PRELIMINARY
It’s never too late for a smile.
You may have an end, only to start an awaiting novel.
Stories need not to be complete at the end.
Rather, they just need a healing.
A heal to all cuts, wounds and marks which are unseen, unnamed and unclaimed.
A heal named- “Epilogue”.
Cause, few epilogues are longer than their stories…
1.
She was in her last stage. It was the utmost silence that yelled between the passing seconds. Even the time was barely alive. Her slow breathe synchronised with the cold air and left the room doleful. With all her dreams and yearnings floating in her marine cerulean eyes, she thought to dissolve them behind those water dipped lashes and thus she closed them.
‘The book’ lay close to her heart and her hands wrapped to it. She lay in the heart of the room and silence wrapped her.
Eve crossed the noon and it was the twilight sky. The soft evening scintilla walked through the room and touched her satiny feet.
The silence grew deeper and darker.
She clenched the book more tightly, so that it laid near her heart even at its last beat.
Suddenly, a gush of breeze flew and the door was being opened, softly but with earnest necessity. Someone came, a bit faster because every moment pushed him, so that it was not the last one, of hers…
“I wished you were in my life. And you did. But. In my past.” she thought in her tear soaked mind.
And yet she heard someone else sobbing (other than her heart).
She thought it’s someone who came to sympathy her- as usual. So, she did not bother to open her eyes.
2.
The person cam and held her hand, the right one, softly and cordially.
She opened her eyes as fast as an adrenaline rushed heart beat. Because she read the touch, the language between his warmth and her cooling body.
She recognized the touch. It was him.
Her mouth opened, though the words were still searching their way. They paused in her throat and couldn’t reach her lips. Smile and deep tears appeared together, hand in hand.
After taking infinite air in a single breath, she managed to believe in her eyes which seemed opened since ages. Her eyes were the blessings of deep night sky and beatitude of carved constellations. They became so wide as if the whole universe was going to deliquesce in them.
He starred at her.
She smiled.
He followed.
“Why is er yo-your sm..smile, crying.” she asked calmly with a heavy voice.
Just then tears ran through his eyes onto his cheeks, immediately and landed upon the floor. The heavy silence echoed the fall of his tears as well. He stared at the floor without a blink. Guilt stood burdensome on his lashes.
“I am sorry. I …” said he.
She had never seen him crying before.
They had never talked to each other except for few couple of words and a piece of letter she gave him after sculpting her love over it. For which in return she received silences in reply.
“It’s fine. Its okay.” said she.
Silence was scattered all over and what they could feel were each other’s unsaid, unfelt and unclaimed words.
“It’s never too late for a smile.” she said again.
“I was wrong. I know, I am bad. And no sorry would cure those cuts and wounds stabbed on your heart. But still, I am …” looking towards the ground, he started crying again.
She bent forward and wiped his tears, softly with her shivering, quivering fingers.
“Stop crying, please. Look, you came. This realization is enough in itself to heal all the cuts and wounds. Your existence is the smile to my face. And your presence, it is the soul to my body. I couldn’t be more thankful to Lord Krishna.”
He smiled.
She followed.
3.
“Look, I have brought your favourite food.” He opened a tiffin which he brought and fed her himself.
There were tears of happiness in her eyes but up till now she had learned to hide them. Cause tears would have led to the realization. The realization of…
They talked to each other for an hour or more. There was laughter and happiness filled throughout the room.
The twilight rays now crossed the room and reflected on their faces. They were holding each other’s hand.
His eyes were felt deep into hers. He felt the hidden love which reflected like clear morning’s lake. She was not able to believe, for what was happening. Her every possible heart beat echoed a ‘thank you’ to god. ‘He came’ this satisfaction itself was like a snow flake in burning dessert.
Earlier, those were her eyes who would stare his eyes, which would blink a piercing ignorance back. His ignorance was the wound she had carried with her in her heart.
But today, everything was different.
They were holding their hands more tightly.
Every moment seemed like an era dipped in infinity. Silence filled the every corner of the room, every corner of their heart.
They stopped talking and just stared into each other’s eyes. He was about to kiss her when…
Suddenly, he felt something to his hand.
Something very cold.
The frozen touch interrupted the mediated eyes.
He missed his heartbeat as he felt…
She was gone.
She was dead.
The dark sky entered the room. Moonlight showed their faces who were still staring at each other.
A shock had crept into his brain. No words were alive in his throat. Air barely filled his lungs.
He starred into her eyes, which were still so wide and alive.
4.
A nurse walked in and took him out. She made him sit on a bench and left him to recover. His eyes were still staring the ground.
Silence was scattered on his face but his heart, it was yelling inside his chest.
He felt heavy.
The worst that happened to him was that no expression was reflected for infinite feelings flowing through his soul.
The doctors went into the room and bequeathed few words for 5 minutes.
The corpse was covered with an alabaster frosted white cloth just as the way a sea is covered with the serene cerulean sky.
His eyes forgot blinking.
The depth of her eyes was still carved upon his retina. Frozen were his tears.
What could be felt was just vacuum.
The nurse came again and gave him ‘the book’.
“She was holding this, since she has been here, in this hospital. I thought its valuable.” said the nurse, gave the book and went away.
Both the doctors came out and walked through the passage.
He was still sitting there along with his frozen body, when one of the doctors passing by said to other- “I thought she would end up this morning. She was so weak. It’s amusing of that girl, for what made her heart live the whole day.”
A tear rolled down his eye finally.
EPILOGUE
The book lay in his hands. Its essence dragged his eyes and scattered his vision over the book.
‘The Epilogue’ was written in silver ink over the drunken black background. He rubbed his fingers against those soft letters to feel her writing. He went through the book slowly. The words sat silently on the pages though it seemed that they were yearning to tell him something.
More than reading it, he was feeling the touch of every word. His ignorance was a deepening wound she carried with her. Because she believed that if it was from him, it was as adorable to her as her life.
Every chapter explained how deeply she loved him.
The book exclaimed and explained him for how long she used to cry, smile, wait and at the end what she received was none.
He stopped reading after a chapter or two. It was difficult for him to stop his tears behind.
How much adored and loved he was, by her!
He closed the book.
The name- “THE EPILOGUE” reflected back into his eyes.
So he opened the end of the book and began reading the epilogue.
THE EPILOGUE
I know, I won’t die,
Until he comes to
Hold my hands
And
Stare deep into my eyes.
And that would be the epoch,
I know,
My soul would realize that,
The story’s done.
The epilogue is written.
And that,
Book should be closed.
Satisfyingly my soul would slowly
Leave my body.
My heart would
Echo,
It’s last beat, reciting the last
Poetry.