The Night When Her Cell Beeped

She was trying to escape the gregarious chase by a group of naked monks. The notorious boys caught the glimpse of her being a loner. They, who were finding solace against the scorching sun in the chilly meandering river, winding their way up and down, started their wild chase the moment they spotted her.

 Sensing the danger approaching her faster than what she presumed it to be, she tried running with all her might. In spite of her every effort to run away, she was horrified to know that the distance between them kept reducing every time she glanced back.

Turning a deaf ear to the incessant calls and the comments, she picked up her pace. She tried not to let the words hamper her pace but it hammered her. She wished if the unforgiving words could make a clean exit through her other ear as cleanly as it made its entry from the other. But the cruel words kept on regurgitating and reverberating in her mind. It sank to her heart with such a penetrating power that it has left an irrevocable trail. She felt her leg muscles contract with an involuntary jerk.

She was soaked in her own perspiration, the beads clinging to every hair of hers. The copious secretion from her tear glands trickled spontaneously. The moment when she felt a firm grip was when she sensed the whole universe collapsing on her with sheer cold-blooded mode. She closed her eyes and the last thing she remembered was her landing on the rugged terrain beneath with a thud.

The constant beep and the vibrating tremor of her cell awakened her to the delightful world of reality. It was only 2 a.m. in the morning and she was stunned as to who could be calling her in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, she was grateful to whoever the caller may be. For she was elevated from her childhood incident projected into a hysterical nightmare, she felt indebted to the caller.

Upon tapping on the green button of her cell, she had to confront a call from an unknown number, from an unknown man with an unleashed identity. Every attempt of her to put an end to the conversation was his effort to prolong it.

Seconds ticked to pile into minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days and then to months. The pages of their love story were wiped away by time and a year elapsed by with the same routine.

However, she was oblivious of the mythological force that dragged her into the situation. She was talking to a man whom she have never seen in her life, hailing from a place which she haven’t yet been to, trusting the words of a stranger, doing God only knew what he was up to and his intentions.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt happy, worried and at times it had her eyes welled up with tears. She was plunged into a mixed feeling of confusion, joy, apprehensiveness and rueful moans.

A day dawned on the long-awaited encounter of the two love-birds. The moment when they stood face to face was when she felt the blood rushing to her face, and her heart racing at the fastest pace. To her eyes, he looked flawless and as serene as the immaculate white lab coat encasing almost half his body.

First, it was the way in which he framed and ushered each of the syllables through his lips, second was his physique and the third thing was his profession that let her to accumulate more and more feelings down the profile of her love.

Their second encounter was a time out together for a walk. The next time when he asked her to join him for a movie together, she refused for an unkempt reason. However, she went along with a female friend of hers. To her utter astonishment, she found him seated right in front of her. The guilt, which then started to mount in her, commanded her to be ignorant of his presence.

But what can avert the vision of a destined eye? No sooner did he take a seat on her right side, swinging back and fro in bliss on the cozy seat beneath. With her cold fingers intertwined in between his warm ones and his consistent gaze, she couldn't really pay heed to the characters displayed on the screen.

Soon they were out of the theater. She trailed behind him with him leading the path. At that instant, she received a call from her brother telling her that he is on his way to pick her up. Just then, her accomplice tried to rummage each and every pocket in search of his cell. He rushed back to the theater and returned with his face as pale as a lost child.

The instantaneous honking of a car jogged her memory that it was time for her to leave. As she turned towards the car and stepped forward reluctantly, he muttered, “Babe, wait for my call. I will get a new cell soon. Don’t forget me. I love you”.

 The period aftermath seemed so still and empty without a word from him. Every minute, she was dying to hear his voice. All her hopes and dreams were shattered into the empty sky above. She waited day and night until the last tinge of hope faded from her.