Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 5

Well, a day's delay on this one. I am really hoping all you readers out there are finding this interesting and please please do leave me valuable feedback. If you haven't already read the remaining parts, find them right here. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. Read and enjoy. Here goes the next installment. 

Chapter 5 - The Day After

Arya saw her walk away, turn into a silhouette and vanish into the darkness. The second she vanished, it almost felt like the darkness, into which she went had consumed his thoughts. He was clueless about her state of mind and he just turned on some music and drove into the night and crashed at his cousin’s place.

He got up very early in the morning and messaged Nisha asking her why she wouldn’t meet him today and if it had anything to do with the conversation he had started. She called right away and squeaked into the phone, “Arya, don’t be a fool. I just had forgotten that I had to take mom for a complete checkup today. I really miss you and I hope we could do this much more frequently. Any bright ideas kiddo?” Arya was just silently nodding away in the conversation till he almost got out of the trance and realized he had to reply. He said shakily, “I promise to drive down every month to Bangalore. We have a good time till January and I promise we’ll make the best of it. I suggest you come to Chennai too sometime. What say?” Nisha was smiling, smiling wide. He could almost see her smile through the phone. Her joy was evident in her voice as she said, “That sounds amazing. Now I am headed to the hospital dude. Miss you tons and big big hugs. Leave me a message about when our next date is. Buhbye.” Arya sat in his car and grinned.

Arya spent the rest of his Sunday with his relatives and left for Chennai in the afternoon. He thought about Nisha all through the drive and at the end of it he still did not have an answer to his question. She had left him just as confused as he was eight years ago. Just as Arya parked his car at his house, Ajay called him on his phone. Ajay sounded very concerned, “Where the hell have you been dude? You haven’t picked up the calls of any of the guys.” He went on until he stopped in shock when he heard Arya say, “I was with Nisha. It was the first date after 8 years man. I betcha nothing has changed.” Arya took a momentary pause when Ajay jumped in, “Whoa dude… Where are you now? Tell me what happened? Got any new pics of hers? It’s been quite a while since I met her.” Ajay was then teasing Arya for a little bit before he told him that he was going to drop by and hung up.

Arya was lazing around the house with an eternal grin on his face that almost made him folks think he was deranged. Arya’s mom asked, “What are you so happy about Arya? Whom did you meet? Found a new girl or something on this Bangalore trip is it? I heard that you did not spend any time at Thatha’s place.” Arya was caught off-guard; he had never lied to his parents about anything. Arya out of impulse said, “It is an old friend I met after 8 years mom. Just a lot of memories and all that. You know how it is” and grinned sheepishly. His mom looked at him in suspicion, smiled at him and went back to her work in the kitchen.

Arya was very close to his parents and they understood him very well. He told his parents about everything he was going through. He hadn’t told them about Nisha. He wasn’t himself sure about what was going on, so, he did not want to make a fool of himself or end up disappointing them. Arya sat in a bean bag and picked up his notepad and scribbled in it as he was lost in thought. He almost jumped out of where he sat when Ajay came in and he shoved the notepad quickly under the center table. Ajay was greeted by Arya’s mom. He went up to the couch near which Arya sat and whispered, “I saw you shove that notepad away, so, what is it? A poem? A love letter? For Nisha right? Give it to me or I am gonna invite your mom to this party” and giggled as he took the notepad from Arya.

Ajay said he had to check his mail and walked into Arya’s room with the notepad in hand. As he walked by, Arya’s mom called out “Ajay and Arya dinner will be ready in sometime tell me when you want to eat.” Ajay halted at the kitchen and sniffed around and chatted with Arya’s mom about what was cooking. Arya was losing patience as he waited in his room and called out for Ajay rather impatiently. He came in and Arya told Ajay the entire story about how it happened and what had happened. “So what do you think she’s thinking dude? Any bright ideas?” asked Arya with a quizzical expression on his face. Ajay quickly escaped the conversation and asked him jokingly, “So, you went to Bangalore just because she sent you one message and I have been telling you we should go there for eons now to party.” Arya sat there with a slight smile on his face with blood filling it bright red. In all the bantering that was going on, Ajay had forgotten about the notepad and they both went to have dinner and he left immediately.

Arya jumped at the phone as soon as Ajay left and it looked like he was waiting for it. He went into his room and called Nisha. “Is mom ok? What did the doctors say?”, he asked with a tone of concern. “Oh ya it was just routine dude. Nothing to worry about and all. So how was your drive back?” she replied. Almost like he expected that question he said, “Lonely. I thought my car was a much better place when you were in it.” Nisha giggled as she said, “Whoa. This is the kind of talk you used to charm all those girls eh?” The conversation went on with the both of them pulling each other’s leg and they ended the day on a happy note. As he spoke to her he completed writing the poem and he told her he would mail it to her the next day. Arya went back to his notepad, sat there and thought about it and kept smiling. The notepad read,

Why did she have to come back? Why…

She makes me go just as crazy and keeps me thinking, only about her,

Back in time, every second I go, the higher my thoughts soar, high into the sky,

Boundless is the confusion her thought evokes, sometimes makes me go blur.

Her love for me, people tell me, she might never descry,

I can feel it anyway, I beg to differ.

Her thoughts quench my thirst, for the joy that goes dry,

Her love only makes every waking moment of my life better.

All I want to do is be with her, I try my best to, I try...

I want to love her, take care of her and pamper her.

She addles me alright, that doesn’t make me want her lesser, more, if any…

‘Cos she blows me away every time and that will never change, ever.

Nisha read the poem the next morning in her email. She read the poem twice. She hit the reply button the very next instant.

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