The Last Meeting

He was late today. She was meeting him for the last time anyway before going to pursue her job in Spain, as an architect. The last few months had been a blur filled with mixed emotions-joy, ecstasy, anger, resentment, helplessness-all most like a Bollywood movie one might say!

They had been arch enemies since third grade. She could still remember his voice booming at her, through the years, always saying the same thing-“Hey, Pimply Pinky what have you got for lunch today? Let me guess-Nothing?”And he’d always laughed alone. She had always loathed him and pitied him at the same time-she was better than this. She vowed never to tell him the truth.

Until one day, when he found out. He’d sneaked into her dorm-room to put a frog in her back pack, when he saw the letter. It was like the ground had evaporated beneath his feet. He walked out of the dorm-room and she never saw him again.20 years went by, when she met him again at the neighbourhood Barista.

He’d been waiting for her at the coffee shop, it seemed. “My goodness, you’ve changed a lot” was all he could muster. Trying to ignore the fact that he seemed restless and agitated, she asked him about his well being. It was true though-the duckling had become the swan. No reason to deviate from the issue at hand-why was he here?

And then he told her the story of what had transpired in those 20 years. After he’d found out that they were actually step-brother and step-sister, he didn’t have the courage to deal with it. After 20 years, he begged for reconciliation."Why now?” she’d asked, both indignant and pleased. “Because, sissy, you’re the only family I’ve got now, my wife passed away two months ago. I’m very lonely” Tears welled up in his eyes. She said she’d think it over.

However, things did not go as Alok wanted them to. He was being tried for his wife’s murder, and she thought a lot about supporting a possible murder suspect. After all, how could she be sure he was innocent? These things happened.

Anyway, he got acquitted after 4 months. And then she told him about the job in Spain. He didn’t say anything, just let out a huge sigh.

And today, they were meeting for the second time since that day at the Barista. He was late. And then, A waiter came up to her. He said “A Mr.Alok sent this note for you, madam”

It said “Dear Pinky. I can’t come to meet you. I’m terrible at goodbyes. It will be like this never happened. You live your life and I’ll live mine, what’s left of it. Sorry for all those years .Love Alok"

“It will be like this never happened" was all Pinky could think as her flight took off.

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