The girl had grown so weak that she was confined to her room most of the time. However, she still insisted on being wheeled to the common room every evening so that she can look out of the window to see how many leaves were left. The old man was there every time she was wheeled into the room. He did not know what he could do to help her. He could only shake his head sadly when he saw her fragile state.