The canopy of the Yellow Be Still Tree flowers was spread out over her as she lay under it with a book in her hand and a straw hat on her face. Her shoes were lying in a heap next to her, and the Yellow five petal flowers from the tree were strewn around her on the lush grass as she removed the hat and squinted her eyes to check the time on her wristwatch. It was a breezy afternoon, and the tree swayed in the wind like a lone dancer moving to a favourite rhythm. Frowning to see the time she sat up and looked up at the sunlight that filtered through the leaves and made a latticework pattern over her. Picking up a fallen bloom she sniffed it, no smell whatsoever. She twisted it between her thumb and forefinger like a Pinwheel, watching it’s petals blur as they spiralled. A smile played on her lips.
Her eyes were fixed on the book, she bent and picked it up. Flipping the pages of the Khaled Hosseini novel, she retrieved a small envelope from its leaves. She removed a folded letter from the envelope and opened it with care. The paper was delicate and seemed like it had been smoothed back after being crushed hard. She placed the letter on her knees and smoothened it out once more, lovingly she did it. The handwriting was slanting and curvy. The T’s and F’s were made exquisitely, and written with a fountain pen. She ran her hand on the paper and kissed the paper as if it were a Bible. Her fingers trembled as she held it up close to her eyes, she wanted to read it one more time, but her eyes, damn her eyes, why were they all blurry. She closed her eyes in desperation, and two fat tear drops fell on the letter, where the sender’s name was signed, making the ink run.
Dear Leah,
I Love you and will keep doing so. You will be a part of my soul, but you can’t be a part of my life. You know why You know I am not Infidel, you see I am bound. Of all the letters I have ever written you, this is toughest one. Never thought one day I will be writing it. Time has rusted our once Perfect relationship. You know how manyTiffs we had, how may reconciliations. When you find this letter, I would be gone, my bags are packed as I write this, I have emptied the drawers as well. I packed it all.
What I haven’t packed are all the rainy days with you, the nights wrapped with you. Some more stuff is there as well. One Autumn, some dried leaves from our garden. Get rid of them for me. One umbrella, with us two under it, I am taking half rain with me, but a damp shirt is still with you, send that. 16 full moon nights and few fake promises, some mock teasing, pack all. Just bury them all, cremate them all for me, I couldn’t muster that much courage.
My last goodbye for you. I Love You……
Carl
She was blinded with tears by the time she read his name, it was wet with her tears. She folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope and kept the envelope in the book before shutting the book close. While standing up she bent down to gather some Yellow Lucky Nut flowers, the tree had many names. They had both spent countless evenings under it. A smile played on her lips as she thought about the time she had told him she will eat its flowers and he had promised her that it will never be needed as he would never leave her. Walking up to the house she picked each flower one by one and ate its petals, one by one she ate them and by the time she was back inside her cottage all the flowers were gone. All the stuff he left behind needed to be buried, just like he told her to. It can go to the grave with her. After all, the tree had one more name, Suicide Tree.
She was on her way home. Her overcoat was making a huge shadow on the pavement under the blaring street lights. High heels are making that typical rattle as she walked purposefully with her hands deep in her pockets. It was cold; her breath was fogged, and her eyes were obscured by the hood of her coat. She is moving down the maze of alleys, a left, a right, another right and then down the street all the way to JOE’S CORNER. The delicious smell of his hamburgers hit her nostrils even before she has turned the corner and she felt ravenous. Joe was at the stove, turning patties over a skillet, tossing them in the air and catching them back in the skillet. She made her way into the shop and straight to the kitchen. Joe beamed to see her and nodded towards the booths in the diner. She smiled back at him and said “not today Joe, I am in a hurry”, and she moved the crisp note over the counter to him. He slid a juicy hamburger towards her; she was back on the road the very next moment with the burger in her hand. It was huge; she knew Joe makes her with extra love, adding more cheese, more fries and more of everything just for her. She was halfway through her burger, licking her fingers now and then when she heard another pair of footsteps behind her.
