Love Short Story – A VINEYARD DREAM
Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com
He was playing with the clouds, squeezing them and feeling the moisture. It felt like light weighted pillows. Suddenly he sensed a cool breeze flowing from his left, which blew away the clouds. He tried chasing them, but in vain. He turned his head to the left and saw a stunning view. There she was in a white gown waving at him, her face full lit and her curious and cute eyes looked at him posing a thousand questions at a glance.
His eyes were only focused on her, even an avalanche would not have diverted his attention. She started walking towards him and now the breeze started to become cooler. Suddenly grapes started to fall from above. Maybe it didn’t hurt him because he was lost in her. The whole place turned into a vineyard in a few seconds. Her dress and the surroundings became purple. She came near him. It was like he was waiting for this moment all his life. He wanted to express his love, but his heart was beating fast like never before so he couldn’t speak. To his amusement, she held his hands and raised it and said “ I love you”.
He opened his eyes. ‘Oh god, all of that was just a dream?’, he thought. ‘At no point of the dream I felt like it was a dream. Then why did I open my eyes?’. He had learnt theories about lucid dreaming, he wanted to go back to his dream, so he closed his eyes and tried to imagine that scene again but could never think of it. He banged his head on the pillow with anger. He got up realizing that the best moment of his life was unreal. He remembered a conversation he had with his uncle some time ago.
Prakash lived in the city and used to visit his native every year. He never liked the hustle and bustle of the city and so he always looked forward to visiting his village. He always dreamt of settling with his love in the village. He had an uncle, a very well educated farmer, who was known for his organic farming techniques, which made him a very reliable figure in the village. Prakash used to accompany him to the farm when he visited. Once his uncle mentioned his desire to build a vineyard in an empty field he had. Prakash remembered it distinctly.
He thought he might have had the dream of the vineyard because he had this conversation with his uncle. He immediately called up his uncle. “I want to build a vineyard, I will work very hard for it, but I need your assistance.”, he said.
Uncle became very happy. “ Why all of a sudden you took this decision?”.
” I saw a dream, uncle. I was in a vineyard and my love, Priya, walked up to me and said ‘ I love you’. “
“Who is Priya?.”
“ She has been my crush for the past two years, not a single day has passed without me thinking of her. Finally, last month I confessed my love to her. She had to go to a trip the very next day so she said she will reply to me when she returns. “
“What do you think she will say?”
“ She will obviously reply positively, but I want that moment to be exactly as it was in the dream, that is why I want to build a vineyard. “
“ Do you know anything about vineyards? It will take at least two years to build a vineyard. When is she returning?.”
“ I don’t know”.
“ She might return within one month, then you will leave this field and I will have to incur a huge loss.”
“ No uncle, I promise I will not leave until the vineyard is built.”
They both worked hard on the field. He even skipped his meals and sleep to work on the entire farm of his uncle. They emptied the land and tested the soil to ensure it has the right amount of nutrients, built the trellises, set up irrigation facilities and constantly fed them with organic fertilizers. Since he wanted it ready by the time Priya returns, uncle insisted that he should use chemical fertilizers as it would generate faster yields, but Prakash said ‘I have no urgency, I just want it to be perfect.’
The plants started to grow but still there was no sign of Priya. At first uncle used to ask ‘when will she return?’, ‘Why she hasn’t visited yet?’. To which he used to reply, ‘She will come’ in a low voice. Later uncle stopped asking the questions because he assumed that Priya might have left him. The days passed by and uncle got busy in other farms and Prakash completely took care of the vineyard. Uncle never visited there because he knew Prakash was efficient.
One fine morning a girl came to the farm. Uncle saw her and walked up to her. “Yes?”
“ Is this where Prakash lives?”
“ Yes, you must be Priya”, the Uncle asked excitedly.
“ No, I am her friend Anuja.”
“Oh where is Priya? Does she not like Prakash? Tell her that he has been waiting for her the past two years.” He became emotional and tears started to flow from his eyes. “He worked day in and day out to build this vineyard. At least tell her to show some courtesy and visit it.”
Anuja gave a very puzzled look to the emotional uncle. “ But uncle, she is no more” she replied.
“ No more? What? How? When did this happen?”, in a broken and shaky voice.
“ We had gone to Nepal for a trip. On the fourth day of our visit, we were struck by an earthquake. Myself and some of my friends managed to get out safely, but Priya was stuck in between the debris. We took her to the hospital, but she succumbed to the injuries there.”
Uncle was shocked to hear about the incident and he apologized for the remarks he made earlier. “ Prakash is there inside, but don’t tell him anything, he is still waiting for her.”
“But uncle, he already knows.”
“ What?”
“ He was the first person Priya asked for when she attained some consciousness in the hospital. She wanted to convey her love to him. I immediately called him and informed about the situation. He took the next flight and reached Nepal. But by that time she had passed away. He didn’t cry, neither reacted while he saw her dead body. He was silent and then he walked away. I lost track of him after that, but recently I got the information that he was here so I just dropped by to see if he is fine.”
Uncle was shocked to hear this. He couldn’t believe that Prakash was living for a dream which he already knew would never turn into reality. He started walking towards the farm, his heart beating faster as he still couldn’t recover from the news. He reached the farm, the first set of grapes were ready for harvest.
Uncle was amazed by the beauty of the vineyard as it was way beyond his imagination. He stood at a distance and watched Prakash, who was walking and taking a look at the entire vineyard. He was happy like never before as the fruits of love was flashing in front of his eyes. The hard work and patience which helped in building the vineyard was all triggered by his love for Priya. Uncle had a small smile on his face, he didn’t say a word to Prakash, and simply walked back. He returned from the field and said to Anuja, ” He will always be fine because Priya will never be dead, this vineyard has made her immortal.”
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