The Other Side

It was morning. He could barely open his eyes. He looked for her. He couldn't find her. She finally entered the room, dressed like sunshine. Her lips, scarlet and her skin, ivory. She sat in front of the mirror and started doing her hair. He could see her face reflecting in the mirror. He smiled. Just looking at her made him ecstatic. She saw him through the mirror, staring at her. She blushed like red roses. 

 

They lived in a small wood house, located in the middle of nowhere; surrounded by never-ending greenery and barely-there roads. An old bike stood outside their happy little haven.
He wrote under an alias. She made greeting cards. And they both created music.
It had been over six years, that they had been like that. They had no one, but each other. And they felt self-sufficient.


She used to cook bad-to-moderate meals. He would teach her to cook, or sometimes he just made the whole thing. She did surprise him with delicious treats every once in a while, to win his heart; as if she would lose him otherwise.
He would go through a block in his writing and get frustrated. She would ease him down. He would get inspired by her endless love and faith in him, and write again.
They would watch intelligent movies together, sometimes chick-flicks on her pursuance; and dance on old romantic songs.
When he would get mad at her, she would just kiss him and make him smile with her quirkiness .
When she would get mad at him, he'd give her his puppy-face look, and would make her forget why she was angry in the first place.
He cracked jokes that only she would laugh at. And she made pasta that only he could gorge on.

 

They wrote love ballads. Romance and the sound of music came naturally to them. He would play his guitar and she, her piano. And they would sing together.They played at local bars and restaurants every weekend.He loved her for the good man that she had turned him into. She loved him because he had created her, given her a purpose to breathe.


She turned around and asked him, "What is it?"

He said, "Nothing. I am just trying to make you nervous", and winked at her.
She rolled her eyes and said. "Like that's possible!" , still smiling.
He got up, and started walking towards her. Her heart started beating faster than ever.
He came close to her, bent down and kissed her forehead.
She smiled and said, "Okay, fine. You still do make me nervous. Every time that you look at me. How do you do that? How does it...."
"Shhhh...", he interrupted her, pressing his finger gently against her lips. He held her face in his hands and said, "I love you, sugar.You make me so happy."
She blushed again, got up and clung onto his broad shoulders and said, "Love you too, my love, my life." She blushed.
He held her tight from the small of her back.

 

The world didn't matter then. It didn't matter to them anyway.


Suddenly she released her arms from around him, placed her hand on his chest and pushed him away. She then, pursed her lips, enticing him to come close to her, with her index finger.
He charged towards her, to kiss her. But she dodged him and ran out of the room.
He followed her. She ran outside the house, into the open.She kept running away from him.  Her long dress flew through the tall grass fields, she looked back at him, every now and then and chuckled.

 

He was laughing too and he kept on chasing her, till he finally caught her by her waist. She struggled to free herself and both of them tripped.

 

As they lay on the green grass, trying to catch their breath again, he asked her, "What was all this for?"
She coyly replied, "If you could make me nervous after all these years, I could make you chase after me too, you can't have me that easy. Just wanted you to know that." She giggled and said this to him with so much pride as if she had proven the existence of gravitational force to the world.
He burst into laughter and said, "You are silly, you know that."
"I know", she answered in the most melodious tone ever. "Now how about a ride back home, honey?"
He got up and imitated Edward from the movie Twilight,  "You better hold on tight, spider monkey." , asking her to hop on his back.
She laughed and said, "You just have to spoil the moment, don't you?"

 

He winked again. She pulled his cheeks and kissed him.
"Yes!Finally!", he rejoiced like a little kid, after a long beautiful kiss. She giggled.

 .

She then climbed onto his back and they walked towards their love nest; laughing and singing all the way back.

_____

It was morning. He could barely open his eyes. He was smiling now. He looked for her. He couldn't find her. He got up and looked out the window.

 

All he could see was the hustle-bustle of the city. Busy roads and tall buildings. Cars honking and people yelling.


She came in, holding delicious breakfast in her hands with beautiful aromatic coffee and greeted him a good morning. He reverted back to her.
She said to him, " We need to go to the doctor today. The appointment is within an hour."
He eyed towards her belly bump and asked her, "How is he doing in there?"
"He is okay. He is breathing", she replied and left the room.

He ate his breakfast, drank the coffee and went for a shower. He came out and opened his closet, picked up his clothes and got ready. He was about to shut the closet, but then, he didn't. Instead, he hid between its doors and accessed his safe and took out an old worn-out wallet from it.

He opened it and saw his sunshine looking right at him, through that wallet.

He smiled. He crossed over to the other side again, to be with her.
                                                                         ________

She came back into the room and asked, "Ready to go ahead?"
His thoughts were disrupted. He came back from the other side, all alone; once again.
He reverted instantly, "No!" , and then corrected himself, "I mean...Yes. I'm almost done."
She said, with a little confusion, "Oookay. I'll wait for you in the car."He kept the wallet inside, locked the safe and shut the doors.

He then, looked into the mirror.

NOTHING.

He sighed. 

                                     

                                           "When I sleep, sometimes I still think we speak"

Photo Courtesy: Favim