The Exchange

Shooting Stars

That night as Akshu was getting ready for bed, Abhi walked in with an envelope in his hand and silently handed it to her. 

"Yeh kya hai Abhi?" 

"Dekho lo", he smiled and said, gesturing her to open it. 

As she pulled out the piece of paper inside, she saw her own handwriting...she saw the page from her diary where she had written every single thing that she wanted them to do together...every single adventure, every single journey. She saw that he had circled "camping under the stars" and drawn a smiling face next to it. 

"Akshu...mein chata hoon ki hum tumari har ek wish poori karen...kya tum aaj raath ko mere saath camping chalo gi?" 

She looked at him with hesitation in her eyes..."Abhi...aaj sab joh kuch bhi hua uske baad..."

"Uske baad tumhe break ki zarurath hai Akshu...kya tumhe nahi lagta ki ab humara waqt aagaya hai? Jab hum dono bhi khush ho payen?" 

"Abhi...."

"Akshu, please...bas haan boldo...bhar bike aur sara samaan bhi ready hai..." 

Seeing the excitement and hope in his eyes, she could not get herself to say no...no matter how tired she was, no matter how much she wanted to stay at home. She was still not ready to go out into the world...but she knew that in the wilderness, it would be just the two of them...and there was no safer place in the world than his arms...so, she forced a smile to the best of her ability and nodded her head to say yes. 

His eyes screamed with happiness and he grabbed her hand in his, taking her outside to where he had all of their things waiting. And as she sat behind him, grabbing his waist as tightly as she could, feeling the breeze lightly in her hair, she felt more at ease than she had in a long time. She stared up at the night sky to see the stars and the moon shining brightly upon them, her heart smiling genuinely for the first time in a long time. She had nothing but reverence for this moment, however small it was...as her entire world was sitting in front of her and they were together now and forever...

Once they arrived to the camping grounds, he made a small fire and told her to sit on a log while he set up the tent. She tried helping him, but he refused to let her get up....telling her to enjoy the nature while he quickly got everything together. She stared at him in utter wonder, watching the sweat drip from his forehead, quietly getting up and pulling him towards her, wiping his face with her kurta, saying..."docman please aap thoda araam se kariye na..." 

Abhi smiled at her, hearing her calling him docman after so many days...feeling as if he was finally home. 

Once the tent was set up, he pulled her inside and took her into his arms. He unzipped the front and told her to look up into the sky....recalling how he would often come here when he missed her, waiting for the shooting stars, wishing for nothing but her safety...wishing for nothing but her happiness...wishing for nothing but the day when they would meet again. 

She turned around and gently kissed his cheek, having no words to express her gratitude for him...having to words to express how deeply she had wished for the same every second of the past year. And right as she was about to speak, she saw the shooting stars start to pour through the sky. She immediately got up and ran out from the tent, pointing above her, starting to laugh out of utter contentment without even realizing it...

"Abhi...Abhi jaldi bahar aao...yeh dekho...Abhi..." 

Abhi rushed out behind her, himself starting to laugh seeing her this genuinely happy for the first time since they had reunited... his eyes watered up seeing her like this...seeing a glimpse of his old Akshu...the Akshu that he had promised himself he would bring back...the Akshu that he had promised himself he would revive....

She grabbed his hand and told him to close his eyes to make a wish..."Abhi jaldi wish mango...jaldi jaldi..." 

She squeezed her eyes as tightly as she could and prayed that she would stay with Abhi forever...that they would be united in this lifetime and every other lifetime to follow...that he would always be safe, that he would always be happy... 

And as he watched her so cutely squeezing her eyes with the biggest smile on her face, he looked up at the heavens with not a single wish....he looked up at the heavens to thank them...to thank them for this moment, to thank them for her happiness, to thank them for bring her back to him...