The Awaited Rendezvous...But...

Long she stood…Beautiful pale fingers placed on the window bars and a wide graceful forehead kissed against the misty glass window pane. The chilly wind taking morning rounds has met her tender warm breath and blurred the transparency of the window pane into translucence. Throwing the sight outside, the atmosphere resembled a skillful artist’s canvas of ranging varieties of emerald pines and trees. The Winter breeze that climbed down the mountains and valleys had already brought smiles to sweater sellers’ faces early that week. Sunlight has been taking a nap under the blanket of clouds since the silver threads of nature started holidaying on Earth.

Long she stood listening to the melancholy-filled symphony of the drizzle outside. For nature, she was their daughter.

Tears, originating from her soft cheeks, journeyed lightly over her lips and finally sought salvation in her pink cute shirt with pretty flowers around the neck. They knew for sure that they did not belong to the eyes of this angelic girl, but their sulks were in vain. They had no choice, but that was the fact. The birds outside and all other creatures joined to sing her melodies along with the drizzle.

This is Megha. Megha Malhotra. For her, this isn’t just a day. This day… She recalls with a deep sigh. Two years! It’s been two whole years since sorrows stole her smile. Only the creator knows how she whitened each dark night since then.

“Megha …dear…”

She looked back on her left shoulder slowly, to behold her aunt standing with a cup of coffee. The warm vapors stirred the room’s moody silence with a lovely coffee smell. Her aunt had been trying to neutralize her mental health with her charisma, but nothing had blinked a green light for the last two years.

Aunt (After a long pause): “ Megha, have this. How long do you think you’ll go hungry? What’s the point in it? “

Megha slightly changed her position of meditation. Megha, the bonny girl with fair skin, tired yet huge still eyes and wide silent lips turned to face her aunt. Her uncombed long brownish-black hair lay loose and untangled by her shoulders. Face blank, cheeks wet, hands loose, and long skirt dragging along with… Her eyes locked with her aunt’s. But those eyes were browsing something in the infinities of the pupil. Her brown eyes sank unconditionally into the opposite ones. There was something unreadable on that girl’s face. Time ticked. Drops dripped. And after a long delay, came her response: “I… I don’t want anything. I would like to be on my own. Please…” She said crisply. Megha, turning to her former meditating position continued to live with the rain. She doesn’t know whether her aunt responded, but later she heard her footsteps fade away into thin air.

Megha’s pages of memories were as fresh as if they were written yesterday. Zephyr turned pages from her memories.

* * * * * *

Dec 13, 2004:

Megha (weeping): “But Ma…This is not fair…”

Mom (comforting): “Dear… We are helpless. You have your exams ahead, or else, you too could’ve joined us in Kashmir.”

Megha: “Still, two weeks. I want to see grandpa too.”

Dad: “Megha, grandpa is going to be fine. We’ll meet him again after his surgery. I’ll take you there during your holidays. Now bid a goodbye, my little girl.”

Megha: “Rohan is coming, right?”

Mom: “He is young. He won’t stay without Ma and Pa, you know that.”

Megha: “But Pa, promise me that you’ll take me to Kashmir soon after my grade 10 exams.”

Dad (smiling and hugging): “Obviously sweetheart. Just two weeks. We’ll be back by then. You will be fine with aunt and uncle here.”

Megha (absent-mindedly): “Okay Pa…”

* * * * *

Raindrops carried by a fresh wind shook her off from the past. Eftsoons, her mind drove back.

It’s been two years. The promise of return was never met. She was left alone with her kins in that house with a lot of large windows. Hopes had lost their colors and have blurred over time. Now it’s calm. As calm as a night sky.

“Why did they leave me? Was it because I was adopted?” She couldn't choose but weep.

Megha hadn't been a shy girl nor was she talkative. Her lips had been forever calm but not her eyes. Her eyes were restless, portraying every single thing that ran into her mind. But now they've slowed down.

Nobody knows how long she stood. But nature continued playing karaoke for her sad melody.

