Love Letter Written in Winter

Part 5 - Birth of the Poet

The poet who wanted to burn himself in love, died starving for love. Did Lucy ever make him write any pieces? The simple and untangled answer is no, never. She never had any special existence. Neither did she like all these, nor was there any magic in this relation. All we talked about were groceries, kids' school fees, and who would buy father’s medicine. Drake had totally lost that different soul inside him in all these regular duties.
After opening the diary and reading the first line, Drake remembered all those dreams of how he thought he would spend his life. He wanted to sacrifice himself at the feet of that unknown queen. She would be the Queen, the Goddess. Drake was driving through the lane of old memories. In another verse, he had described how he wanted to die watching the beauty of the blue eyes of his lover without blinking until his last breath. Drake placed his hand over that page with affection and smiled to himself. He suddenly remembered that the girl, who has recently brought his life to a stop, also has blue eyes. How did he know he would meet her all those years ago? Is it purely coincidental, or were the verses whispered in his ears by God?
The verses said,

"Those eyes of yours,
deeper than the sea,
bluer than the sky,
brighter than the morning star
How are they even real?
How would I observe the beauty of the moon
when these eyes are here on earth?"

Drake was still remembering the precious portrait of that woman. Out of nowhere, suddenly two lines crossed his mind. He took the pen from his pocket and wrote them down on those old yellowish pages of the diary.

"And at this mid-hour of the night,
I thank the creator of those eyes."

While writing the lines, automatically, his hand wrote beyond it and ended up writing two more lines.

"And I surrender myself to the
Owner of these blue eyes."

His mind went blank for a moment. Did he just write these four lines in a flow? In these God knows how many years, maybe twenty years or more, he wrote something. His mind filled with the joy of creation, and his heart filled with the ecstasy of newly found love. He forgot when was the last time he felt this kind of magic in love or even if he ever felt it at all.
Drake was totally strolling in a magical land. Suddenly, the wall clock in the dining room started ringing. It was 2 a.m. He came out of his reverie by that ringing. He remembered he came upstairs to get a poetry book to lend to Sylvia. It was getting late, and he had to go to the office the next day as well. Drake started searching for the book in a hurry, but there was no time at all. Somehow, he took one of the very old En Michelles books and closed the almirah.
The next morning, he was so contented for no particular reason. He used his occasional cologne and left for work. Sylvia had mentioned she comes at 12:00, so Drake took his lunch break almost an hour before the actual time and reached the café at 11:50 sharp. Though he told his colleague that he was very hungry today and needed an early lunch break, he wasn’t really hungry. Even in his mind, he denied the fact that he came to the café at this time to meet someone. But with a cup of coffee, he was eagerly waiting for that someone.
More than one hour passed. The guitar clock in the café showed it was 1:00 already. The café had started getting full, and the waiter was becoming impatient with the customer who had only ordered one coffee and occupied a table for an hour. He had other customers.
For the third time, the waiter came. This time, a bit impatient, he placed the bill on the table and asked,
-‘Anything else, Sir?’
Drake could guess the waiter’s expression.
-‘Nothing.’
While putting an extra big-fat currency note with the bill, Drake asked the waiter,
-'Previous week, that lady I shared my table with… she seems to be a regular customer here. Can you say when does she come?’
-‘Lady?’ The waiter was trying to remember the incident from the past week.
-‘Yes, the lady with blue eyes, long hair… she had a black hat on… some Sylvia Johnson…’
-‘Oh! Yes! She comes here often. But why do you need to know? Any problem, Sir?’
Drake got a bit irritated by the waiter’s inquiry. So possessive, as if he was her boyfriend. Yet Drake politely replied,
-‘I have left something with her. Need to get it back.’
-‘Oh! I see! Sorry, Sir. She generally comes on Saturday afternoons.’
The waiter left. Drake was left with a bit of heartbreak, though he didn’t know the reason for it. He felt betrayed on the first go.
Disheartened, Drake came back. The whole day he stayed with a heavy heart.                                           Next day, it was Saturday, a holiday. Generally, Drake spent the day sitting idle in the garden, watering plants, trimming them, and sometimes sowing seeds. Rose came to help her dad, and Russell came to disturb his father and sister in whatever they were doing. But this Saturday, somehow he couldn’t confine himself at home. He just left the house. While sitting on the metro, he thought this was the last time he was going in search of her. If not this time, he would accept the fate that they weren’t meant to meet each other again. Their meeting never had any significance. They just crossed each other’s paths by accident.
But maybe it was not an accident, so they met again.