Meenakshi was at their spot, by the tree so she could invite Kunwar for dinner, so she could introduce him to her father formally. She waited for hours and hours there excited and nervous till day turned to evening and evening to night. She was ready to put up a huge charade for making her wait that long but he never arrived. She was sure that it was one of his pranks, making her wait while he watched her do so from a hidden spot. Not once she thought otherwise.
After waiting for more than five hours, Ravi, their neighbourhood kid had come running to her. He told her that her father had sent him to call her back home as it was getting late. She looked around and it was almost dark with no sign of Kunwar yet. She got up and started walking home. Her mind kept on thinking of reasons he might have had for not coming to their spot today, she was trying to come up with excuses for him.
When she arrived home and saw her father's concerned face, she could not speak up. May be father understood her heavy silence, he did not ask anything either.
She could not sleep the whole night. Her mind kept creating various scenarios, few logical, most of them horrifying. She also kept remembering her father's piercing words, "What do you know about him?"
She tried to list down the things she knew about him.
1. He has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen
2. He has brown hair trimmed short
3. His hands are tough but warm
4. He smiles every time I look into his eyes
5. He has a beautiful voice but he is a horrible singer
6. He squints his eyes every time he is making up stories
7. He loves teasing me
8. He loves how I do my hair
9. He hugged me tight and kissed my forehead before we parted yesterday.
She broke down into tears, "That's all that I know about him...that's all..." her voice breaking.
Suddenly she realized there was one more thing she knew about him. He was friend of Sabin, her best friend's brother. "How could I have forgotten that?" A sigh of relief, "...definitely Sabin will know about him..." she gasped.
She checked the clock and it was almost 2 am. She could not wait to go and ask Sabin and Shila about Kunwar, they would definitely know about him.
She sat in front of the clock watching each move it made, eagerly waiting for it to be reasonable hour so she could run to Shila's and inquire about Kunwar. As she kept watching second & minute hands rotate, she felt her head getting lighter. She smelled something she could not figure out what and her stomach curled up. She ran to washroom and started vomiting.
As soon as the clock hit 6 am, Meenakshi ran to Shila's house, she did not think anything much. As soon as she reached, she started knocking on their front door frantically and Shila came out rubbing her still sleepy eyes.
"Meena? What are you doing here so early?" She could not reply fast enough as she was panting heavily,"Kunwar" she gasped for air and repeated again, "Kunwar... do you know where is he?"
"He left for his posting yesterday early morning." Shila replied in her sleepy voice.
"What? No he cannot!"
"Yeah he did. He and Sabin left yesterday morning. They were on 3 months vacation, you knew that."
"When is he coming back?" her voice sounded as if she was choking.
"He won't!"
Meenakshi felt like Earth was sinking beneath her. Her father's words came back to her, "...what if he was just fooling around with you? Silly girl!"
She could not hear anything else Shila was saying. Breathing heavily she turned around and started walking with Kunwar's smiling face and father's angry face projecting in her head simultaneously.
"...How lucky I am to have you..." Kunwar's words immediately crossed by father's "...you do not even know his name? Silly girl!"
She wanted to run away, but where? Kunwar was gone! How would she face father now? Kunwar had left her, all the sweet words he had said were all just lies! Her heart still would not believe Kunwar could leave her alone and what they had was fake.
Numb mind and blank face she stood in front of father, who was looking at her with deep worried face.
"Darling are you OK?"
"You were right...he is gone!"
He gasped but did not speak a word, he walked close to her and hugged her tight. She could not contain her tears anymore and let it out. She cried holding her father. She could not believe father's horrible predictions had come true, Kunwar had left the town without even saying a goodbye.
Father was saying something, but her own sound of hiccups were growing louder, then she again smelled the same smell and her stomach hurled up. Her head started spinning and she wanted to throw up again. She pushed her father and ran to the washroom.
After almost 10 minutes she walked out of the washroom to find father standing just outside with horrified face. She realized he must have understood what it meant. Her eyes fell to the ground ashamed.
Father did not say anything and walked out of the house.
***
YOU ARE READING
Unkept Promises
General Fiction"If you really believe in complexity of universe then is it not too plain to think your so called 'soulmate' will be a guy, who lives or works near you, speaks your language? What if he is an old man in Vietnam? Or a woman in Korea? Or a pigeon for...
