**Imaginary Ghost**
In the gathering darkness, I was waiting patiently inside the City Park for last more than one hour. The bench on which I was sitting, made of dense wood and iron, was quite uncomfortable. To add to my discomfort, my thoughts were melancholy and the grey-white fog, which was moving in from the adjacent forest was making the entire atmosphere cold and depressing.
I looked around the Park dotted with trees and interspersed with bushes amidst well-manicured lawns; they all seemed hazy in the evening blanket of black and white. Toward far sides, the peripheral lamp posts were throwing eerie yellow lights around them. Inside, the lights were not working, the lamps were standing like tall & silent sentinels.
My eyes were searching for Emon, but she was nowhere in sight. I got up and surveyed the benches towards my side. Perhaps she had already come and was waiting for me. I knew that she wouldn't come near me... not after the stormy and heated exchange of words last Sunday. And why Sunday, this had been happening since last how many weeks, I had lost count.
As the minutes ticked by moving to another hour or so with no sign of her, I decided that enough was enough. Looking around finally in that poor visibility I got up.
As I took the paved winding pathway and walked towards the first gate, I got a sixth sense that there was somebody in the Park. Stopping, I again made a reconnaissance but apart from a woman whose face was covered by white dupatta sitting on the very far side bench and a man who was walking out of the second gate, I could see that he was wearing a hat. There was nobody in the Park. Emon was not there.
That night I had a restless sleep, tossing and turning on my bed and when the first light of dawn filtered through my window curtains, I got up with a sigh of relief. Emon was more entrenched in my emotion than I had bargained for.
In the College, when I entered my classroom, my eyes searched for her. She was sitting in the last row talking to Sonali, her friend. As I stood near the doorway watching her, she turned her head and glanced at me. There was no change in her expression and she looked away and resumed her conversation. After the class was over, as we were trooping out, I made my way and caught up with her walking out briskly. I took hold of her hand and gently urged her to step aside, which she did, soon we were walking towards the Cafeteria in silence.
After having ordered coffee, I made the effort to start the conversation, after all this needed to be sorted out.
"Emon...." My voice sounded a bit shaky to me, ".... yesterday I waited for you in the Park till late evening, but I didn't see you as you had promised ... so I left ... Why didn't you come...?"
I stopped as I became conscious that her face was turning to a hue of deep pink and her curved lips were set together; even in her anger she looked beautiful.
Emon's eyes were downcast; she didn't speak for many moments then directly looked at me. Her eyes were intense, "Yes I was there, but you never had the willpower to find me ... guts to face our problems... you are a coward... you also didn't think that I could be in some danger in that foreboding place... it was so dark too...," She shivered.
I blinked; this was not totally unexpected. She had been behaving like this for long.
I had to react; but how to do it?
I just remained silent. The coffee arrived, and we drank it without any further words.
The next day while returning from College my mind was made up. Emon had to stop this behavior.
