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There she was - standing on the other side of the street.
I had known her once, in fact, more than just known her - I had
been friends with her once. I had even fallen in love with her
but before I could decide whether to tell her or not something
had happened that had caused me to compress all my feelings
into a corner of my mind and board them up - never to be
released again.
Now, few years later, I still didn't dare remove
those blockades - afraid of what I might find there. I had made
a decision of not talking to her and I didn't want to repent it.
"Anyhow", I thought," She won't even recognize me."
Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't seen her cross the street and
was startled when I heard her voice. "Hi! How are you? How've
you been? What are you doing in this city? ......" - the
usual barrage of questions people ask when they meet after a
long time.
I told her that I had been working in this city for the
last three years.She had assumed, quite rightly, that I recognized
her and, quite wrongly, that I hadn't known that she too lived
here.
We sat down for a coffee in a nearby cafe intending to
catch up with the last few years of each-other's life.Actually,
it was only she who talked - I was lost somewhere.After some
time when she paused, I asked her casually,"And how is your
boyfriend ?"
She was silent awhile and then she told me that they had
had a quarrel a few days ago and had not talked to each-other
ever since. Before parting she gave me her address(I had already
known her address but obviously I couldn't have told her that)
and asked me to drop in sometimes.
A few weeks later we were as close to each-other as we had
been in college - talking endlessly, going to movies every
weekend, drinking coffee together...... and although no news of
her boyfriend was good news for me, I realised that she seemed
to be getting quieter and more irritable with every passing day.
I knew the reason for it but didn't want to talk about it.
Finally, I couldn't bear to see her like this. I called on
her one evening and told her,"Why don't you talk to him in
stead of waiting for him to call you ? I don't know why the two
of you quarrelled but it is obvious that you miss him.So stop
being childish and call him up."
She looked up and said,"And what about you? Will you be
OK with it or will you again stop talking to me like you did
last time?"
"No," I said," I am absolutely fine with it." And I
boarded up all my emotions more securely than I had ever done
before.