We were both in tears.
I knew the moment I looked at her she'd say "I'm sorry to hear that." I knew I'd see sympathy on her face.
That's what the world has for me now . Sympathy.
I looked at her and she smiled at me.
I was astonished.
"I bet Lucas was cuter than you've mentioned because a guy so good at heart can't just be as good as a fiction character, he needs to be much more" she said.
Was I dreaming? Or had that teenager just said exactly what I'd love to hear. I was awestruck there. All I could do was look at her.
"Hey. What's wrong? Did I offend you? Was I not supposed to talk of him? I'm so sorry I just thought.."
She was feeling sorry but I had to stop her.
"No sweetie. It's ok. I mean it's great. Actually I don't really remember someone talking to me since months now. Everyone just looks at me with eyes full of pity."
"Pity?" She asked.
"What's there to pity for? I've known people who have died without one special moment, without love, without their encounter with their passion. And look at you. You've experienced a love soo pure. A passion so strong. I know not having them now must hurt. But you've lived it. You've lived your life. You've lived love, you've lived passion. You've lived happiness and now you are fighting pain. Isn't it enough life already?"
Said that naive teenager.
I mean how could she? It had been months. All I had done was think about my life and my past but never had a thought so possitive hit me. But here in this room, a stranger who had just heard my story appeared to find more possitives in my life than me, the person who had lived every bit of that life.
"Well" was what I replied because honestly in front of a soul so enlightened I had no words that could match the standard.
"Have you heard of the kasturi deer? " she asked. I said " No".
" They say a very fragrant smell comes from the deer's navel. But the deer doesn't know that the fragrance is coming from within it. So it goes around searching for the source of that fragrance all its life and doesn't ever realise that the fragrance is from within it.
"Don't be the kasturi, Samaira. Realise it's you. The fragrance, it's coming from within you" she said.
A teenager woke up all night without a yawn and heard my story. She responded in a way I'd never imagined and now she was trying to teach me things. Had it been some other day maybe I would have tried to solve her story but today, my mind was already too puzzled by such maturity in the teenager so I gave up.
And as I talked to my brain about the teenager I realised, all this while and I didn't know her name.
Reluctantly I said " I was so buried in my sorrow I didn't even ask you your name."
"Laila. That's what you can call me" she said.
"Pretty name. Liala" I responded.
"You are very tired for tonight, give your body some rest and get some sleep samaira" said Laila.
I nodded and left.
And then for the first time in months I felt my eyes burn with the urge to sleep. And after a long time that night, I fell asleep.