Not bothering with them she kept walking to her small apartment above the cottage that was used as a artists studio, he has let her rent the small room with kitchenette above it for the half the price, just for the sake that she will clean his studio once a week. She had agreed happily, and it was the place she called home now. She wiped her hands and mouth with the tissue paper wrapped around the burger when she was done eating and chucked it in the next bin she saw, near the last corner before her home. Something made her turn around and scan the deserted alley. There was no one there; the footsteps were gone. Back on the way she turned to the apartment street and rummaged inside her bag for the keys. She found them at the bottom and climbed the narrow spiral staircase that led to her apartment. She inserted the key in the lock when she felt a huge hand cover her mouth and another on her neck, holding a knife. She felt choked and struggled, but his grip on her was a vice like. She stomped her heel into his toes and added her weight to it. He let her go with a scream and lost his balance, to get back stable he grabbed her coat and dragged her down the staircase as he fell. She yelled and cried each time her head banged on each step till they finally lay in a heap at the bottom of the last step. She couldn’t see, the pain had blinded her. Sitting up immediately she felt the Earth under her slip, he was upon her like a snake, covering her body with his.
Not finding any way to get him off her as he tried to throttle her with both hands she yanked his jacket hard. All sight was losing her as she was getting short on oxygen with each passing second and suddenly she felt something under her hand, in his jacket pocket. It was a small knife, she extracted it from his pocket, he was busy killing her, and without notice, she drove the knife hard into him. His face was directly over her when she saw his eyes close in pain and mouth open in agony. It was a while before he let go of her throat, she scooted out from under him and sat up coughing. She couldn’t breathe, taking huge filling breaths she sat on the pavement, sweating and shocked. Turning on the spot, she saw him lying on his stomach, upper body on the last step and lower half on the sidewalk. Hot tears flowed from her eyes, the burger she just ate was back up in her throat, and she will throw up. She managed to stand up, still coughing and breathing heavily and ran to the dumpster where she just chucked the tissue and puked in it. She couldn’t stand straight till every last ounce of that burger was out of her system. Falling back on the sidewalk she crawled on all fours to the spot where he lay, immobile. Her frail body rocked hard with sobs; she was trying to say something, her voice seemed to come from far away, “OH MY GOD! I KILLED HIM. I KILLED JOE”.
She sat on the floor, broken down, shaking, shattered. She was sitting in between a kaleidoscope of broken glass; its fragmented powdery shards dusted the black landing around her. The Room of Mirrors was gone. There were no mirrors that would multiply her from one to many.
She was alone, sitting there, breathing heavy. Her breathing was ragged, and she pulled out her hair in agony that was not physical but mental. Her scream shook her; she screamed long and loud, her head turned upwards. Her shrieks reverberated around her making some Kinetic energy that was making a circle of sound waves around her. Encircling her, Engulfing her. The hot tears rolled down her face, they burned her eyes, but they were no more tears, it was blood that has broken the last glass, her eyes.
This room was her Haven and her Sanctuary. She could not hide more from the reality, her reality. She had made these mirrored walls to increase her strength manifolds. She has pushed back her monsters behind those walls. Now they were lurking out again. Their glowing red eyes are looking at her from every corner. Her cries were keeping them at bay. The broken glass dust was beginning to lift off the ground.
Soon enough her scream turned to a never-ending boom that was making the ground under her shake. The mirror dust had made a debris cyclone around her, making her the Storm Cell in the centre of it. She spread her arms and raised them above her head, and the wind rose up, lifting her up with it. She was Levitating, floating unsupported in the air. Her face turned upwards, and a bright blinding light was coming from her eyes, it was robust and white enough to make all the monsters close their eyes.
She convulsed once and let our a scream that was sufficient to make anyone’s ears bleed and go deaf. All those monsters retreated into the darkness, and she rose up higher and higher in the air, her outstretched arms seemed to control that whirlwind that was making the thin flimsy dress around her flutter and made her look like a white butterfly. Her hair was flowing behind her, making a halo of orange light behind her.
She was obscured from view by the glass dust around her grew so thick that it became impossible to see her. Her last scream was never-ending, and all the light was swallowing her up. And suddenly she went silent; the light was gone, the cry was gone, the wind and the storm had ceased. The glass was turned to fine sand as it lost inertia and fell back on the ground making a wispy sound. Everything went silent and still. Like Time had stopped. The monsters came out from the shadows to hunt her down and feast on her from all sides.
