Short Story Friends – Just Once…..
Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com
Life was all happy and lucky for Ramya. 18 year old , filled with dreams. She hated the course she took up but loved the friends she got! Friends, some real, some virtual. And one such virtual friend left her questioning forever……
Ramya entered her hostel room only to come out in a minute with her room mate and best friend Sush. That was always expected out of Ramya and Sush was not surprised. Most of her days were filled with Ramya’s pranks that would land them in a soup. The hostel warden shut her hostel down after Their batch is a proof of their naughty elements.
They entered the internet cafe right opposite and Ramya created a yahoo id to chat. Sush was confused but she loved Ramya too much to doubt her. The first message
“Hi asl pls”
Ramya and Sush were happy to get that first message.
And thus started an online chat with Pulkit, a 25 year old from Bhopal. Everyday Ramya and Sush would spend hours in the internet cafe, chatting with Sush’s now brother and Ramya’s new friend Pulkit.
After a month they exchanged numbers and phone conversations started. It felt like a friendship which was there since forever. Ramya spoke to Pulkit, and gradually few of his friends who nicknamed her “bhabhi”. That was too big of a responsibility for an 18 year old carefree soul.
Days turned into months and months into years. Ramya had a diary with every phone number and every incident. She moved to a new city with a new job. And this 18 year old Ramya was now a 25 year old working woman.
She tried reconnecting with Sush through email but it came with an auto reply that this email is no longer in use. Thus, all hope to reconnect vanished. She remember her last talk with Pulkit. It was rude to him, but rational for her. “I never loved you more than a good friend Pulkit, sorry for any confusion”!
3 years have passed since that heartbreaking confession and Ramya wanted to know, how is he. But there was no way reaching him. Sush was also untraceable. Have they forgotten her? Don’t they miss her the way she does? There was no solace in the world. And she wanted to know where her two best friends are. Are they ok? Sush must be married by now! She must have tried her house number which is no longer working. How she wished she had given them her address. All these thoughts were her favourite pastime now.
One such evening of regrets brought her a ray of hope, her diary! How did she forget about her diary. She has stopped writing in it long back. The pressure of life took away this pleasure from her long back. Anyway, its never too late. She turned pages and there it was, Pulkit’s number. The mobile number was not in service. She dialled the landline number with lot of questions. “Hello” how she wished it was Pulkit! Still she asked if she can speak with Pulkit. The Hello voice turned a little frail and asked who she was. “This is Ramya, his friend” she was all red saying this.
“Oh yes, Ramya I know you” :
‘Oh, is this pulkit, but his voice is not the same. does voice change in course of years?
“I am his elder brother. Pulkit is no more. He passed away 3 years back.”
Rest of the words became silent. Ramya does not even remember if his brother said anything beyond this. Her world came crashing down, her head spinning and her hands sweating in december. What happened? Why did this happen? She has no answers. And she never called back for answers.
Whether Pulkit jumped off a bridge or swallowed handful of sleeping pills, or cut his wrist or hanged himself or suffered with a disease or met with an accident. There was no closure to the story simply because she did not want to get one. All she wished is “Just once” How she yearns for talking to Pulkit just once. Asking him what happened that he had to leave the world so early. But she knows she will have to wait to reach where he is and get her answers…..
That is easier for her than calling that number again and knowing the truth…..
__END__
