?????
Ah, the weather! The only thing that marred the festive mood of the house was the humid, hot air of the small town. She looked around to see all the familiar faces around her. On a distance, she could see her younger brother playing
with his five year old daughter. How time flies! She still remembers her brother as a toddler doing every prank possible. And now he has metamorphosed into a responsible parent himself! Almost every school friend of hers had children who were either in high school or were just starting college. Karen’s daughter had turned out to be a beauty, unlike her mother. Must have inherited her handsome father’s genes!
She looked around slowly, as if trying to trap each scene, each face, each colour inside her mind. She missed the faces that would no longer come to congratulate her on her special moment. The ivory dress that she wore belonged to her grandmother. Granny was her inspiration, her strength. She was the steady anchor of the floating ship which her life was. But now, even she is gone, never to return.
Suddenly her eyes rested on His face. Yes, He seemed preoccupied. He pretended not to notice her. But He has always been like this, never allowing his emotions get the better of him. At times she wonders about His attitude towards life and to everyone who comes in contact with Him. There is an air of indifference, a feeling of being kept at a certain safe distance. She had tried in her heydays to break the wall, to bring down His shield, but Life also got along well with him, it seems! And He always managed to set his own terms and conditions as far as life was concerned. The ice never broke, the decisive step was never taken. Till now.
Her train of thoughts was brought to a sudden halt by the small beep of her mobile phone. He had sent a message asking her to come online. How can she do so now? She ran inside and took out the beige notebook from the elegant bag. Searching frantically for the dongle, she emptied out all the contents of the fashionable leather clutch that was home to all tits and bits of a woman’s life. Yes, she found it! She connected it to the tiny slot on the side of the notepad, only to find that there was a connection failure. Another text message on her phone! Oh my God! Now he was throwing one of his tantrums that she only knows. How can she tell Him that all is not well with the signals? And she cannot even ask Him to go out of the house with her for a quiet walk, away from this rhapsody of fate, away from the familiar faces, away from the omnipresent coldness that forms a halo around Him and threatens to engulf her…. As she got up to seek Him out in the crowd outside, the hem of her ivory dress caught the edge of the dressing table….
“Wake up dear..It’s almost midday”……
She opened her eyes, to find herself in the familiar white bedroom which has been Home for the last three decades. So it was a dream, a fiction. Yes, she thought, this is her world, her life. She smiled as she took the steaming cup of black coffee from her husband, who religiously offered her the first cup of the stimulant of the day every morning after she woke up since the first day of their marriage.
He does not exist. May be He never existed. Then who is the faceless shadow in the social networking site that had sent her a friend request yesterday? Of course, her profile picture is tell-tale. Maybe she will just accept the request and see the details. She can always block her contacts; her grandson had taught her how to do so when he came during Christmas vacations last year. She gazed at her blue vein streaked wrinkled hands, and smiled slowly at the prospect of having access to modern technologies and gadgets in the age when He existed. Had that been the case, then maybe things would have been different. As she looked up, she saw Him staring at her, everchanging, yet, everlasting, from that era to this date. Or was it her imagination?????
She looked around slowly, as if trying to trap each scene, each face, each colour inside her mind. She missed the faces that would no longer come to congratulate her on her special moment. The ivory dress that she wore belonged to her grandmother. Granny was her inspiration, her strength. She was the steady anchor of the floating ship which her life was. But now, even she is gone, never to return.
Suddenly her eyes rested on His face. Yes, He seemed preoccupied. He pretended not to notice her. But He has always been like this, never allowing his emotions get the better of him. At times she wonders about His attitude towards life and to everyone who comes in contact with Him. There is an air of indifference, a feeling of being kept at a certain safe distance. She had tried in her heydays to break the wall, to bring down His shield, but Life also got along well with him, it seems! And He always managed to set his own terms and conditions as far as life was concerned. The ice never broke, the decisive step was never taken. Till now.
Her train of thoughts was brought to a sudden halt by the small beep of her mobile phone. He had sent a message asking her to come online. How can she do so now? She ran inside and took out the beige notebook from the elegant bag. Searching frantically for the dongle, she emptied out all the contents of the fashionable leather clutch that was home to all tits and bits of a woman’s life. Yes, she found it! She connected it to the tiny slot on the side of the notepad, only to find that there was a connection failure. Another text message on her phone! Oh my God! Now he was throwing one of his tantrums that she only knows. How can she tell Him that all is not well with the signals? And she cannot even ask Him to go out of the house with her for a quiet walk, away from this rhapsody of fate, away from the familiar faces, away from the omnipresent coldness that forms a halo around Him and threatens to engulf her…. As she got up to seek Him out in the crowd outside, the hem of her ivory dress caught the edge of the dressing table….
“Wake up dear..It’s almost midday”……
She opened her eyes, to find herself in the familiar white bedroom which has been Home for the last three decades. So it was a dream, a fiction. Yes, she thought, this is her world, her life. She smiled as she took the steaming cup of black coffee from her husband, who religiously offered her the first cup of the stimulant of the day every morning after she woke up since the first day of their marriage.
He does not exist. May be He never existed. Then who is the faceless shadow in the social networking site that had sent her a friend request yesterday? Of course, her profile picture is tell-tale. Maybe she will just accept the request and see the details. She can always block her contacts; her grandson had taught her how to do so when he came during Christmas vacations last year. She gazed at her blue vein streaked wrinkled hands, and smiled slowly at the prospect of having access to modern technologies and gadgets in the age when He existed. Had that been the case, then maybe things would have been different. As she looked up, she saw Him staring at her, everchanging, yet, everlasting, from that era to this date. Or was it her imagination?????
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