Love Short Story – The Wait
Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com
It was five in the evening. Through the living room, rays of balmy sunshine of a winter evening showered across the kitchen. Her grey hair shone stylishly. Even at seventy, her face glowed with the charm that could beat that of a teenager.
She sieved steaming tea in two cups. With trembling hands, she picked up the cups and walked slowly to the balcony where the rocking chair waited to host her like every evening. He stood at a corner of the balcony watching children playing on the ground at a little distance.
She put the cups on the table by her chair before settling to the comfort of her cozy rocking. He came and sat on the floor by the table. This was routine.
Her eyes glued to the playground. She remembered how her childhood buddy turned into her beau and eventually into her companion for life. She walked back down the memory lanes where he and she played in the playground just like the kids she was seeing out there. They would play all day long as their parents kept shouting for them to finish homework. They would study together too. Being neighbors who went to the same school in the same class, there was hardly any moment of their lives that they had not spent together.
Little smiles peeked on her lips every so often while she ran through her fantasy film. Sitting beside, he too with a smile, observed her quietly. He could watch the movie that he wife’s heart was watching.
Decades long togetherness was a long time to understand someone. Words were not a prerequisite to communicate for them, nor were the eye contacts. They were beyond physicality. Their hearts spoke, their hearts heard.
She rocked her chair, closed her eyes and a tear dropped on her lap.
***
She opened her eyes. He stood up and offered her a hand with the charming smile that she had fell for, fifty years back.
“I had been waiting for you.” he said.
“I know.” She said as she held his hand and stood up. Her body stayed on the chair.
Steaming tea had turned cold. Rocking had stopped with her heartbeats.
“But I never went away since the day I left.” he said.
“I know, my love. Why would I make you tea every day in spite of knowing you could not drink it? I knew you were with me, always.” she said with a smile.
“I still remember the smell of the tea you made.” He revived how it was when he was flesh and blood. She blushed.
“Five years. I have waited for the five long years.” He said.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, honey. But now, the wait is over.” She said.
She held his hand firmly. Beat-less hearts smiled.
With a puff of air, two souls merged into one and dissolved into eternity.
__END__
