LITTLE WAYS DOWN THE ROAD- THE FINAL PART

       LITTLE WAYS DOWN THE ROAD- THE FINAL PART

    A couple of days passed unnoticed. One morning, as Arjun dressed up, he opened his wardrobe to get his white jacket out. Days were turning cold and he knew the beach would be even cooler. As he took out his jacket, his eyes fell on Miss. D's diary which he had kept there in the rack. He saw it everyday. But somehow, that day, his instinct made him take it out. He sat down on his bed skimming through the pages. He knew everything written there by heart. Still, he wanted to read her words "I am in love with him."

    After starring at them for a moment, he closed the diary, left it on his pillow so as to read it again that night and left for jogging.

    As he jogged all along the beach, he remembered her more than ever. At his usual time, he sat down on the wall, facing the sea.

    He couldn't comprehend why he was so immersed in her remembrance. He squeezed his eyes close and thought, "She is happy somewhere. She is still out there somewhere. Don't think about it. Don't think about all this." He sat down with his eyes closed, hands stiff by his side, resting on the wall.

    "Hello Mr. J," the voice he loved the most washed over him.

    Arjun shook his head chuckling, eyes still closed, at the hallucination he was having. Hearing her voice when she wasn't there was a definite hallucination.

    "Mr. J," he heard the voice again.

    He opened his eyes, chuckling and turned to the direction where Miss. D used to sit before, to see her sitting there then.

    He gave a short laugh and said to her image, "This is ridiculous. I don't know why I am lately getting these hallucinations. This is really good, to remember you. But if I keep talking to the winds like this, or to myself, everyone will think that I am insane."

    "I am not a hallucination Mr. J," the image said.

    Arjun laughed. "Oh my! I am so really, insanely in love with you."

    "I really am not a hallucination Mr.J," the image said earnestly, looking at him fondly and raised her hand up.

    Arjun stared at her image in disbelief. Slowly, he raised his right hand and uncertainly, touched her with index finger, as lightly as possible.

    He felt her.

    He drew away his hand in shock and then again slowly extended it, took her hand into his, feeling her smooth skin.

    "Miss. D?" he asked in a total delusion.

    "Yes," she smiled softly and nodded.

    Arjun didn't speak anything. He just stared at her, sinking in the fact that she was really sitting near him, that he was finally holding her hand.

    "After a few moments, with a ragged breath, he said, "You came back."

    She gave a miserable smile and said slowly, "I had to. I am so sorry Mr. J."

    He didn't speak up.

    "I am really sorry," she continued. "I was really stupid and foolish. I was... a complete idiot."

    "What are you saying?" Arjun asked, a smile coming at last.

    "I tortured you, didn't I?" she asked, eyes moistening.

    Arjun stared her in bewilderment.

    "I thought it was just a fling for you, that everything would slowly change afterwards. I thought that maybe after some days, we will face the toughness of unknown and unkempt relations. I don't know why, but but I felt that things would go the same way as they happened in my past. And it was an insecurity that I wasn't up to your standards which..." she babbled on when Arjun interrupted her with "Sshh... Sshh..."

    She stopped and looked at him fearing his anger. Unlike her imagination, he smiled affectionately, squeezed her hand and said, "I know. I know everything, how much you thought, the big conscience struggles you had, everything. And I can understand that. You don't have to explain anymore."

    She was confused.

    He glanced at her perplexed expression and admitted, "The day you left, you left your diary here right? I read everything in it. I have been reading it every time I am alone, since two years." He looked embarrassed. 

    "Oh! That's better. I can comprehend that you wanted to get the answers to your doubts. Anyways, I am happy that you understood my problems."

    "Yes," he said.

    "I just came to seek your forgiveness," she said.

    "For what?"

    "I don't know exactly for what. Maybe because I made you think more about me. That was bad."

    "What?" Arjun got up from the wall and stood facing her.

    Immediately, she too followed him and stood facing him, feeling unsure and afraid.

    "I mean, I left you right here and thought you would forget everything, that you would forget me after some days. It was like you would get out of that whole issue once I go away. But you didn't. You still think about me and you still..." she halted abruptly and then squeezed her eyes close. She sighed, opened her eyes and said, "Two years... Two years is really long. I didn't expect this to be so..."

    "Still the same?" Mr. J completed the line.

    Miss. D nodded slowly.

    "I told you it would always be the same," Mr. J reminded her.

    "Yeah. I realized it very late," she admitted.

    "What made you come back?" he asked her.

    "I read about you..."

    "In that business magazine?" he asked in between.

    "Yes," she replied.

    Mr. J laughed. Miss. D looked at him uncertainly.

    "Everyone except me had bothered to read it," he said laughing. "I never realized that I had become a complete 'You' till I read that interview. And I didn't even think about it when I was talking to that reporter. When I saw the report myself, I somehow understood that it wasn't me anymore."

    Miss. D smiled and said, "Well, I was already feeling very low for what had happened. And that article made me even more miserable." She bent her head, thinking and said, "I was in U.S for the past one and half year and came back to India a week back. I saw that magazine on my brother's table and your photo on the cover page. I couldn't stop myself from reading it. And after reading everything, I just couldn't stay sitting idly. "

    "Why did you exactly come back?" he asked her fondly.

    "To make sure that all was not lost," she said, raising her head and looking at him expectantly.

    He gave a faint smile and said, "Well, I lost something."

    Miss. D's face became white.

    He grinned and said, "My feeling that I was hallucinating your return. That's what I lost."

    Both of them laughed. But it prolonged to be a laughter of happiness. Arjun took her face into his and said, "It would always be the same."

    She nodded. 

    "You have been so stupid," he said in that laughter.

    "I know. I have always been the crazy girl," she laughed it off.

    "Wait, are you still Miss. D or Mrs. D?" he asked.

    "Miss. D," she assured him and then added, "But I would love to be Mrs. J one day."

    He chuckled and said, "Great! Mrs. J, can I know your name at least now?"

    She laughed briefly and replied, "Atwika."

    "What does that mean" he asked in confusion.

    "Atwika means 'One and Only'. It is Sanskrit," she replied, slipping her hands round his neck.

    "Well, it is totally apt for you. You are the one and only Miss. D, sorry Mrs. J for me," he said, pulling her into his arms.

    Amidst the throng of morning joggers, two truly bonded souls were holding onto each other for a lifetime...

                                            ....THE END....