Monday, March 26, 2012

I thought you'd never come

"She doesn't like that word." I explain hurriedly to the bewildered man.


She is still standing there, breathing fast, the rage has subsided, giving way to tears. I still remember the first time I saw this happen. The first time I saw those eyes that seemed unaware of the stream flowing out of them, the nothingness in them had struck me as something completely unknown. In that moment, she was never the woman whose soul I had made my own in the village church, whose eyes I had drunk to and then broken the glass.


She is still holding the broken glass in her hand. I take it from her and keep it on the bar. My instinct is to hold her in my arms, but I know she doesn't need that. I hold her hand and take her away. She lets me lead her through the rows of uncomfortable, sarcastic and sympathetic glances like an obedient child. Her eyes are still elsewhere. She is not yet my wife, someone I can hug and stroke on the head and assure that everything will be ok. Even when she is back to being that person though, I can not tell her that with much conviction. Not anymore.


She has been sleeping for hours now. I like it when she sleeps, but it makes me feel guilty. I like her sleeping because it is a relief, because she sleeps for the most part of the day, even though the doctors say it might not be good for her. I don't think she knows it now when she is awake. I mean, I don't know if she is able to differentiate anymore. Sometimes, she picks up a conversation we had when we were young and met surreptitiously amidst the rye in the fields, and she continues it. I treasure that. Although I shouldn't. I am supposed to discourage that. But those are the only moments when I have her back. She looks at me as though she knows me as that boy I once was. I almost want to climb into her dreams and stay there. In the rye field. As two pairs of eyes that laughed and dreamed.


She is awake now, and shivering. The moonlight shines on her bare back. Her thick hair flies slightly in the soft breeze as she looks at something imaginary on the tree outside the window. I touch her spine warily. She turns and looks at me. Her eyes smile a soft smile. I had almost forgotten that soft dimple.


"I thought you'd never come." she says, gleaming.


I smile back. I don't know what she means. Or may be, I do.

6 comments:

Kailash Sharma said...

Very touching and emotional....

Anil Sawan said...

to be very frank, i cudn measure the depth of the last line. how ever, it is a beautiful write up!

Shubham Mundada said...

Its really very good way that you have expressed here... especially at the end... it simply adds a different emotion to the whole write up... i guess lot to learn from you...

aayanman said...

Dreamy write..liked it.

Anonymous said...

Bouncer. hehe

Jack said...

Tulika,

Unspoken words touch heart so deeply.

Take care