Why Did It Happen?

(14)

When I opened the box, there were two objects in it. One was a folded sheet of paper. The other was an ornate diamond ring. The diamond stone was very intricately carved and was embedded on a thin ring which seemed to be made of pure gold. My God! This must have cost him a fortune! I thought.

I opened the folded paper. It was a letter addressed to me.

Dear Scarlette,

I love you. My love towards you is unwavering and absolutely inexplicable. You were there to support and console me, when I needed it the most. I have no ways to ask for your forgiveness for all my atrocities towards you. I wanted to distance myself from you. I wanted you to hate me, so that, when I die, you don’t mourn over me. You see, I have brain cancer, stage 2. I got to know of this when we had gone to see Mary in the hospital. I had fainted and told you the reason behind it was stress. Well, it wasn’t stress. It was cancer. My sessions of chemotherapy were irregular because of my financial status. And hence, my health kept deteriorating. That day, beside the garden, I had lost my balance because my legs had got entangled. That is another symptom of brain cancer. This would also explain my strange speech. I didn’t want you to notice this peculiarity of mine. Although, I dare say you had not grown sceptic. It is impossible to hide anything from you Scarlette. You have got eagle’s eyes along with a sensitive heart. It is a shame people often misinterpret you as a cold – hearted person. But people who actually know you are aware of your bona fide personality.

I am going to Nuremberg for my treatment. In case I tell you that I have gone there for a job interview, consider it a lie. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it back to England, since my health is in such a poor state. I don’t even know if you love me, but if you do, after my death, don't stop living. Go on and live your dream of becoming an author. But in the future, when you get married, don’t forget me. Keep me stored in a small corner of your heart...

I love you Scarlette and I have grown incapable of imagining my life without you. You probably have no idea how difficult and cumbersome it was for me to bear the weight of your silence, anger and pain. Please don’t hate me for my hostility towards you (even though I wish you would). You have become the most important person of my life and losing you scares me to death.

Talking of death, don’t you think it’s a funny thing? Gives peace to one, and sorrow to the other. I wish there was a truce in which everyone is happy and satisfied. But there isn’t... certain things can only be wished for, and believing in the possibility of such things is mere foolishness.

I’ll probably go to my mother soon, and in case you love me (which I think you do), please don’t mourn over my death. Be happy for me, because I have finally got deliverance form a torturous world... And we’ll try and create that impossible truce ;)

If my luck allows, I’ll come back and propose to you with the ring in that red box (only, and only if the doctors are successful at removing the tumour in my brain and my life is no more at stake). If I don’t, keep the ring as a token of our love; of our friendship; of ME.

Scarlette, you are the brightest star that has ever shone in my night sky. I hope I was yours too...

Love,

Dan

I took out the ring and wore it in my ring finger. I clutched the letter to my chest and felt a few tears leaving my eyes. I had controlled them until the end of the letter but couldn’t any more.

“You’ve stolen my heart, mind and soul Dan. How can I give you a corner of my heart when the whole of it is all yours? I love you Dan. I’ll forever regret not being able to tell this to you when you were alive. And hate? The day I start hating you, will be the last day of my life. Mark my words. And yes Dan, you were my brightest star too.”

I went to bed, still wearing that ring, and the letter still clutched close to my heart. That night, I cried. I cried like I had never cried before. They say that crying relieves your grief. But my grief was so painstakingly painful, that relief seemed to have abandoned me.

Somehow, I was feeling empty; I wasn’t complete. Never in my life had I felt like that before. It was new, and new things are supposed to be good! But that; that was not in the least ‘good’. It made a void inside me. And that void was excruciatingly painful.

We now live in two opposite worlds. My world is a dry place. It is devoid of beauty, colour, flowers, happiness, love, compassion, benignity. Yet there are people like Daniel who try to find stars in a clouded sky. And the good part is, they succeed in it.

The world Dan is living in has bliss, beauty, colour, flowers, happiness, love, compassion, benignity and many more of such lovely things. There, even if we try to find evil, despair, anguish and malevolence, we will always fail at doing so.