Drops of rain slid down the frozen glass panes kissing the same tenderly. Paced Megha, back and forth her verse of past and future, pursuing countless possibilities of her fate.

Her tears might have dried or her eyes might have become weaker, the purpose is still unknown, and behind the curtain… But the change was vivid. First Megha and then her skirt came down the stairs step by step.

Her long fingers swept the wooden rails of the staircase and they savored her touch like a kitten under her master’s affectionate care.

The clock on the wall whispered it was 10 past 3. To her left, was the grand piano. It lay there untouched and dusty. No key had moved up and down and no symphony had ever peeped out ever since her family stepped out.

‘It was the happiest dwelling in Mussoorie those days…Laughter, love, care, and music! Not even a tinge of sadness dared to enter that lovely family. It was so perfect! Birds flying cheerfully, chirping in the heavenly rhythm of the keys that leaped below Megha’s fingers, and nature smiling at her jingling laughter…’ The air there recalls with a sigh…

She then moved to her little brother’s aquarium. She opened the shelf above the aquarium and took out the bottle to feed the fish. Then her eyes met that! The golden fish had shifted its residence from Earth to Heaven. She knelt down to have a glance at the sleeping fish. She was startled at the discovery of her brother’s favorite fish lying cold dead. Should she cry? Should she take him out? Should she keep it still? She never knew… Were her senses a little reluctant to respond? Or had her adrenaline gone on strike? Everything was a little delayed…

“Ding dong” rang the calling bell outside. And to her surprise, all she knew was that she was running towards the door. She flew open the door.

“Dad!”, spelled her tongue almost in a choky voice.

Dad: “Megha… come, my girl…”

Megha: “Two years dad! Two whole years! How could you…”

Dad: “Forgive me Megha… Forgive me. We are here now.”

Megha (Cuddling her dad): “Missed you Pa. I missed you a lot. I wasn’t even alive since you left. It’s not fair. Not at all…”

She stood there, wrapped in her dad’s warm hug for a few seconds.

Megha: “Rohan, where’s that naughty boy? I’m going to kill him for not even texting me. How dare he leave me like this?? He doesn’t deserve apologies!”

Dad: “Rohan… He…”

Megha: “I know. He must be hiding behind the car. Rohan! Stop your drama. Stop hiding. I’m coming to you…”

(Megha walking towards the car)

Dad: “He won’t come out Megha… He won’t hear you…”

Megha (confused): “Pa, don’t try to fool me anymore.”

Dad (tears bursting out): “The day we reached the hospital to see your grandpa… The accident there… Megha, that dreadful incident stole our Rohan. It grabbed him from us. Your mom… It took two years to recover from that trauma. Still, she isn’t completely fine. And what was I supposed to say to you in between these?”

It was then that Megha noticed her mom sitting in a wheelchair. She wished so badly it to be a dream. Her heart did not know how to bear that affliction. She ran to her aquarium and knelt down on her knees.

Her mind played the reel of the past.

* * * * *

 “Rohan… Rohan… What are you doing over there? Mom is asking for you. The taxi to the airport has arrived”, said Megha.

Rohan: “Sis… Take care of my Crypto. He is my best buddy. I don’t want to leave him.”

Megha: “Hey… Just two weeks, right? He’ll be fine. I’m here for your fish.”

Rohan: “If anything happens to him, you can believe that something has happened to me… Okay?”

Megha (bursting into laughter): “What?? Have you gone nuts or what?! Something happened to him is something happened to you?? Hehe… That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard. Hey idiot, now give me a kiss and get ready to leave.”

* * * * *

The laughter came to her ears intensifying and then faded gradually…

Megha took out the fish in her hands.

Megha (Gluing eyes on the fish): “Was it for this that you said if something happened to him is equal to something happening to me? Brother… I shouldn’t have allowed you to complete the lines. I… I…” She stands up calmly… Her last vestige of tears falls on the fish…

Megha: “Hey, Crypto, open your eyes. I want my brother back…” (Breaks down)

The perpendicularly of her body came horizontal to the ground. The drizzle outside continued to sing her melodious melancholy…