But in the middle of the space, where they expected to find the girl whose soul they had come to claim had gone. She was not there, only her dress remained, lay in a heap in the middle of the debris. She had done it. She had managed to escape the room in which was trapped for years. She had broken those walls, smashed those mirrors, escaped those monsters and left that darkness. Now it was light that she saw, and her soul, white, whole, content. She was Successful. She was victorious. She was liberated. Finally !
The light was green, the bus was moving and had crossed the Zebra crossing as he looked at her retreating back vanish when she took a left turn in the first lane, and he was aware that with a sense of doom. He gripped the handles of the door tightly, telling himself that he has no business with her, she was just a co-passenger. He turned to get back to his seat and was about to sit when he saw something flash under the seat she had occupied minutes ago.
It was glinting in the sunlight, curious, he bent and crawled a little picking it up. It was a solitaire diamond ring; he has never seen one that big in his whole life. “Must have cost her a fortune? He thought,”Maybe it was a gift from someone, maybe from the one in the picture she tore away”. Suddenly he felt his heart fill with an Enthusiasm and he did a turnaround, grabbed his laptop bag tightly around his neck and arm and ran for the door. The bus was still moving slow when he got down and ran in the direction she had gone. Without looking this or that side, he ran at full speed dodging into people on the kerb road, saying a quick sorry to each shoulder he bumped into, taking the first left and squinting its length when he came to a crossroads. It was leading to three roads except the one he came from. He stood there a little breathless looking here and there for a sign of her which would lead him to her, but no, she wasn’t seen around. He climbed the overhead bridge to scan the roads from a height when he saw her emerge from a shop right ahead. He shouted loudly waving the hand in which he held the ring “Hello, Hello MA’AM, HEY YOU FROM THE BUS”, she looked here and there and then saw him up there. There was indifference on her face that was replaced by shock and then anger as she turned and walked real fast in the opposite direction. He saw her give him a dodge and got down the overhead bridge and ran after her.
He didn’t know why he was so desperate to return her the ring, to talk to her, to know what trouble she was in when she apparently wanted him to leave her alone. He ran at full speed as she too increased her pace but caught with her and snatched her wrist. She was made to turn in a circle with the impact as he went for a spin himself and they both fell to the ground. He was thrown to left and she to the right. He sat up and took few deep breaths holding the stitch in his side as she looked at him with obvious anger from where she sat up. They both got up simultaneously as he saw her come up to him. Her eyes were blazing with anger; he felt weak to see the smouldering eyes bore into his. “Who the hell do you think you are? Loafer! Romeo!, good for nothing stalker. How dare you follow me? A girl is never safe in this city. I will take you to the police and get you arrested for stalking” She said with hateful anger in one go as he let her talk, but he felt his anger boil up and surface when he showed her the palm of his hand and kept a finger on his lips, signalling her to stop talking. His action made her stop talking in reflex as she was hyperventilating in anger and he grabbed her right hand, and placed her ring in her palm, closing it back in a fist and threw her hand back to her side. She was speechless as she opened her palm again and saw the single, round diamond sitting in her palm.
She stood there looking at the ring as her eyes teared up once again, but this time he did not let her see his heart melt and walked back to the way he came. There was so much he wanted to say, to ask, but his self-respect was second to none, and she has just insulted him real bad without any mistake. He was walking briskly and went back to the red light and slumped on a side railing, waiting for the next bus. He never realised, but he was seething with rage. Looking at his watch, he cursed himself for being the impulsive fool. Now he will reach home late and miss the match. He has been waiting for the India-Pakistan match for so long. He had betted good money in this game. This was the only flaw in him, he loved to bet some money on matches, though he knew it was not right, the thrill to watch the game increased manifolds if he knew his money was on it. He was an ardent cricket fan and never had better money anywhere else in his whole life. The last match he lost all the money, but today he was sure to win. He was lost in thought when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around to see who it was when he saw the same girl standing there. “You? Why are you back? I am a stalker and a Loafer and a Romeo Madam; please steer clear of me.” he spoke spitefully. She was quite as she held her head down and told a Sorry. It was hardly audible over the Delhi traffic, but he heard it loud and clear, the most heartfelt sorry it was which made him guilty instantaneously. He watched as two fat tear drop rolled down her face as she sniffed and wiped them off with a flimsy handkerchief. Looking up she gave him a weak smile and said “Thank you so much, I couldn’t afford to lose that ring; it was all I had to sell” her voice broke as she talked. “You saw me come out of that shop, I went to sell this ring only, but when I did not find it in my bag I was broken and that shopkeeper humiliated me as well. So when I came out and saw you, I was annoyed at the whole world. I knew I had lost it on the bus and had no hope to get it back. But thanks to you, you came back all that way to return it, and you missed your bus as well for me. And me, I am so ungrateful, I scolded you instead of thanking you” In one go she said it all and was resolved back into tears. He didn’t know what to say and how to react, “Do you always talk without breaks, not letting the other person speak ?” he said looking earnestly into her face and saw it broke into a warm smile as she wiped her tears, nodding her head in a no.
