last GOODBYE....

Chapter 1: The End

The girl walked up to the door and stared.

It was the most gloriously ornate gate she had ever seen in her life. The gold, silver and rubies sparkled and their reflection danced across her face. She reached out to touch it. The cold surface sent a shiver down her spine.

‘I can still feel’, she wondered.

The gate creaked open. She stepped into the most beautiful garden she had ever seen. Not a colour she knew of in the world was missing in the garden.

‘How easily the memory of the ‘world’ comes to me’, she mused. ‘How long will it be before I completely forget about the world? The memory of 21 years wiped clean. Not 21….she rectified, 20 years and 9 months.’

Her birthday was due in 3 months.

The girl sighed. The boy had planned a big surprise for her 21^st birthday. She asked him over & over again, but he refused to say anything.

‘It will be the biggest and bestest surprise of your life’, he said, tilting his head, the lopsided smile on his face. The smile that always melted her heart.

Standing in the middle of the Garden of Eden, the girl’s heart ached. She longed to see his face, touch his cheek, and nuzzle her nose against his arm.  The thought that she can never see him filled her with despair.

They had known each other for 3 years. The girl met the boy on the first day of college. The moment their eyes locked across the noisy class they knew they were meant for each other. There was no proposal, no going down on the knees, and no flower shower. They just came together and stayed together forever, until…

‘You are bleeding’.

The girl looked up with a start. A kind-faced man was standing over her.

‘You are bleeding’, the man repeated.

The girl now looked down and saw the red rose she was holding. The thorn pricked her finger and blood was oozing out. She quickly sucked her thumb, to stop the bleeding. The familiar taste of blood comforted her.

‘Who are you?’, she asked the man.

‘I’m your guardian angel’, he smiled. His eyes were the colour of caramel, gazing into them could melt one’s heart.

‘Guardian angel?’ the girl looked confused.

‘Yes, so once you cross over from there to here, guardian angels help you get settled in heaven’, he explained. The smile not once leaving his eyes.

Seeing the confused look on her face the man continued, ‘Do you remember how on the first week of college your class had one senior student as your buddy, who helped your group get settled with college life?’

The girl’s face lit, ‘Of course I do. Ohh…so you will be like my buddy in heaven?’ she quipped.

The words fell with a thud and a suffocating silence followed. The girl’s face darkened. The truth that she is dead and is in heaven now, has not sunk in yet. Was this real? This feels like a bad dream….and she waits to be woken up any minute now.

But there’s no more waking up….and she knows that.

She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.

‘Are you ready to go ahead?’, the guardian angel asked.

The girl nodded…but then stopped. ‘There are some questions that I need to ask you, before we go any further.’

‘Sure, go ahead’.

‘Why am I alone here? If this is heaven then where are the other people who died too? If I want to meet someone in heaven what do I need to do? I want to meet my granny…she died 6 years back…and I miss her a lot….When do I get to meet God? Does He meet with everyone?’

‘Wooow…woow…hold on young lady,’ the guardian angel pleaded. ‘You have far too many things on your mind. Though I want to, but I cannot answer all your queries. You need to experience them along your journey here.

But I will answer your first question,’ he paused. ‘You cannot see anyone around here, because this is your experience. Living on earth and in heaven are different. On earth you physically live and feel your existence. But here, on the other side, you do not feel, you experience your being.’

‘Then how come I can still feel?’ the girls eyes implored.

The guardian angel sighed, and for the first time the smile faded as the girl looked into his eyes. ‘Come and sit here with me.’ He glided along and sat on a bench under a big shady tree.

As they sat facing each other, he held both her hands in his.

‘You are still feeling cold, and bleeding and experiencing heartache because you did not get to say your last goodbye…my girl’, his pale hands held onto her. The girl stared at his hands. She had never seen something soo lifeless yet soo beautiful. His fingers were long and slender, and the hand was smooth and pale. It reminded her of the porcelain doll the boy bought her on her last birthday. It was a boy and a girl sitting on a bench…..holding hands.

It was lifeless, real and beautiful…’just like this moment now’, she thought.

‘My last goodbye?’

She closed her eyes, and the events came rushing back to her. The family outing they had.

The final exams were over, and her father wanted to take the whole family to a nearby hill station. They were all soo excited. It was a long pending family vacation. It was monsoon and the Western Ghats come alive during this time of the year. The bookings were done and the bags were packed.

The girl clearly remembers the waterfall. It looked so menacing from across the other side of the hill, as if God was pouring down his white wrath down the mountain. But on reaching the bottom there were huge boulders, and the water slowly caressed these smooth rocks and curtained down. Some people were enjoying themselves under the waterfall, and the two young girls requested their parents to let them go too. Though the mother was not very keen, the father reluctantly allowed.

‘Just for 5 minutes,’ his voice still echoed in her ears.

Those were the last 5 minutes of her life.

They were having so much fun getting drenched, but suddenly the girl’s feet slipped and she lost her balance. She desperately tried holding on to her sister’s arm, but her wet palms slipped. The tide was rising and the water quickly washed away the young girl down the rough edges of the rock. Before she could realize she was dead.

While she slipped down the stream, she saw her sister who lunged to hold her and her parents who were sitting under the shade of a big rock. But the one face she wanted to see for the last time was not there.

The girl had not said goodbye to the boy.

The day before they had a big fight.

******************

‘But how can I say goodbye now? I’m here and he’s there.’

‘Come with me my child’, the guardian angel rose and held out his hand…..

******************

Chapter 2: The Begining

The bus came to a stop.

Everybody stepped out into the bright morning sun. The boy was the last one to get down.

He was not willing to come for the office picnic, but his friends dragged him. This was their first office outing, and the batch of freshers were visibly excited. The boy saw his friends preparing to play a game of cricket. They waved at him to join them. But he stayed back.

Nothing seems to interest him anymore, and all he could think of is about her.

It has been over 6 months that he had last seen her. The last day they fought…he couldn’t remember over what. But it was their first big fight. It was the day he left town to join his first job.

He tried to call her to say sorry but her phone was switched off. He called other friends to find out about her, but no one knew anything about her whereabouts. After a month he came back to look for her. But her house was locked and no one had seen the family for weeks. The boy yearned to see her….talk to her….touch her. But she was gone.

It was bright and sunny. They had planned to go to a famous picnic spot near the dam. But while on the way, they came to know of a sudden unseasonal landslide that had blocked the expressway, and hence they took a detour and came to this waterfall amidst the hills.

The boy walked down the narrow path along the hill lost in thoughts. The sound of the waterfall grew louder and he followed it. The shouts and laughter of his friends grew distant and faded away. He could see the waterfall now, like white molten lava. It was menacing.

The air around him felt warmer, as if someone has wrapped him in an embrace. He is almost under the waterfall now. The smooth surface of the rocks caressed his feet. He looked up as a familiar smell fleeted by his nose.

Suddenly his eyes caught a big green signboard. It was rusted at the edges. The sign said:

‘Waterfall too dangerous for taking bathe

This is an accident prone area’

Below this there were names of people who had died at that spot. As the boy’s eyes saw the last name…he froze. The universe took a somersault around him and he felt like crashing down a dark hole.

It was the girl’s name….

******************