I told sunset about you...

Such unseen peculiarity!

I know it sounds too nosy of me. But I have known Ashley for the past few years. We first met at the rehabilitation center for the disabled in Michigan. I was surprisingly impressed by her capabilities to tackle disabled patients. There is no doubt she's a good neuroscientist, who successfully motivated injured disabled people to lead life happily. And it's not an exaggeration when I say that I am also moved and motivated by her. She was always ready for help. Not only rehabilitation centers but various NGOs are willing to ask for her assistance. Anyway, I have known her for 10 years, yet I hadn't seen this aspect of her. And maybe that's why I was too intrusive.

We live together, we work together in NGOs. It's like we were intervening in each other's life as each other's substitute. And that's why I was confident enough to say that there is no one named Sky in her life. I knew most of all her cases in every institution where she volunteered for counseling or any other tasks. We discussed them together in our spare time. But there is no one named Sky. And what spiked my interest more is not only the name but the conversation itself. The monologue which she thought she had done alone and in silence, unknowingly managed to slip out loud enough to reach my ear. Without knowing my presence she was engrossed in her daily Sunset talk. It looks like, with closed eyes, she was embracing and absorbing golden sun rays deep within her soul. Her words stopped me on the spot. There was a plea in her words. How strange it is to request The SUN Rays.

She was praying to the Sun rays to melt the bone-chilling ice under which her Sky was buried, and let his soul be free.

How odd it is to plead sun rays saying," Please melt the ice and let life bloom. Please set his soul free. It's the presence of the sun that unites Earth and the Sky in the form of a Horizon. Even as an illusion, let Ashley and Sky be united in the next life. Let us be unified."

These words struck me like lightning. To whom she wants to be unified!! Whose life to bloom? Whose trapped soul, that she wanted to be free? And from what?

So many questions. With a pile of question marks, I was stunned on the spot.

I kept staring at Ashley with the hope that I might be able to decipher these answers from her. After all, she is the only one who knows these answers.

When Ashley opened her eyes, there was a little sparkle of a tear with a tinge of redness in the corners. It's not noticeable if you didn't witness the prior scene. Somehow I felt guilty, does she always have glassy eyes after her conversation or say prayer session!! I did not know. After years of knowing her routine, I still didn't notice the peculiarity of it. She turned her head and saw me.

I was dumbstruck, before that day I always believed that this type of innocence is only available to the person who doesn't know how cruel the world is. This selfish world didn't assault the person and hunt them down with its cruelty. But at that moment, I saw a deep crack in her innocent eyes. How deep was the wound she had? What was the incident which gave her the tradition of prayer for a lifetime!!

With my bewildered expression, she knew that I heard something which I should not. She tried to act natural, but I couldn't be normal. For me this side of Ashley was unforeseen. It was like I found a hidden drawer of an old almirah by chance. It is human tendency to pry into such matters. And this is Ashley. My friend whom I admire and love the most. I wanted to know what's inside Ashley's heart that I as her close friend don't know! What I saw today, what was that?

I straightforwardly asked her, "Ashley! Who's Sky?" Just hearing the name her eyes turned blank. Without any expression like a dead person. No hint of life. For a second I was scared to see her lifeless eyes. Still, I tried to intrude, but Ashley didn't budge even a bit. She didn't speak about it. A full day of awkward silence passed, but I didn't get to satisfy my curiosity. Yet I have decided to know about it. The next day again I tried to get answers by trying everything including emotional blackmailing as my last resort.