Love At Last

Bird, Drone and Kite

The scent of jasmine and various medicinal herbs lingered in the room. It was dimly lit and a cool breeze blew in through an open window. A table in the middle of the room had an oil lamp, some books and a handful of jasmine flowers on it.

Beside the table was a bed and a woman was lying on it. Someone had covered her with a bedsheet and through it, one could see her chest rise and fall with the rhythm of her heartbeat. Her eyes were closed and one would assume that she was simply asleep, if not for the coldness of her body and the paleness of her cheeks.

Silence would have prevailed if it weren't for the two men, who barged into the room, bickering amongst themselves. They were followed by a third, who came in slowly, and simply stood in the middle of the room, staring at the woman. This man had short and curly hair, sported a stubble and looked very tired. He remained silent while the other two kept quarrelling among themselves.

The man with hunched shoulders and an untamed, bushy and frizzy hair, spoke in an unnaturally sweet voice – that of a woman's. The other man, who was of the exact same height and wore a woollen shawl around his neck, spoke in a very squeaky voice.

"It's all his fault, Ama– Drone. If he hadn't interfered and screeched at the subject, I would have succeeded in my project." the man with the untamed hair and sweet voice, complained to the man who was silent.

"Yeah Kite, you were doing so well that she ended up believing she'd gone mental. Nice way to introduce yourself!" said the man with the squeaky voice, frowning and folding his hands.

"I did that? If it weren't for your screeching and squealing in her ears, I would have had a chance to persuade her, Bird. And mind you, I've got a hundred percent success rate even when I've tried something that I haven't done before." said Kite, angrily.

"Well then, this time you were wrong. Not to mention, stupid. Face it, Kite. Who, in their right minds would adopt that voice, if it's sure to scare the subject away? People get scared when you speak in that unnaturally scary voice of yours." Bird said, equally angry.

"I'm stupid and scary?" asked Kite, his voice now a little soft, but still like a woman's. "If you don't remember, you were asked to do it, first. What happened, then? You laughed with that squeaky voice of yours and frightened her!"

"What was I supposed to do?! She wouldn't budge when I tried waking her up. And when she finally opened her eyes, I thought she had woken up, but she hadn't. She started a kind of excercise, lying down in bed! It was hilarious! How was I not supposed to laugh?" said Bird. He might have suddenly remembered what happened that day, for he started laughing. He sounded more or less like an agitated mouse.

"Kite, Bird. Will you guys shut up?" said the man named Drone, speaking for the first time since they all entered the room. The two men fell silent.

He walked towards the bed, where the woman lay, and sat down on a chair beside the bed. He gently stroked her head and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

"You two have been extremely foolish." Drone said, in a very calm and deep voice, not taking his eyes off the woman. "I entrusted you both with such an important task and you failed me. Because of your antics back there, the girl won't trust us easily, even though we don't mean her any harm."

The two men looked down and remained silent.

"For the first time in my life, I'm scared of not succeeding. I wish I could take her far away from all this and live peacefully for the rest our lives. But I will stay for the sake of our people. If I don't succeed in this..." Kite trailed off, clutching his hair tightly.

A very long pause ensued. Drone got up and went towards the open window. The bars of the window felt cool against his forehead, when he leaned in.

"Er... Why don't you read, 'You can Win' by Shiv Khera?" asked Kite, trying to cheer them up.