She was scribbling something on the paper, may be pretending to write some questions, sometimes looking upwards, scratching her head with the other end of the pen then putting it in her mouth and none of these expressions were unnoticed by the man sitting opposite to her at the study table and he smiled to himself enjoying the innocence.
“So, your parents have at last left for their hometown” he broke her link with those expressions by his question.
“Yeah, for sure otherwise you wouldn’t have been sitting here right in front of me.”
“Do they know about us? I mean, do they have the knowledge that I come to teach you chemistry and do they have a hint that there is a chemical reaction going on between our emotions producing a compound called love and…”
“Can you stop making our relationship repugnant with your silly chemistry?”, her eyes widened some more as she interrupted, staring at him. Her stare was too good to avoid. She brushed her fingers on his tanned skin which sent chills down his spine. “They do not know that a person by your name exists in my world” she said casually biting her lower lip. “Can you please help me with this equation; I’m not able to balance it.”
“Ya, sure” he said flipping her notebook to its cover page and putting it aside. He held her soft hands in his, signalling her to come to him. She obediently followed him, getting up from her chair and ushering herself on his lap, facing him crossing her legs and he stretched one of his arm around her. She had beautiful big round eyes just like one of those sweet cartoon girls which had the power of taking him to another world making him forget about his stresses. Her fair skinned legs, short skirt, loose t-shirt which hung over one of her shoulders were elements of distraction and her bare collar bone was tempting. He could feel her fragrance as she pulled herself closer to him and planted a peck on one of his cheeks. He could now feel himself getting intoxicated. He reached out his hand to feel her smooth fair cheeks, running his fingers down to the back of her neck and pulled her closer, his hand still resting on her neck. He could feel her warm breath when he ensconced his lips in hers and kissed her. She retreated and kissed him back with the same affection. They cuddled, with her head on his chest hearing his heart beats and his fingers playing with hers.
“Its quite late now and we should make it to bed otherwise we will be late for our works tomorrow morning. Isn’t it?” he reminded her.
“Yes you’re right”, she whispered getting up unwillingly.
He stood there in front of her still love lured.
“Don’t stare like a loony, the act is over now.” She ordered.
“Really, you never fail to amaze me with all that you have. Since the day we have been married, you continue giving me Goosebumps just the way I had it when I had fallen in love with you. These acts of student-teacher affair, boss-secretary affair, roadside Romeo flirts… these are amazing. They never let me feel the regret of never having a number of relationships during college days.” He said kissing her on her forehead and caressing the most valuable possession of his life.
He carried her to the bedroom and they made love all night as if it were for the first and the last time.
This was something before their lives saw a change and entered into new dimensions.
When they had fallen in love with each other, they were totally different from the mass, different from the trend and never got carried away by the prevailing fashion. The trend and fashion being “Distance relationship never works”. They were exceptions as it wasn’t a temporary relation of affection which they had wanted but a lifetime partnership in every joy and sorrow which life was to lend them. They had fallen in love when he was going abroad for further studies and they very well knew that it was not going to be a smooth run on the roll. Still, they held on even when there weren’t any contacts for longer days because they were sure of themselves that they would never feel the ping and the skips of their heartbeats with anyone else. They were simply made for each other. She had patiently waited for him and he had desperately worked harder to make himself eligible to give her all the happiness she deserved. After three long years when he returned, he proposed her princess to be his queen but without a ring and not on his knees.
“Can we meet at ‘The Fortune Plaza’ now? Lets have coffee and watch a movie” he spoke on the phone with her. She agreed and they met. Unlike others they didn’t have a long kiss in a secluded place but there was lot of sharing about how and what all they had managed in each other’s physical absence.
“I wanna ask you something… may I?”he enquired.
“Yes go on. You may have that freedom at least.” She laughed.
He handed her a package wrapped in a beautiful gift paper, looked into her eyes and said “I will be the happiest person on this planet if you make this dream of mine come true.”
“Yes for sure.”she replied even without seeing what was in there.
She carefully unwrapped the gift to find a photo frame with a picture of his family and in the photo beside him was she, edited well enough to give it a real touch.
Tears escaped instead of words. He placed his hand on hers and kissed her moistened lips softly. It was their first kiss.
This was how they got married. And things were still the same between the love birds. His duties towards their family and her duties towards their family never created a rift between them. At the end of the day they always used to find out time for each and be happy.
One day when he returned from his work…
“We do not have toys in our room. I wanna have sweet dolls, teddies and racing cars.” She demanded.
“What’s the point in having those? You are grown up and me too so lets play with each other.” He laughed at her silly wish.
“Umm… I may not play with those but your son or daughter arriving after some months will love to play with them.” She flashed the most beautiful smile to him.
He walked to her and cupped her face in his hands, “Is it really? I’m not able to believe we are going to share such a beautiful responsibility. Does anyone else in the family know about it?”
She shook her head directing a no,” I wanted you to be the first one to know it.”
“Thank you so much”, he whispered and hugged her.
