Sometimes, when the mind is left to wander, it comes up with completely abstract ideas. There I was, contented with something I was done writing and then, suddenly, the thought of challenging my creativity hit me. So I wrote two stories with the same opening lines. And guess what? I feel even better. Hope you like what you're about to read.
Story 1 : 'All you need is love,' is what the Beatles say. This was the first and probably the only time I had a problem with believing them. But life went on and I learnt so much. They were right after all. It all does come down to love in the end. Here I stand corrected, with my first attempt at writing a love story. I didn't mean to, though. I was given some opening lines for a competition and what continued thereafter, turned out to be a romantic tale. So here it is my readers, fingers crossed, I hope you like it. :]
A Myriad of Emotions
She
was thoroughly enjoying her stroll when a man lying prone on
the roadside
caught her attention. Fearing the worst, she turned the
limp figure over. Her
heart leapt a mile when she saw the man’s face...
The
unexpected had happened. It was him. The one she thought of,
day in and day
out. The one she had given a part of herself to. He hadn’t asked for it though.
But she still loved him selflessly and silently. She was clueless about what to
do next, so for the next five seconds she just sat there. Then a vague but
beautiful thought struck her. She saw that moment as a chance to prove herself
to him. And then, there was no turning back. She called for an ambulance and
got him loaded in. One thing that stuck with her was that he had held her hand
all the way from the accident spot to the hospital. Even though he was
unconscious when he did that, it was enough for her to smile and shed a tear.
Once they reached the hospital he was taken to his room and she was made to
follow. Sitting by his side, when she closed her eyes, flashes of the past hit
her with every blink.
She was reminded of the day she first
saw him, it was her first day at the law firm. He just passed by her and she
stood there, awestruck, trying to tell herself that something so beautiful
really did have a possibility of existing. She managed to get his name, Carter.
Steve Carter. She tried matching her name with his and wondered how it sounded.
“Steve and Sasha. Hmm, not so bad,” she said to herself.
Days went by and they got talking, more and more. For him it was just good
friendship but for her, it was everything. With every passing moment, the
feelings grew stronger and the wait caused itself to end.
She just HAD to tell him. They were best friends. She liked him, she thought he
liked her too. It was perfect. She fixed a date. The day she would let it go
off her mind and put it inside his. The day wasn’t just another extraordinarily
ordinary day. It was her birthday. And it finally arrived, she was ecstatic,
she was elated, she was walking with her hands in the air and a bounce in her
step. It was on her way to his house that she saw her dream shatter right
before her eyes. The ears that were meant to hear those priceless words were
bleeding like the pouring rain, the eyes that were meant to see that shining
face were shut with collective darkness from the entire universe and the hands
that were meant to touch hers were broken like her heart. This recent and of
course, ugly memory forced her to open her eyes only to find him looking at her.
Oh how she thanked her stars for his
revival. After all that she had done, nothing was left to say except the
incomplete verse that her heart sang. But before she could, he said it.
“I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. But not like this of course.
You do realize how beautiful you are, don’t you? Not just on the outside but on
the inside too, love. I’m sorry for not being able to say it all this while.
Will you please be mine?”
The words rang in her ears like her favourite song. A song she just didn’t want
to stop. She exploded with, “YES! YES! YES!”
Could it get any better? They both thought. He kissed her glowing forehead. It
was an inexplicable feeling. The world around them seemed to change. Like a colourful
hallucination. A rainbow painted the sky as the birds danced to the rhythm of
love.
Story 2: Ah, this one's a typical unsuccessful love story. Kind of broody, expectedly. Read on...
Freedom in My Veins
She
was thoroughly enjoying her stroll when a man lying prone on the roadside
caught her attention. Fearing the worst, she turned the limp figure over. Her
heart leapt a mile when she saw the man’s face...
Could
life get any worse? She knew the end was close. But she certainly didn’t expect
it to be this close. She had warned him a countless times, only if he cared.
Her head had a bright chance of imploding with an overdose of guilt. It wasn’t
as if she hadn’t tried her best, it was just that, her ‘best’ wasn’t good
enough. She didn’t feel the pain of losing a friend, instead she wondered how
the excessive amounts of alcohol would have poisoned every single nerve of his,
so much so, that he had to die.
She looked up to the blinding sky and screamed. She just screamed.
Soon, there was a crowd around her and the breathless him.
Isn’t it funny how a treasured and loved
human being, in no time, turns into a piece of rotten bones or to put it more
commonly ‘a dead body’ just because their heart stopped beating? He was lifted
and thrown inside one of the crowd member’s car and driven to the funeral
ground. Where else would they take him? His family was called, but they didn’t
show up, claiming that they had disowned him the day he started drinking. So
she took it on herself to set his soul free. Wood was set up and she lit him to
fire. Ashes flew away with bits of light in them. It was as if, they symbolised
his life. Too many nights and not enough days. She didn’t curse him after she
realized the reason behind his half-dead plight.
He had given it his all. That
dissatisfied, selfish, stuffy, pretentious snoot couldn’t see it. He did all he
could to keep her happy but one day, suddenly she realised that an ordinary,
average, financially unstable man didn’t deserve someone as ‘special’ as
her. So, she decided to walk off. Little
did she realise that behind her she had rendered a highly talented and capable
human being, good for nothing. From that day, all he did was lie in his pool of
Jack Daniels and C. Regals. He just couldn’t take it. He saw it as the only way
out. He was wrong. Completely wrong. But all he needed was a wee bit of
sympathy and some affection. That’s something he never got. Not from that
heartless freak, not back home, nowhere. His life was just a train with no
direction. He didn’t know what he did. He wasn’t even sure if we wanted to live
or not. He just came out of his house to take some fresh air and that was the
last time he ever opened his eyes. He just fell to the ground. That’s it. That
was the end of Robin Lee. And it was witnessed by Sharon Smith. The only ray of
hope in his life. Not that he knew, of course. All she did was tried to save
him but he saw her as the distance between him and his toxin. For obvious
reasons, he detested her. According to the world, her efforts were no good, but
according to her, she knew that by setting him to fire, she gave his soul a
life of eternal freedom.
