One after the other, her desperate messages flashed in front of his eyes, he kept looking at them and then looked ahead and kept the phone back in his pocket.
Their story was not like this since the beginning.
They loved each other since school.
Their relation was not about sex, but true love, friendship, and togetherness.
They never had any friends except each other.
Being separated in college was the toughest period for them.
But they were always together through thick and thin.
Finally, as he got a job, they informed their parents.
After a little struggle, things worked out and what was destined happened.
They were locked inside a decorated room on a bright moon night with the permission of the entire society.
They hugged each other for an hour before being amalgamated in each other’s souls forever.
They were a lower-middle-class couple, had to face financial crisis after marriage, but for them life was only about love.
He cooked for her every other day, she massaged his head, they discussed every problem with each other, they went on long walks in the community garden every evening, holding hands in hands, unperturbed of the gaze of onlookers.
So much love, then why this hatred?
One day the guy did not reach home by 9 pm (almost two hours late than routine)
His mobile was switched off.
His wife called his colleagues, but everyone saw him leaving at the routine time.
She started sweating in worry.
Finally she, along with her in-laws and other family members borrowed vehicles from neighbourhood and went in his search.
They checked the entire route from office to home but could not find him, she was continuously crying, almost inconsolable.
His smiling face was moving in front of her eyes.
Never ever he had betrayed her like this.
“Oh god! Just keep him safe, I will never ever ask for anything else” she wished.
But deep inside she knew something was severely wrong.
Suddenly her father-in-law got an invigorating phone call.
It was him, her love, her husband, he had reached back home.
He wanted to talk to his tensed wife, but she didn’t talk to him out of anger.
Her heart was finally relieved from deep inside.
Finally, everyone left back towards home.
A kilometre before their house, a drunk truck driver hit the scooter in which she was sitting at back at such high speed that her body had to be separated from the debris using a gas cutter.
Someone reached home and informed her husband who was eagerly waiting for her.
The new Saree which he’d brought for his wife as a surprise gift, spending all that time, fell from his hands.
He ran barefoot to the spot but could only see her face and hand coming out of the debris.
Her face was calm, no signs of pain except all the blood which oozed out of her body.
He held her hand tightly to console her, but she didn’t need it now.
“Help her, she is in pain” he shouted and fell unconscious.
He was brought to the cremation ground from hospital to light the pyre and complete the last rites of his love.
He was not in his senses but had to bid a final goodbye to the girl he had loved forever.
He didn’t cry, he was just blank, didn’t talk to anyone.
As the body of his love was burning, his brother handed him his phone which was now charged.
He turned it on in numbly.
One after one, a series of desperate messages of his wife appeared in front of his eyes.
He kept reading them with a blank look on his face as the pyre was burning.
“Please come back”
“I love you”
“I can’t live without you”
“I need nothing except you”
“I will cook whatever you say”
“Please” “Please” “Please come back”
He kept his phone in his pocket, bent down on his knees and cried up to the maximum limit of his voice.
