Maureen

It was the last letter I received from Maureen. She had dipped every word in pain.. the pain that had been woven together.. Teary and desolate , I read every word of it... with a heavy heart .. she was pleading for a closure, even after all these years..  It took me a lot of courage to decide what should I do? Should I give her what she had been asking all these years ; An ending to her love story or should I let the agony be?
 All through the night, these thoughts raced through my mind and I was unable to sleep even for a second. By the crack of the dawn, I had convinced myself  that if it has not gone all his time, it wouldn't end now. In my view the letter I had received 2 years ago should have been the last one, but this letter in my hand proved me wrong.
 Next morning I left to see Maureen.. I had decided to look her in the face and tell her of the burden that I was carrying on my chest.  A strange feeling griped my very being as reached her place.. It was a very artistic Victorian style house.. she was a woman of class..
I looked at my unsteady hands and took a deep breath...A few seconds after I had knocked, a young lad opened the door.. Thick black hair fell carelessly on his broad forehead, deep blue eyes looked at me eagerly as I missed his greeting ...
"Uh, excuse me sir?" His concerned voice brought me back to reality. I couldnt help but notice that he had the same dimple that I was so familiar with.. A dimple that distracted the listeners and laughed at the helpless admiration of the opposite..
"Umm , oh yeah ..... Can I.. Can I see her? ............ Maureen?"
His frown deepened... "Are you friends with her?"
"I know her very well... Yes..".. he invited me inside and sat me down, offering a cup of tea .It was that very moment that fear uncoiled inside me.. I was here to put an end to someone's wait .. a wait that was now a part of her life.. her routine.. I was there to take away the moments she spent in the evening sitting by the window staring in her past. I was there to take away her reason to write a letter again.. I was there to make all her unfinished letters meaningless..

Then all of a sudden,before I could run away, she walked in the room and I ... saw her... I saw the person, who had haunted my life .. Who was unknown yet I knew her down to the pores of her fingers... I was spell bound !!

"Hello... I am Maureen but i am sorry I don't seem to remember you? She smiled.. The dimple peeked at me..
I stood up abruptly .. "Yes, I am sorry.. U don't know me" I choked on my words.
"You ... your voice and your eyes.. "She left her sentence incomplete and shook her head.
"I am Sebastian's brother ,Maureen..." I said in a voice so low that I could hardly hear my own self speak and yet she heard me.. She didn't hear his name, she smelled it..
"Sailor's younger brother" she whispered.. suddenly, the air was moist .. I felt as if the time, that one second had frozen.. One second , just the way she wanted... that was the moment of agony..
"How is he?" I stared at her .. was she crying because she knew the answer already or was it because she knew and my visit confirmed it... What efforts we put in avoiding the sad truth and there I was, 6ft of sad and unavoidable truth. I couldn't look her in the eye.. i felt terribly guilty.
"I  received your letter yesterday. Just like all the letters you have been sending all these years..." I stopped and gave her a chance to get up , shout at me .. tell me.. how dare I.. How dare Sebastian...but she just sat there... silent with a lot of tears...
"He didn't go on any voyage.. He couldn't.. The day he came to Sicily to meet us.. he was thrilled..." The memory came alive right in front of my eyes... "He couldn't stop talking about you.. He was drenched and drunk in love.. He took me with him and we came back to Paris .. He was fine until he wasn't.." My voice shook ..
" He threw up ... all over the patio .. blood.. he threw up blood .." Pain and horror spread across her beautiful face .. The two very emotions Sebastian vowed never to subject Maureen to ..
"He showed me the ring .. He said that it was made for just one very special person on earth.. designed to seal the fate of you two alone.. He told me that it was a cursed ring.. either for u or for none.. " I reached inside my pocket and place an old box on the table. The color of the box cloth had faded in all those years..
"Why ..... why didn't he come to me.. I would have loved him just the same.. I would have... "
" He looked at your photograph and read your letters again and again and again.. till he could read no more, see no more, breath no more .. He was in love with your gleeful laughter Maureen, only and only the laughter ... "
"Did he think I would laugh after he disappeared .... ?? " anger, betrayal.. and more anger...\
"No, Living make memories.. you hope to see them again.. accidentally... but death..its the real end.. no more chances of lucky co-incidences... and you laughed , didn't you? when u married and had children.. when your child uttered his first word and took his first step.. "

Maureen didn't say anything.. She quietly went inside ... i walked myself out .. she needed time... she needed a lot of time.. to look at the box I had left on the table.. and the ring inside.. then may be , one day she would even want to see her Sailor so I left the address of his resting place inside the box ..


P.S: Someone read 'The last letter' and wrote the other side of story.. I edited it and here it is. THANK YOU 'AA' for this :)