The Exchange

The Lake

As she ran in the direction of the lake, she felt herself losing more and more control over her breaths. She had countless panic attacks over the past year, and every time, she managed to control them. She managed to clutch onto her throat as tightly as possible, closing her eyes, remembering his face. But today, that did not work. Nothing she tried brought her even the slightest bit of solitude. She grabbed onto a tree, clasping it for dear life. She tried imagining that the hoodie on her head was his hand, bestowing his love and comfort upon her...but, instead of giving her solace as it always did, today, it made her condition even worse. She had no idea what was happening...and she had no idea how to stop it...she thought to herself that if this was the end, that if this was how her journey was meant to end, then so be it...she looked up into the night sky and asked her kahnaji for just one thing...wherever her Abhi was...whatever he was doing...let him be safe...and let him be happy. 

Little did she know, her Abhi was sitting by the very lake she was running towards. He was staring at the moonlight that was so beautifully reflecting into the waters. He was watching the tide, counting how many seconds it took for the water to go down and rise again. He was thinking to himself how powerful must the moon's love for this water be...that every night, it managed to pull the waves towards it...and how intensely must this water love the moon...that every night, it danced in honor of it. Every so often, he would remember how quickly Maya had left the lobby, how brightly red her face had turned. Yes, Maya's reaction had showed him all he needed to know...that there was something going on...that his Akshu was near him...but, the truth was that he did not need Maya to give him that reassurance. Because, from the moment he had set foot in this country, he had known that his life was here too...he had known that his love was here too...he had sensed her presence not just once...but every single second of every single hour of every single day he had been here. His heart was all he needed to bring him to her...Maya was simply a roadblock...a roadblock that he would knock out of the way if it was the last thing he ever did...