Under The Clear Summer Sky

13 | farewell

9 years ago.

The luggages and suitcases were placed at the lobby of the apartment complex. Maya and Anuradha watched as the porters placed each suitcase in side the big van. Their eyes filled with an indescribable emotion. 

Finally, they caught sight of Vineet and his family coming out of the elevator, ready to leave.

Nina approached them with a smile. "Take care of yourselves, you two. Thank you for being good friends to my son. Maya, you don't know how much I have to thank you for bringing along Vineet to those CIT Professors lectures-"

Maya bit her lip, trying to control her urge to burst out laughing. Anu turned away, her shoulders shaking.

"-and all those valuable seminars. Anu, thank you for being a great friend to Vineet. You're just so adorable. Take care and do well in your exams. Anyways, I'll get going now. Vineet, come to the car in ten minutes okay?"

And Nina and Bharat hurried away. Shrest skipped over to Anu.

"I didn't want to tell you this," He whispered in her ear. "but I'll miss you. A lot."

Anu smiled and whispered back. "I'll miss you a lot too, kiddo. Stay healthy and happy, okay?"

Shrest nodded and scampered to his parents. Finally, Vineet moved closer to the two.

"Maya, this is for you." He gave her a small present that was wrapped in a shiny purple cover. He carefully pulled a large shoebox and handed it over to Anu. "And this is for you."

Anu inspected the shoebox. "You're giving me shoes?"

Vineet smiled and shook his head. "It's something else. Open it up at home."

Silence surrounded them, wrapping them in nostalgia and sadness. "I'll have to go now. I'll see you guys later."

Anu wanted to correct him. It probably wasn't a 'see you later'. This was a goodbye forever.

"I'll see you later, Vineet." Maya cheerfully responded. Anu only stared at him. Her eyes filling up with tears. Vineet smiled and shook his head. 'Don't cry', he mouthed. She held it back with much difficulty.

The family of four boarded the van. Little Shrest waved goodbye at them, happily. Vineet smiled at the two of them. His eyes, however, conveyed a very different emotion.

The van started and drove away. They left the apartment complex. 

Anu and Maya stood there for a long time. Anu stared at the shoebox and Maya watched her.

"Come on, don't feel so sad. Didn't I tell you? You'll meet again. I just know it."

After Anu came back home, she shut herself in her room. She couldn't bring herself to glance at the neighboring door. If she did, the memories would come rushing back. If she began to remember the memories again, she would end up crying. 

Anu stared at the shoebox. Opening it, she found it was full of paper planes made from origami paper of different colors. They all had things written inside it.

She opened the first one.

It took her 6 hours to read the paper planes and stop crying. Underneath the paper planes was a formula book that Vineet had himself written for every chapter they had in physics. 

Upon catching sight of it, Anu cried all over again.

"You'll meet again, for sure."

She kept replaying the words in her head. Everyday. Until she finally learned to move on and get on with life.

✿

word count: 637 words

[behind the scenes]

The Paper Planes

Anu ugly cried over all of the paper planes. She still returns to those little letters every time she feels down or has a bad day. She thinks reading the paper planes has the effect of making it seem like Vineet was really next to her and consoling her. It healed her.