The rest of the days were going on happily, informing everyone about the news, guessing whether it would be a boy or a girl and deciding the name of the new member yet to arrive.
One morning, just like every other morning, he was getting ready to set out on his work. She was just outside the room finding some stuffs and the next thing which the house heard was her loud scream. Everyone reached to her to find her unconscious in a pool of blood. She had slipped down the stairs, toppled with her abdomen facing down on the floor and he could feel happiness leaving his world. She was immediately rushed to the hospital. Doctors saved her but the baby was no more. They had suffered a loss which could never be revamped.
This accident put their love life in austerity wherein there was only duty but no love; there was care but no romance. He started working hard and even harder to forget what had happened. He built huge walls of isolation around his heart where no one was allowed to enter not even she. He used to leave home early but had no fixed time to return at night. He used to arrive home and find her asleep with a diary but he never cared to turn its pages asleep on either the couch or the study table.
Her condition was even worse. She used to talk less and avoided meeting people, showed no reactions to anyone. Her eyes had lost their sparkle and reflected her stoic nature. She was left alone without any care or love.
Two years had passed and he found himself again in the same hospital.
The beautiful lady without any movements lying on one of those hospital beds was her wife. He could see his family which was a nuclear one, surrounding her. His mother held her hand between her palms, the position where he should have been at this point of time, but he was not. He did not wish to see her like this. His feet were too scared to get inside the room. The cause of her illness was unknown. She seemed to be healthy physically but then that morning she hadn’t got up from bed. She was breathing but did not seem alive. He had thought that she was playing a prank wherein he had no time to enjoy it. He asked her to get up and help him as he was getting late for a meeting at the office which would have been a great benefit to his business, but she seemed to have no notice of this. This act of hers quite pissed him off as nothing had changed and he was the same stiff and work engrossed man. Even after repeated calls when she did not wake up he splashed a glass of water on her face to startle her up.
But what she did next, sent bolts down through his nerves. She neither opened her eyes nor screamed at him for this deed, instead she started grasping for breath like one of those patients suffering from suffocation. He did not have the least idea of what was happening. He quickly caught hold of her, shouted for his dad to call the ambulance, made her sit in a comfortable position so that she can breathe and be easy. After a few minutes she calmed down, yet had not opened her eyes. He held her in his arms, shook her but she was not getting back to senses. The doctor arrived and administered her with some medicines through injections, quickly prepared by the nurse; she murmured his name in pain. His eyes went watery at this but somehow he prevented himself from breaking down. The walls of isolation built by him had started breaking down leaving him shattered.
After many a tests, it was reported that her organs were functioning well and good expect that she was on the brink of depression and loneliness. He had a talk with the doctors and it was crystal clear to him now that she was in such an obscured state just because of lack of care. He turned out to be selfish and left her all alone when she needed him the most. His eyes welled up at this thought.
She was discharged but with no improvement. She needed love instead of medicine; she needed him instead of the doctors. He had changed for he did not want to lose her. He used to take calls from his work remaining at home with her all day long. He was determined to get her back however possible. He used to take care of every small thing that she needed. She started recovering soon and started speaking to him. He used to speak about those beautiful days they had spent once upon a time. He used to laugh and she used to smile. He used to cry and she used to wipe his tears with her feeble hands.
One night when she was asleep, he wanted to relive all those moments which they had spent happily. He went to the drawer for the albums and found her diary. This time he cared to turn on the pages…
‘Whenever I close my eyes and try to slip in the arms of slumber, I dream. Actually, its not a dream. Its a vision of a wish which I would love to see with my eyes closed so that I can feel it fully and completely. I dream of a lane with beautiful trees on either side, a bright sunny morning and in the midst of this beauty I see a couple holding hands and walking. I am not able to see their faces as they face their backside towards me and it seems as if I am following them. The girl there, is none other than me and the boy is YOU, I know. They keep on walking, smiling whenever their eyes meet while staring at each other at intervals, until they reach a place where they could seat themselves. They sit down under a tree at measured distance between them and start talking about something, which I am unable to hear. I can just see their smiles turning into laughter and it makes me happy too. The sweet hobnob now takes the shape of silence, they stop speaking and just have a look at each other. He shifts a bit closer to her and puts his arms around her. She looks into his eyes and then rests her head on his shoulder. Oh! How delighted I get to see such a wonderful scene because at least we are here together cherishing each other’s presence. I miss you badly.’ he read the words from her diary which screamed out the crime he had committed.
If only he had read this before she would not have been in this condition. The brightest possession of his life had lost all its colour and vigour and solely he was responsible for this situation. He could feel his dereliction of duty towards her. But it wasn’t too late to fill in those gaps of their lives. He immediately went to her, held her frail hands which made her wake up. He was on his knees with tears in his eyes.
“I know I have done wrong to you and there is no way that I can apologise but, please forgive me if you can. Please come back to me. I’m not able to bear this anymore.” He broke down.
After a long time today, her eyes felt the wetness of tears, “I am always with you. Don’t worry I will be well soon. Come; let me sleep in your arms today. I need you.”
–END–