“Now that you have found your ring and I have missed my bus a second time, let us help each other. Would you like to share what is troubling you with me, maybe I can be of help ?” He said pointing to the bus that just passed the signal as she followed it. She looked at him as if sizing him up, deciding whether he is good enough to help her or share her problem with. An unsure look clouded the weak smile on her lips as she parted her lips and closed them back. He was quiet, he knew that this morning is not a typical morning, he knew some strange phenomenon had brought them together today, and he was waiting for the day to unfold itself as he looked at her keenly.
Streaming Forward, Powered By The Past - if you love the 80s music, new music, Eurovision, cheesy pop and awesome playlists then let's get this pop party started!
Underground Bases, Celebrity Cloning, Breakaway Civilizations, Zero-Point Field Technology, Soul/Consciousness Transfer, Immortality, Trauma-Based Mind-Control, Genetic Engineering, DNA Activation, Time Travel, Psychology and Consciousness, The Unveiling
He didn’t know why he was so desperate to return her the ring, to talk to her, to know what trouble she was in when she apparently wanted him to leave her alone. He ran at full speed as she too increased her pace but caught with her and snatched her wrist. She was made to turn in a circle with the impact as he went for a spin himself and they both fell to the ground. He was thrown to left and she to the right. He sat up and took few deep breaths holding the stitch in his side as she looked at him with obvious anger from where she sat up. They both got up simultaneously as he saw her come up to him. Her eyes were blazing with anger; he felt weak to see the smouldering eyes bore into his. “Who the hell do you think you are? Loafer! Romeo!, good for nothing stalker. How dare you follow me? A girl is never safe in this city. I will take you to the police and get you arrested for stalking” She said with hateful anger in one go as he let her talk, but he felt his anger boil up and surface when he showed her the palm of his hand and kept a finger on his lips, signalling her to stop talking. His action made her stop talking in reflex as she was hyperventilating in anger and he grabbed her right hand, and placed her ring in her palm, closing it back in a fist and threw her hand back to her side. She was speechless as she opened her palm again and saw the single, round diamond sitting in her palm.
He turned around to see who it was when he saw the same girl standing there. “You? Why are you back? I am a stalker and a Loafer and a Romeo Madam; please steer clear of me.” he spoke spitefully. She was quite as she held her head down and told a Sorry. It was hardly audible over the Delhi traffic, but he heard it loud and clear, the most heartfelt sorry it was which made him guilty instantaneously. He watched as two fat tear drop rolled down her face as she sniffed and wiped them off with a flimsy handkerchief. Looking up she gave him a weak smile and said “Thank you so much, I couldn’t afford to lose that ring; it was all I had to sell” her voice broke as she talked. “You saw me come out of that shop, I went to sell this ring only, but when I did not find it in my bag I was broken and that shopkeeper humiliated me as well. So when I came out and saw you, I was annoyed at the whole world. I knew I had lost it on the bus and had no hope to get it back. But thanks to you, you came back all that way to return it, and you missed your bus as well for me. And me, I am so ungrateful, I scolded you instead of thanking you” In one go she said it all and was resolved back into tears. He didn’t know what to say and how to react, “Do you always talk without breaks, not letting the other person speak ?” he said looking earnestly into her face and saw it broke into a warm smile as she wiped her tears, nodding her head in a no.
Quill & Parchment 