It was the digital age and a direct message in her inbox, was his first move. Booze Wayne meets Black{w}hole. Soon after an exchange of witty banter and some sizzling chemistry, they decided to take this to a phone conversation.
They talked all night. About issues like food scarcity, poverty, child labor and this became a ritual till one of them fell asleep.
His voice was a serenade and her voice melted worries of the day as it turned to night. There were giggles, pheromones and something like love in the air.
On one such night as they romanced, she said that her parents had the most amazing courtship before marriage. Love letters that were a family affair to not seeing anything but a passport size photograph before the marriage day.
He chuckled at the prospect of that happening in today’s time. And her eyes twinkled as she lost herself in his laughter. And she kept pointing out to him that she hadn’t seen his photograph either. He shrugged and said he would send one soon.
They had a lot of things in common. He was a senior in her college, their aunts went to the same school, he lived in the same locality and counting would be tedious. But fate is a hard mistress!
He had to move away for work. To another city. He assured her that they wouldn’t stray.
As the distances grew so did the challenges.
All this while, she’d never seen him or met him, just had umpteen phone conversations.
His baritone was all the man she needed in her life. She had dreams of a man in a suit who’d serenade her as she was in the doldrums.
She dreamed if him like an obsession. He was her favorite addiction.
She has many dreams about him and most of them he was just a torso with no head. Sometimes, she’d see a burly guy with a beard and her dreams were her special place, because he was in them.
Soon, it got difficult to contact him, he was away a lot.
Her issues about trust and loyalty were tested as she went through a mental breakdown.
And she thought he was ignoring her. She let this destroy her. Not hearing from him was painful.
He was her rock.
She’d send him pictures of herself and keep writing many emails to him.
But there was no response from him.
One fine day, deciding not to give up, she calls him and he sounds very upset and scared. Things were not too great for him either.
She decided to pack her bags and go to his city.
But she didn’t have an address and he wouldn’t answer her calls.
She tried everything to contact him. And finally on her journey back to their original hometown , he calls.
He says that he is struggling with some addiction issues and he’s going to need time to get back to normalcy. And she cried and he assured her that he’s better than before.
She would pray for him every day and hope that he would call her.
Then on one fateful day while cleaning, she breaks her phone and loses his number. Her only comfort and solace was now gone. She slipped into a stupor of depression. She was then given heavy doses of medication to be sedated. Because she only spoke of how she needed to see him and be with him.
No one would believe her because who in this time and age doesn’t see someone before they talk to them.
She wrote about him and love and when she didn’t, she was sad.
A few years passed.
She remembered him saying that even though we are apart, we can still see the same moon and that’s enough, for now. So, she’d gaze out of the window for hours on end.
One day on her walk to the garden, she hears a man, tall and burly and he sounds like the man she loved. So she follows him but he notices and gets into a car and drives away.
This is when she decides to go old school and email him. Every thought she had of him was turned into a poesy.
It became an obsession.
She poured her heart out into those emails and wrote about how she couldn’t get him off her mind and even though years have passed, she’d like nothing more than to be in his warm embrace.
As this is a story about both and not just one person.
He falls in love with her all over again and decides to follow her everywhere so that she is reminded that he still loves her.
He can recognize her by face, but she can only recognize him by voice.
Now starts the journey to win her back.
She would go on morning walks and stretch by the sea promenade. He followed her and he was wearing sunglasses, a a hoodie over a suit, because he remembered that she dreamed about them dancing together with him in a suit.
At first sight, she thought it to be awkward and didn’t pay much heed.
She went back home and wrote him an email. She wrote to him about her day and then retired for the day.
The next day, as she walked by the beach, she first notices a cab with his name on the glass. And it made her smile.
She then walked further to see a man walk from the opposite direction, face covered fully with a hand napkin. For a minute she didn’t think much of it. But soon she broke into peals of laughter.
And that reminded her of him, he was the only one who even on the phone could tell if she was smiling her full smile or not.
She is happy but still can’t believe her gut. She saunters home, and immediately writes an email, telling him to wear a paper bag the next time he is around her.
And then immediately her face falls as she remembers that this is just a far fetched prospect of reality.
And it had taken her years to move on from him.
But she still looked forward to seeing this mystery man. All these plans went down the drain, as the entire world was under a pandemic called covid19.
There was a lockdown for a month, and no one was allowed to be on the streets.
This led her to forget everything and treat it like a coincidence.
Soon the days rolled by.
After the pandemic, she began her morning exercise routine. Everything went back to normal.
On one such fine day, she notices a man walk toward her with a beaming smile. She looks at her feet and walks on.
But that face, wouldn’t leave her thoughts.
Soon after she writes an email to her lover, saying she’s tired of playing hide and seek.
And spirals into the rabbit hole.
She stops going out because it’s difficult and every corner, every stretch of road was a horcrux that reminded her of him.
One fine moon lit night, he comes by her window and sings their favorite song. She gets up and goes to the window to see the same man singing.
And he asks to see her.
She runs bare feet and finally they embrace.
And all he can see is a beautiful smile and tears in her eyes.
And to complete all of this, the rain pours down and they stay locked in an embrace.
