Hamesha, Yours!

-38-

Harshad had given her purpose before he left, unlike the many others who had left her alone. He left her to finish his unfinished business. But, he too left her with a chest of questions, questions she had avoided, partly answered, but left mostly untouched.

Nandini walked down the star-light beach, looking over into the horizon.

Had she been wrong? No, her heart spelled out determined.

Was Manik wrong? No, her heart answered wearily.

Did she do right? Would he still be okay? Is she worth this fight?

Does he deserve this? Do they deserve this pain?

Is she worthy of him? Will this all end some day?

Would he even return?

What if ...

The commotion of questions plunged her into tears. Her eyes feeling numb and her legs turned jelly. She sat down close enough to the shore line for a sane person's liking. The waves caressing her feet as if Amms was sitting besides her like old days and patting her to calm down. The water retreated and the sand glowed below. She stretched her toes slightly and wingled them around, doodling on the sand until a wave submerged the pattern and called out to her. The water was wet and so was she.

Her hands doodle on the phone and she stared at the metal ringer's screen while her chin rested on her knees. A breath concerned yet weary came from the other side denoting that she was being heard.

"The sea looks enticing" she said dryly yet an amazement lingered in her voice.

"Interesting!" came back the manly voice.

"Can I get wet?" her innocence asked him slowly.

"If really wanted to, you wouldn't have asked!"

She failed to reply at his perplexing sentence but did let her confusion out in words.

"Say your mind, Nandu!"

"Where should I go?"

The voice sighed along with the cold waves that clashed at her feet. All complexities, she felt had to touch her once before they fell upon this earth.

"You remember I told you to take a flight, be a bird and seek at home but, if you don't find one, remember you can fall back. Explore but remember where you branched from."

She hummed to the voice that preached.

"The hardest part isn't letting go but is starting over. And starting over starts when after all the journey, the bird comes back to pick up the pieces of her nest. Ruined, battered, tired or tattered, whatever it is she starts over. Piece by piece, picking up from where she left and knew she would find a branch. Come back if you haven't found a home, may be after a break the old still remains and if it doesn't, someone will always await, Nandu. We will always."

The line stayed still, the breeze whistled from both ends. She knew he was on s balcony too after all she was well versed with the music of distant winds.

"From where I started. " she murmured. Like it or not she had to go back once, for a dead mans wish and now, if herself was another reason there couldn't be much added burden to going back.

----

-Goa outskirts: Harshad's house-

An unsettling void took over her. His voice used to crackle along the winds here first, comforting her, giggling along with her. His support had been different, unique in its own way.