Borrowed Love for a Starry Date Night
Photo credit: dantada from morguefile.com
How does one plan a Date Night? Ask friends for tips about ‘how to make a good impression’. Look up on the internet ’25 important things you need to do or say on a date night’. How would the plan be? Watch a movie, dinner in a good hotel, a long walk while having a romantic-cheesy conversation. I don’t know if these are the right things to do. Even if they are, I didn’t have all these facilities back then, as it was unplanned, my first date night.
We both were lying on the rooftop of my house staring at the night sky. The sky was clear, no clouds, no light reflecting back from the sky. The sky was dark yet lit by dim stars, over a thousand of them.
“I’ve seen a night sky before, but never ever I notice all these stars and how magical they appear.” That was Belle, the girl I was with on that day.
That’s not here name, I call her belle as in French it means ‘a beautiful girl’. Indeed she is beautiful and attractive with her long brown hair, her innocent yet naughty smile, and her eyes… the color of her eyes; I am unable to decide what color I should call them. So I call it ‘the shade of my inspiration’.
“Today’s the day, look”, I said pointing at the sky.
“What? What are you talking about” belle asked.
“Look straight up, can you see the two bright stars a thumb width apart, and the faint star between them but little below.”
“Yes. What about that?” she asked.
“It is said that the faint star appears only once a year. That is the day when the god is smiling at us. So if we wish for anything looking at this group of stars, the wish will be fulfilled.” I said with excitement.
“Really?”, she looked at me and smiled. I nodded; then she looked up at the stars. She closed her eyes and was murmuring something.
“What did you wish for?” I asked.
She was still busy with the wish so she got annoyed when I interrupted her. In a bit of irritated tone she said,
“Why do you want to know?”
I had no words in reply so I kept quiet. She then continued with her wish. A couple of minutes later she broke the silence with,
“You made this up, didn’t you?”
“No!” was quick response to here question by me. I made a believable straight face, but she saw right through it and stared at me hard making me break;
“Yes, maybe, but what did you wish for? Tell me the wish and it might be fulfilled.” I said focusing on her eyes.
She looked deep in the sky and said, “I want this night to never end.”
I went a close to her ear and whispered, “It won’t”.
“You know, Night is always symbolized as the time when evil rises, the time when you should be afraid. But that’s not correct, Night symbolizes something else, it symbolizes the ‘unseen beauty’. Look around, it’s dark everywhere, everyone is asleep but us. You can’t hear anything, can’t see anything. It’s as if all of a sudden everything has just vanished. The only thing that matters is you and me.” I was lost in this thought of the endless night and I started saying all this random stuff with me having no control on my words. Then I asked,
“Do you know what time is it? How long have we been here? You don’t, don’t you? Because right-here right-now time is not moving, this moment is frozen in time and will stay like this forever, in our memories.” I took a pause and continued.
“By ours I mean, mine for sure. It can be yours too if you really enjoyed today.” I said the last part with the hope of her replying positively.
“Off course I did. Today was really special, different from any of the other day of my life, starting from the double-seat bicycle ride through the farm, while feeling the wind.”
“Watching the sunset from the hill top, seeing the sun change from yellow to orange to red until it finally disappeared. You must have seen these sunsets before, probably that’s what inspired you to start painting.”
Acknowledging her remark I said, “Yes I have. You know, we see something or someone every day, same face every time. Nothing feels different. But one day we see the same person in a different light and that’s when they inspire us, I call it ‘the shade of inspiration’.” I stared while saying this as if I was hinting her that I was referring to someone else instead of the sun.
There was complete silence. For a moment, it made me think that we were mentally linked and were communicating by thoughts. But then I looked away and she continued,”…and the dinner, mashed potatoes with rice and the spicy powder which you call your secret ingredient. That was something so awesome that I regretted never tasting it before.”
“Why won’t you tell me what it is?” She stressed on this point. I smiled at her and said,
“So that every time you feel like eating that dish, you have to come to me.” She was confused hearing me say this, but then I broke the tension with laughter.
“But seriously, I don’t think you enjoyed today.” I said mischievously.
“No, really it was fun; I really loved hanging out with you. I can prove it.” She said.
“How?”, I asked.
She smiled, gave me a look and then she shut her eyes. I got the sign, that she expected a kiss. I closed my eyes too, but then I pretended to fall asleep. A minute later when Belle opened her eyes, she saw me sleeping. I did’t see here expressions cause my eyes were shut, but I am sure it would be shock followed by disappointment. Then I heard here saying,
“What? Really? What is wrong with you?” and she pushed me away. I didn’t respond, pretending to be in deep sleep. She then turned and faced up.
“What is wrong with you?” these words echoed in my mind, made me think deep. I was so lost in my thoughts that by the time I opened my eyes, she was asleep. Then looking at her sleeping I spoke in lower tone,
“I want you to know but I hope you aren’t listening. You guessed it right, I am not me. My life was meaningless and empty and I decided to end it by jumping off a ledge. I closed my eyes and took a leap. Don’t know if it was Magic or Luck, when I opened my eyes, I was alive and I was here. A different place and a different me. Soon I realized that I am living your friend’s life. I owe it to him for giving me a second chance to life, but how can I accept your love, which belongs to him.”
“Do you want to know how I know the ‘smiling constellation’ is real? Because exactly one year ago, the same night I came here, before jumping I looked up in the sky I wished for this (in Hindi),
“Rukhi-Sukhi zindagi jee rahaa hoon mai,
Davaa samajhkar, gam ke pal, pee rahaa hoon main.
Is banjar zameen ko hariyaali ka, pyaar toh mile,
Apnaa nahi toh kisi aurkaa sahi, udhaar to mile.”
-END-
Note: This story is just a part of a bigger story titled ‘Endless Adventure’. Basically its a first person fantasy story of a guy in his early 20s who is fed up of his life and call it fate or something else he gets a second chance to live a new life in a new place.
