The bus was late when it started to rain. The first drops dropped not like droplets at all, but like the innards of water balloons bursting one by one upon the pavement. A minute later, the dark cloud above released its later trap door and the flash flood had begun.
She had been waiting beside him, wearing a pearl-colored blouse which appeared so delicate that he doubted it could withstand the kiss of the summer sun let alone the ravaging of a spring rain. He made no hesitation, stretching his umbrella over her body before the storm could impact its worst.
"Thank you, Mr.khan!!," she said. "I forgot mine at home."
The rain fell harder and before long it seemed as if the two of them stood alone within a tube of glass while the city filled around them like an aquarium. For seven minutes in all, they shared the same red canopy, blushed within the same breathless humidity, and excused themselves with each accidental glance of their shoulders.
When the bus arrived, he allowed her to board first before popping his umbrella once to dry. she sat beside the window keeping seat for him!!
He could not help but to think how fortunate it had been that she, of all riders, she, the brunette with sea green eyes and perfect posture, who carried paperbacks while the world moved on to tablets, should be standing next to him without an umbrella on the morning in which it had begun to pour like no other. He allowed himself to hope that his dream of seeing her and her perfect posture in a setting other than on the bus was now a day closer to coming true.
But may be it's not possible now...he was about to loose her within some hours...
Yes...zoya...his zoya...was going far from him...for the lifetime may be...and here he was...sitting helplessly...even not able to express his TRUE feeling for her!!!
She thought that he like Tannu...but...but how can he love some one when his heart and soul is belong to some one else...belong to her!!
But he allowed her to think like that...because this country...even the people were not safe for her...her life was at stake...and how he can allow that...how???
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After 1 long year...
Zoya thought she crossed him out of her life... Too bad she did it with a pencil, and not with a black texter, hoping to one day erase the marks with the elastic. ,
she told everyone even to her own heart that it didn't matter, that none of it hurt and that she forgot, and yet it seemed strange how tight she held the phone in her tired hands...
Maybe pride, maybe pain in thought of the memories unabled her to change everything... Even though she ached just to hear his voice... At everyone, absolutely everyone with no exceptions, she smiled; had fun and showed how much she loved her life.
And only on a rare occassion when coming airport with him in the bus, she tightly hugged that same old teddy... And he...he was so close to her and yet, at the same time, such a stranger... Because there's so much about her that he didn't know... He didn't know her favourite candy or her favourite flowers, because he never gave her them... He didn't know how she liked to be called, because he never bothered with sweet nicknames... He didn't know what she was afraid of, because it didn't interest him... He didn't watch her favourite movies with her and didn't see her cry like a little baby... But she still loved him even through all that. Because she didn't love him for something, she just loved him for her.
However life unfolds itself for each of them, she know that one day they will run into each other on the street, but she will be happy, with a smile on her face. And she will tell him THANK YOU. For the happiness he gave her and for the pain he caused her. Because all of that made her STRONGER!!! So thank you,mr. Khan--she thought...
At that moment, she will wipe away all tears, smile and finally realise that everything will be okay. She left...and he bought himself a little puppy soon after. She's always under his feet, everywhere, but he was happy about it. He started hearing the hidden meaning behind the lyrics of the songs. Because they're all about her. And he often search for zoya with his eyes in crowds. His heart starts beating faster when in big, big crowds he see a girl which looks remarkably like her. He never even had her.
But her eyes still give asad away each time they accidently run into each other… zoya left her soul with him. Now everything is easy. Easy, because inside she was empty. Because her happiness is not in him, it's in the new dress . …he often go on her facebook page., started to like the virtual world which he used to hate.
…But it wasn't love, because he wouldn't walk away from love. …And he never understood...he never understood who she was, why she came and why she left... …he burnt the only little bridge connecting them. He could have built a new one, but he never did... Zoya left. She don't regret a thing. But she would come back, very, very soon. Thin, sun-tanned and tired...Come back when she would get tired of this boring, easy life. No...not after him...after her soul... And what about him? He will never understand any of this...
But she remembered that day...she remember how suddenly his car stopped on their way to airport...then suddenly that rain...as if nature also tried to stop her go away from her...but he didn't...even not for once!!!
--akbar keh dete, mr. Khan! Zoya, rook jao!--she thought as she couldn't help thinking about him of course with tears in her eyes!!!
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To be continued...
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