HE.... the perished love!

The patient was brought in an emergency in the middle of the night. He had incurred serious injuries, the blood covered face indicated handsome features. Right now, his strong body was laying lump on the stretcher. His arrival stirred the otherwise quite environment of the emergency room. The doctor on duty was alerted at once. He was a middle aged man; his features were soft and spoke of wisdom. He rushed forward and took charge. Giving off hurried instructions to his staff, he felt a pang of pity for the patient.

As he started to walk away, he spotted a girl, leaning across the door’s frame. In all the hurry, nobody seemed to have noticed her. She had also sustained injuries; he could tell that she was in pain. The doctor approached her but surprisingly she ignored him and ran towards where the patient had been taken. She absolutely refused to leave the patient there on the mercy of doctors. Understanding the trauma she might be going through, doctor treated her in the same room. The patient had been given the initial treatment and was shifted to the ICU. She had to leave him.  Two hours later, doctor came back to check on the patient, it took him by surprise to see her standing in the very same position looking through glass window. Her eyes were set on the patient’s bruised face. He hadn’t seen her cry once since her arrival; instead she had turned into a tear herself. Every inch of her was wailing silently. Years and years of practice in hospital had turned him somewhat, stoic towards the injuries and the pain but at the moment where night was blending into a new day, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pretty girl.  For the first time in the whole time he looked at her closely. She was fair and had dark hair, some fragments of which were dyed blue and they hung loosely over her shoulders. She wasn’t a neat freak. Wrist band and bracelets covered her wrists. She was wearing a black jeans and black jacket.

She sensed his presence and titled her neck a little to see who it was. Her eyes were very dark, almost black. Black hole was the word that popped into his mind. There was nothing in those eyes, like those deep wells that ended up nowhere in earth.  He tried to judge what was going inside her head by looking at her face and expressions but he failed. Her face was blank as sheet. Not even pain was registered there. He felt disappointed and wondered who she was and what made her stand in the chilly corridor for the patient. What the hell was she thinking!

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She heard the doctors footsteps grow fainter. She took a deep sigh and rested her head against the window. She couldn’t believe it was him, lying their covered with a white sheet as if he were dead. But how can he be dead. She knew he can’t die. Not like that.  Suddenly, she found herself traveling back in time.

She had been sitting quietly on her favorite wall, doing catharsis. Life had been so strange, not once in her 19 years of life she felt related. On the contrary, she always found herself to be an alien. She never understood which of the two parties was defected: world or herself.

She was so deeply engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the stranger approaching her. It was his intended cough that broke her train of thought. Displeasure spread across her face, she did less to hide it. She hated the intrusion and made it very clear to the stranger by her gestures. She took no time in walking away from the place. She hated him for breaking in into her privacy. Who the hell was he!

In the coming days, she encountered him many times and every time she replied his smile with a cold stare. She was sure her stare was cold enough to change the physical state of liquid into ice but it was he, who seemed to take no notice of it. Her irritation level rose each time she saw him. Many a times she walked towards her favorite wall only to find him sitting there already. What the hell does he want!

Days passed by and she grew tired of the irritation or maybe she had just compromised with his presence. In her mind, she had accepted him to be a part of that wall and stopped feeling uneasy at his presence. She started to go there again for she couldn’t stay away from that place for much long. A part of soul lived there. 

She was used to having non living things as her secret keepers, may be that’s why it took her so long to accept a breathing soul as her friend and when she finally did, she felt so deeply affiliated to him as she was the lost part of him. She would just sit and look into those honey-colored eyes and see a whole new world waiting. It was another alien feeling: To love and to be loved.

It caught her off guard completely, the strength of his feeling and that of her own and the bond they shared. He would know of the prefect thing to say to her, surprising her every time with his care and love and his capability of making her joyous. He had built her a house on cloud number 9! And in return she had given her everything she owned, her heart, mind, soul, her thoughts, her love, care and trust. She had rested her life in his hands. He was all she had ever owned.

She came into reality when the nurse on duty politely asked her to go home and rest. She noticed that that broad daylight had spread in the corridor. Rest, how could she go away when she could see him suffering? She nodded her head and tried to concentrate again on him but she felt dizzy. She tried to keep herself upright but the world before her was swaying and before she could understand anything she fell down hitting the ground with a force. Everything went black.

It was the month of September, the sky that evening was very clear and clouds had formed strange shapes. She spent sometime trying to give funny names to the cloud shapes but soon turned her attention to the book she had meant to read for so long. It was a love story; she loved it until the hero met an unfortunate end and died. The intensity of the story made her heart ache and she couldn’t help but cry. For the girl, the guy and for the very love that was there and the unfortunate end they met. She needed her consoler. And as soon as his name popped into head, the phone rang. He couldn’t make out a single word through her muffled voice and sobbing, but listened to her nevertheless.

She remembered him coming to her house after sometime and taking her to the beach. She sat on a rock and folded her arms around her legs and rested her head over them. He sat near her. Night fell: Long and silent. She refused to go home. He didn’t insist. When she got tired of sitting, she rested her head on his shoulder .it was the first ever intimate contact between them. He spread his arm around her and took her in his strong embrace.  She remembered falling asleep in his sweet embrace that night on that beach rock. Her head resting upon his chest and hand placed directly over his heart. She loved the beating motion of the heart and wanted to thank the organ for pumping life into him. She woke up when the sun ray hit her face. For some time she couldn’t understand where she was. She looked up to see his smiling face. She couldn’t believe he sat there all night and never moved, only to let her sleep peacefully. He took care of her like she was a doll made of glass, delicate and precious. She felt shy being so close to him, but his casual attitude gave her confidence. She loved being with him, every moment of it. She so wished she had a stop watch. She would have frozen the time, right then and there! Forever.

A prick in her arm stirred up her senses. She opened her eyes and found herself laid down in white bed. It was a hospital bed. She remembered everything and regretted it. She had no idea how much time had passed but it was hours for she could see the sun going down in the sky. The sky was red like a mourner’s blood shot eyes. She saw the doctor coming, and tried to sit, couldn’t so she dropped the idea. He gave her an encouraging smile but some how she felt as if he was hiding something. His smile gave him away. She again tried to get up, this time the doctor help her. She tied her laces, one of which came loose again, as always. She remembered this to be their joke. He always called the loose lace her, because it could never be tightened. She walked passed the doctor, entered the lobby and moved towards the ICU. She didn’t enter it; she had already seen the empty bed through the glass window. Her heart was ripped off her chest. She drew in a breath with difficulty. A pang of pain traveled across her body but she didn’t care. She knew it was just the beginning of it. There was a long way to go and he had left her with this as her companion.

She dropped her head and made her way to the exit. The doctor tried to say something to comfort her but found himself deprived of words. Before she disappeared from his sight, he saw a single tear make its ways out of her eye and ran down her cheek. She took no notice of it.

 The doctor took a deep sigh and tried to imagine what her life would be like from now onwards. He had no idea.