Destiny is a real gamer
and we all are players here; Players of the game whose rules are missing. The
game is called life. They both were dying and their story was dying with them
as well. But, destiny had different plans for them. It chose one person to live
and other person to die. It broke ‘They’ into two ‘I’s’
When you lose someone,
his/her memories become the stone tied to you. It doesn't matter how far you try
to walk away and how difficult it is to walk away. The big stone scrolls with you, leaving a scratch on every step you walk away.
Arjun was coming back
to Ruhi. And, they were meeting at the coffee shop he worked at. They both were
ill, were on medicines, and the treatments were still going on. Yet, they
borrowed a day from their diseases and decided to spend it with each
other.
For one more day,
they wanted to be ‘they.’
Arjun’s train was a
little late and Ruhi was already waiting for him in the café. The color of her
face was already fainted, but the smile on her face was thin and long. She was
happy that she was finally seeing him after a long time and he was running out
of breath as he ran out of the railway station. He waved his hand to stop an
Auto and asked the auto-rickshaw wala
to take him to the café. He said no.
Arjun tried and asked
another Auto wala. He refused too.
He was feeling short of
breath, he desperately needed some water,
he sat down for a while and then continued his battle to find an
auto-rickshaw. He somehow got one and reached exactly one hour and twenty three
minutes late.
Ruhi was still waiting
for him. The smile didn't shrink at all. She was getting restless to have a
sight of him. She had already eaten her nails and had two coffees and
eventually she told herself to sit patiently and wait. He pushed open the door
and walked inside. She stood up from her chair and he leaned forward to hug her.
“What if I don’t’ let
you end the hug?” He moved his hand on her waist and collected her into him.
“I will shout,” She
giggled somewhere in his chest.
“I must kiss you then…”
He boxed more closer into her.
“Tumhara Romance always chalu na…” [You are always in mood of
romance.]
He unlocked her after a
long lasting hug. As they sat down on the opposite chairs, a part of them was
still standing there and hugging each other. She was finally having some colors
on her face, her face turned a little pink. He stared deep into her eyes, he
always did. She never figured out what he was looking at. Her eyes were as
normal as someone else's eyes.
“Stop looking at me
like this,” She blushed.
“I’m not looking at
you, I am looking through you. You know what I see?”
“The wall?”She
chuckled.
“I see us. We are
healthy and happy somewhere in the future,” He smiled. She bit her lips and
faked a smile.
Arjun’s friend served
them coffee without even ordering and they smiled at him. “How are you doing
man?” His friend asked.
“Just talking about
future,” Arjun smiled back. His friend served the coffee and walked to the
other end of counter.
“So, you are recovering?” He asked her.
“I hope so,” She lied
diplomatically. There were no hopes left for her. HIV was multiplying and wasn't stopping even after trying almost everything.
“Good, Doctor said I
will be all fine in maximum four months,” Arjun smiled genuinely and sipped the
coffee.
She faked a smile that
looked genuine for a while and before a tear could trickle down from her eyes,
she opted to excuse herself from the table and walked to the washroom. Her
steps were quick but couldn't make her sob on the other side of the wall. Tears
trickled down her eyes, and she somehow
locked herself in the washroom. She sat down on the floor and sobbed loudly.
Her voice was audible outside. Arjun woke up and ran to the washroom's door.
Ruhi wasn't crying
because she was dying and Arjun was surviving. Ruhi was crying because he had
already seen future with her and now she couldn't hurt him by disappearing from everywhere and leaving him alone to live
in the future. She wanted him to get over her and live a normal life; make a
normal girlfriend and marry her.
“Are you okay?” He
asked and slapped the door twice.
She looked for a tissue
paper or a handkerchief to wipe her tears and put her hand in her pocket. As
she searched for it, her hand got a hold on a pilot pen inside her pocket. She
pulled it out and abruptly started digging its nib in her left wrist. After 10 hits, few blood drops managed to ooze out of her
skin. She sobbed more and more, hit more and more and closed her eyes.
She opened her eyes in
a very warm environment; hospital obviously. Arjun and her family were around
and there was a bandage on her wrist. The clock hung above showed 2:39 AM. She
noticed him on the chair beside her bed. He was still staring at her with the
same look.
“What were you trying
to do?” He shrugged.
“Kill myself,” she
whispered like a baby.
“With a pen?” He raised
his eyebrows and smiled.
She nodded.
“And why you wanted to
kill yourself?"
“Because this HIV is
increasing day by day and when you said- You see a HEALTHY and happy future
through me. I knew it wasn't possible and I couldn't tell you that and…. And…”
She tried to breathe. “And… I Love you and I cannot hurt you by ruining your
future and present. I wanted to kill myself so that you can have a better
present.”
“Okay.”
He smiled and held her
hand. He was in no mood of explanation. The only explanation to it were those
two tickets for Shimla he booked.
“We are going to
Shimla,” He said.
“Why?”
“My grandmother lives
there and it is a beautiful place to be with you,”
“And?” She expected a
reasonable answer.
“And… I am marrying
you,” He blinked.
She blin…. Nah! She was
too happy and shocked to blink.
*****
Shimla:
Few Years Later
“Grand maa, where is
Ruhi?” Arjun was finally back from his hometown. He was worried about her. They hadn't talked to each other since last few days and he desperately wanted to
hug and listen to her voice.
“Upstairs… where you
both sit,” Grand maa replied.
“But, it is snowing
outside.”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
He jumped on the stairs
and reached the balcony. “Ruhi…” He called her. She didn't reply. She was just
lying there lifeless on the ground. He ran towards her and checked her pulse.
Her body was fuming and he couldn't spot the pulses.
“Grand maa… Call the
ambulance,” he shouted.
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