Miracle Marriage

Chapter 24

Through Bala's Eyes II

"Amma, I am going to school now,"

"Bala, stop, here, take this 10 rupees with you," my Amma will give me cold notes that smelled like rice.

"Thanks, Amma, bye,"

"Bala, don't be lazy in class, focus on studying," my Appa will give me his everyday advice.

"Bala-anna, nanum vare (I am also coming)," Selva will follow my cycle in his, a uniform similar to mine. "Hey, don't leave without me," Viji will catch up to us. But without any of them knowing I will wait for someone on the roadside. An extraordinary girl who stole my heart at first sight. She will arrive with her friend in their cycles, while I follow them.

"Sathya, Did you study for the exam today, oh! nevermind, because I am gonna win it anyway," I will say in my mocking tone with my dancing brows.

"Ayya! Who is gonna what? In the end, you cry to your mother, glassy," she will laugh back at me.

"Pakalam (let's see), Hahaha!" I will drove off quickly challenging her

"Ok, it's a bet then," she will yell at me in fury. However, in the end, we both will score the same marks (chuckles).

"Ahh! I can't believe I scored the same as that glassy,"

"Don't worry Sathya, there are still many more exams to come," Durga and she will prepare for our next match while I will secretly stalk her like every 90s lover boy. In the end, our scores tied, and then I will lose willingly to see her innocent laugh and delight. But one day I will scoop up my courage and ask her out for an ice candy.

"Ice candy? This is not a prank, right? Yeah, I get it, this is because I won and you lose. Of course, I accept," I will accept her sassiness too. We will go out after school, I will buy her ice candy with the money I was saving from my mother's grants.

"I want the mango flavour,"

"Then I will also try the mango-flavoured one," while enjoying that fine evening with her, enjoying our mango-flavoured ice candies, I will tell her about my ambitions.

"What? really? A doctor? Is that your ambition, I want to become a doctor too," she will excitedly speak about her dreams to me, and we will both begin to build our little plans into a pyramid. Then we will begin spending more time together, studying, playing, and exploring. Maybe she will start detecting my piercing eyes full of tenderness and my smile with a heavy appeal to be with her forever. Maybe she will smile back or act like she never noticed it. Then on a rainy day, while coming back from school, we will seek shade under the largest banyan tree in the village where I spend most of the time, studying with my friend Viji. In the coldness and unknown ambience, our hearts will beat in unison. She will peek at me with her bashful face feeling my devotion. I will move closer to her and gently rub my fingers to hers, gradually leading us to hold hands. We both will avoid eyes, blushing and beaming like a sun in the rain.

"Sathya, let's become doctors together," I will whisper in her ear. Her face will redden and she will nod agreeing to my suggestion. My heart will flatter and my belly will tickle like a hundred butterflies flying in there. Then as time goes by we both will fall for each other more. I will become the love of her life and she will be my eternity. On one beautiful golden evening, while the sun slowly departs this earth, we will take each other, body to body and soul to soul as one. We will graduate and make our families proud with our achievements and I will fearlessly ask her father to allow me to walk alongside her from now on and till death do us part. I desired to meet her in my teenage era, deliciously tasting our young love while blooming into responsible adults together, listening to each other as better halves by raising the next generation of us and then leaving this world together in peace, hoping we can meet in another life. I realised the strange feeling budded inside was love. Sathya Sundarmani has become my first love and also my unrequited love. Loneliness was the name my brain gifted to my whole life I was proud till yesterday. I was lonely, and now I am a broken man.