Some parts of this story i have blatantly lifted from one i read a few hours ago - the rest is mine.
There was a tin shack on the hill overlooking his village. It had been there as long as he remembered it. Someone had lived there a long time ago but now even the roof had caved in and only a small area in the courtyard was sheltered from the elements. Now,as he looked at it from the other side of the hill, childhood memories seemed to flow down the hillside and drown him. His mind was numbed with emotion. He had been away in the city for quite a few years and now he hoped to be able to return for good. He was returning to where he really belonged. His parents would be waiting for him...and his friends.....and she would be waiting for him too. It was a small village after all,she must know that he was coming.
He had left her with the promise that he would return very soon to take her as his bride and she had promised that she would wait for him however long he took. It was seven years ago. But he still believed that she would be waiting for him, just as he used to wait for her to come to meet him.
As he reached the shack his village came into view and although he couldn't make out anyone from this distance, he found himself trying to look for her. He reached home, greeted his parents, exchanged pleasantries with his fellows and then started waiting for her to arrive. She didn't come that day,nor on the next,nor the one after that.
"What's the matter ?" he thought. "All the people knew that i was coming. She must have known too,then why isn't she coming?"
He turned to his mother for a reply. His mother told him. She had waited long for him but finally she gave way under family pressure and was married off to someone from a nearby village a year ago. However,her husband had died of a disease only two months after marriage and her in-laws refused to accept her saying that she was the ill-omen that had caused the untimely demise of her husband. So now she was living the unenviable life of a young widow with her parents.
He was too shocked to say anything. He simply got up,went to his room and locked himself up for two days. On the third,he went to her house.
She looked just as he remembered her with only a few wrinkles below her eyes telling the story of past years. But she wasn't wearing the salwar-kameez he used to picturise her in and she didn't come laughing with joy when she beheld him - she was wearing a white sari now and she walked with all the dignity of a woman. But her eyes.....her eyes sparkled with joy the moment they rested on him,she didnt look at anything else the whole time he sat there.
He didn't talk in his old funny manner,he talked in a serious one now. And she didn't laugh at his jokes as open-heartedly as she used to earlier, but her smile said it all.They talked as if they were old friends meeting after a long time,but their eyes told a different story. They still loved each-other as madly as they used to - their love had matured , it had passed the test of time and difficulty and now he felt that luck was in his favour at last and he made up his mind to marry her.
He knew that she wouldn't object to that,he had known this all along. But he also knew that the villagers,even their own parents, would not let them do so.Widow-remarriage hadn't made its way to his village yet. He knew that however much he tried to convince people,he would fail. Telling people of his intention to marry her could have proved disastrous, so he decided to tread precautiously.
The next time he went to meet her was a few weeks later. He had made all the necessary preparations. They would go back together to the town where he used to work. He would take up his old job and they would get married and stay together till eternity.
Nothing else mattered to him anymore - his parents could take care of themselves. He had returned for just one person and now that she would go with him,his earlier plans of settling down in the village seemed like a joke.
He told her of his plans. He would wait for her in the tin shack at the top of the hill after sunset and she would make her way to it as soon as she could. Then they would start together on a new life.
The next day was a stormy one. He had prepared everything for their departure and at sunset he was waiting for her in the tin shack. It was very dark by the time she arrived and it was raining very hard. The path downhill was slippery with mud and so they decided to spend the night in the shack and continue on their journey early the next morning.
There was a great deal of lightning that night. No one noticed the bolt of lightning that hit the tin shack on the hill.
The next day, the villagers found their charred bodies in the sheltered area of the tin shack. They were closed in a tight embrace.
