He jogged on the pavement. Earphones blasting with some punk
music. Sneakers thudding on the wet ground.
As always, he ran.
She looked outside her window. She couldn’t see him yet. She
searched frantically amid the crowd on the street below.
Finally spotting his unmistakeable blonde head, she sighed in relief.
He slowed his jog to a walk as he approached the old
battered building across the road. Weaving his hand through his hair, he looked
up and saw the girl again.
Like every day.
He knew she looked at him, since the very beginning. Once or
twice, they had even shared a smile. A smile that seemed to illuminate up her
face from inside.
Today, she looked different. Even from down below he could
say that confidently. She was pale. Paler than usual. The skin around her eyes
was tight. So much so, that he wondered whether it would crack up like a porcelain
doll.
And her hair….her beautiful brown mane, which shone at him from the old
rat-house, was gone.
His face tightened. She grew conscious. It was silly of her
to stand there for him. She didn’t want to worry him. She had no business worrying him. She had a coughing fit just then. Her body
began to tremble. And in chilling moment of clarity, she knew it was over. She
would never stand at this window again.
She didn’t want him to see her in her weak state. She willed herself to stop
and with her very last strength, drew the curtains to block her view. She felt
like a door had been slammed on her face.
______________________________________________________________________
Today again he jogged his way out of the 6 o’clock crowd.
Didn’t they know he had to be somewhere? Didn’t they realize his urgency?
When he reached the building, he flinched back
instinctively. He suddenly felt hopeless. He felt like someone had gutted him
in the stomach and stole his dreams. He felt the bile rising in his food pipe.
Thank God, he dint throw up.
The window was shut.
______________________________________________________________________
Sarah Delia was a God-fearing woman. Meaning, she never
missed a Sunday prayer. In her 75 years, she has never missed a morning mess.
Nor did she forget to pray every night like her nana had taught her.
She was
clean and stopped evil thoughts before they formed.
Her father, had left her a
three-storied house at the corner of Park-Street and she lived off renting
rooms to odd kinds of people.
This day, was a Sunday, and so she was getting ready to walk
down to the church. Knowing it to be the elderly milkman, late as always, she
opened the door.
At Sarah Delia’s door was a ragged, young man who could
possibly not be over 30. He wore a day or two old stubble and didn’t look like
her managed much sleep either. God-fearing as she was, she was also a kind
soul. She immediately took pity on the young man, and asked him in.
______________________________________________________________________
Daniel was hovering outside her room. He couldn’t decide
whether he should go in, or just leave.
He had talked to her doctors. They said
that they were sorry, nothing could be done now.
She was deeply unconscious and
her conditions were deteriorating abnormally fast.
Leukaemia, at its last stage.
She was dreaming. In her dream, she was running down the
street that the boy used to. She came across the building and looked up. In the
window, was his face framed by the rotting woods.
And in that moment, she felt a strange calming bliss. Like she had achieved
what was asked of her.
“You should go in. God know, you don’t have much time.”
Daniel looked up to see Sarah, the landlady looking down at him.
“I can’t,” he simply said.
“God knows you can,” she said, “And I do too. It might be your last chance.”
He looked up and in the eyes of the elderly lady, saw a belief that infected
him. He got up thinking that maybe he would be the last way out.
Everyone believes in miracles.
He opened the door quietly and looked at her. Even though
she was ghostly pale and looked ages older, she radiated warmth through the
ghost of smile that played lightly across her face while she slept.
He walked over to her side and sat on the chair.
“Hi,” he managed. He could sense the bile rising in his stomach. He felt sick
to his gut with hopelessness.
“I came to see you,” he gently cradled her hand in his and stroked.
Suddenly, her eyes fluttered and opened. In those he saw his
own worried face reflecting back.
She heaved a sigh and widened her smile and slowly shut her eyes.
Finally, she had found her bliss.