I am the shining darkness of the night sky,

I am the scent of the winter leaves,

I am the cold touch of the morning dew,

I am the sweetness of the cherry cake,

I am the roughness of the morning hair,

I am the cuteness of your curled lips,

I am … I am.. the crackling sound of your laugh!

Who am I?

                      

                                   -Divya Kapoor ;) 

“How long will you take?”, Reyona asked Leela  cheerfully.

Leela was glued to her computer screen, right hand resting on the table, fingers curled around the mouse. In her left hand, she held a blue fountain pen.

Leela had been assigned here only a week before. Reyona and Leela had been returning home together for the last four days now. Theirs was a pleasant companionship.

“Five minutes”, she replied.

Reyona seated herself and started twisting the unmodified Rubik’s cube from Leela’s desk.  Fifteen minutes passed while Reyona struggled to get a perfect red top. In the next attempt of altering the sections, she glanced at her watch.

“Will it take long? Should I help?", Reyona asked.

Leela maintained her gaze at the passive screen, unmoved.  She wore a stern face.

"Yes and No", she replied in an unflavored tone, lips pressed together; eyebrows pulled down into a narrow stare.

"Should I…," Reyona could not decipher and responded.

Leela clenched the pen in her left arm till it deshaped into a blue filthy mass.

 "You may go", she ordered in an unearthly voice.

Reyona stood, stunned. She sensed the gravity of the situation but she could not abstain herself from asking a tiny, innocent question, “What happened?”

Leela unloaded the chair and thrust it back violently.  As it collided with the wall, she dropped the pen. Blue stains spread like raindrops on the floor.  She clutched Reyona’s hand, dragged her out of the cabin and jammed the glass door in her face.

Reyona, unable to collect the sequence of events, hurried to the exit from the empty hall. For once, she turned. Leela was watching her from behind the door, her teeth biting deep into the blemished thumb of her left hand.

Pic credits: s3.best-desktop-wallpaper.net

Their first conversation went awry.

‘I love pomegranate juice’, Sagar had casually mentioned over the phone.

‘Yeah, that is sweet and a little too tart for me’, Aliya had started getting irritated of the conversation that had commenced magically well.

‘Do you like Soft Toys?’, he tried to divert her attention to something she may like, sensing her discomfort.

‘I adore them in the hands of kids and kids, I like them at a distance’, she jumped in an outstretched coarse tone before he could finish.

‘Ah, okay, there is an important call on the line, I cannot miss. Am.. See you..later..Nice talking! And he suspended.

Aliya was taken aback. Her head was raised all along the conversation. Now, she was disconnected at someone else’s will.  She sat up on her bed and switched on the television.  She was not paying attention. She muted it and traversed the conversation they had, trying to find a precise link where she picked at him.

‘He said he did not like pets:  dogs. I love them. How could he find them filthy? We all were born filthy!  We were taught not to be.  

But, did he mention it was just him?

He loves Dasvadaniya. He has even seen ‘Kya Dilli Kya Lahore’! I loved him instantly when he hunted the entire supermarket for old Miss Mary’s eyeglasses. I loved the creases his cheeks formed as he asked me my phone number the other day.

 He hung up on me. I flared up and they were frivolous things. I shouldn’t have judged him.

 It was natural. I did not deliberately do it. He knows my temper now.’

She fetched her mobile from under the pillow and typed:

‘It was a lovely conversation and …

‘It was lovely talking ..

‘I am sorry, can we meet…

‘I am sorry.’ And she threw the phone back without sending.

'It was just the start, Can we ever be compatible?', she thought.

Pic credits: hdwallpapersnew.net