As soon as I recognized her at the bus-halt, I happened to apply the brake at once. It was all so sudden. I reversed the car. She was looking for a bus. She did not make me out at once. I opened the shutter. She glanced at me. Her eyes could not believe it.
Although it had been raining cats and dogs, she got into the car alongside a cute little boy with remorse. She was full of guilt. Her eyes were reddish. The two of us kept silent for a while, the car being driven slowly due to rain.
‘Sorry’, she said while looking at me, breaking the silence. I looked at her with confusion.
‘Sorry for being selfish’, she was awaiting my response, but I did not know what to say and thus, I maintained silence. It was she who came to me and it was she who left me behind on a rainy day in the presence of dimness and taciturnity. I could imagine those days.
‘I know you can’t forgive me at all. I’m responsible for your loneliness, wretchedness and unhappiness’, she kept still for a while.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her little boy looked at her. He was helpless.
‘I’ve been punished for not being able to be with you’, she added. I was confused over her utterance. I looked at her. She had more to add. ‘He left me two years ago. Now nobody is there with me now. My parents flew to Canada to be with my youngest sister who’s expecting next month. His parents have neglected me and my son,’ she said.
It came to me like a thunderbolt. My sympathy was with the little cute boy.
‘I know you’ve got no business with me. I just tell all thesebecause I want to get peace of mind. Nobody’s there to listen to me. My little cute boy is very young still’, she went on telling while patting on his head. Although I maintained silence at all, she went on adding further and further. I did not have any other options other than being a good listener.
I was taken back to those days which were full of beauty. Those days had always been mesmerizing. I could not spend a quarter of a second in absence of her. I was highly attached to her. She was my soul wish and world.
‘I deserve grief so badly. Please forgive me. I am asking for your forgiveness. Please if you can forgive me, I can be happy at least for a while’, she made a kind request while looking at my eyes. I was so helpless that I could not look at hers. We had already taken two roads which would never meet each other.
‘I’ll get off at the next halt. If you can, try to’, she said while she was getting out of the car. As soon as she got down, I drove the car along the road in presence of the drizzle. I tried to do a self-evaluation while driving. I did not know if I had done something wrong. I could have listened to her story. I could have forgiven her. I could have talked to her. I did none of them. ‘How wrong I am?’