THE STORY OF LIFE | A 21ST CENTURY RAMAYANA

YOU WILL BE FINE

Urmila suddenly sat up on her bed from her light sleep, her hair turmoiling her already confused face. Did, did she just hear a bullet?! And that too from the side towards her balcony?

The side to beach exposed from the balcony never saw any visitors as far as she knew, for it faced the outer edge of the forest, where only the cremations took place, if they were to be done.

Urmila's gut rumbled. She instinctively felt like puking.

"What is wrong with me?!" She asked herself. "I wasn't feeling this bad earlier."

Urmila drank some water and got up. She walked towards the balcony. Though she was not allowed to visit the balcony at this time of the day, she felt something pulling herself toward it. Each step of hers became louder and louder as she went.

She slid open the door to the small balcony, too small to hold even one person properly, and looked around. No, not much different. It was almost the same; dark, silent and distant.

Just as she was coming back, something made Urmila shake up. Something that Urmila had missed.

Urmila clasped onto the railings as her heart beat faster. Leaning over onto the left side of the balcony, she moved herself forward dangerously, a foot away from tumbling herself over, so as to see what had caught her eye, and possibly heart.

Two figures, lying on the sand along with a few people occassionally coming and going. Urmila gulped as she tried to focus her eyes on the figure that was almost stationary on the sand. She strongly felt, she knew him.

That body shape, the height... No, all seemed to be too true.

"Yes, or No?!" Ran in her mind as she fell back against a wall, tears running involuntarily from her eyes.

"L...Lakshman..." Urmila was beginning to lose the little energy she had left. No, it couldnt be him, like that. But, it so seemed like him! All through the night she had been thinking of him, but not of the pleasant memories. With the bad ones, the ones in which he had been harmed. Why? Was it a sign?

Urmila got up again and pushed herself to face the figure.

She wrapped her fingers tightly around her wedding ring and embraced it. Things were becoming more clear to her now.

She softly looked at her Lakshmans body, though what seemed lifeless. Atleast, she saw him. She felt him.

"LAKSHMAN!!! LAKSHMAN!!!" She yelled loudly. Her echoed, but received no response.

Immediately, her attendant came rushing in.

"I knew you would be here, you mad girl! Get in right now!"

But Before Urmila could come in, her head dazed in a moment and she fell on the ground, hitting herself hard.

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Ram tightened his fingers around Lakshmans neck, supporting him to sit up.

"Please Lakshman, just get up! I cant see you like this!"

Tears had fallen at such an extent from his eyes that he even ceased to see Lakshman clearly anymore. But Lakshman didnt respond. Such a fighter he was that he still breathed, displaying the occasional heaves of his chest, but he had no power to respond even with his eyes.