She seemed to have come out of nowhere. I still remember the yellow plaited skirt and the red blouse. Our first conversation. How the way she looked at me through those glassy eyes had sent shivers down my spine. From that fateful Friday, the 13th of August 2011, it had all begun.
“Where are you lost?” she calls out jerking me back from my nostalgic journey. I look into those glassy eyes and smile. “Nowhere honey, just remembering the day we first met here, two years ago.”
“What a day we had…and a night too.” She blushes.
We walk hand in hand down the quiet street near the park, the only sound coming from the distant barking of a dog.
Lost in each other’s love, it’s only until I see the flaring headlights and the loud horn behind us that I notice the truck headed towards us. Before I can move, before I can speak, everything around me fades into blackness as the vehicle makes contact.
It’s around 7 pm; darkness has set in as I look through the hospital window.
“How is she doing?” I ask the attendant.
“Who Sir?” he asks looking at me with a confused expression. “Are you feeling alright sir?”
“My girlfriend…we were together when the accident happened. Where is she? How is she?”
The attendant gives me a weird look and I hear him murmuring something to the nurse.
Two weeks later, as I limp around my kitchen, I see her picture glancing at me from a page of an old newspaper lying on the shelf. Listed under the Obituary list.
Tears fill my eyes, but only for a brief second before my world doesn’t make sense anymore. I glance at the date of the newspaper. Friday 12th August 2011.
P.s: You may visit our judge Neelima Vinod’s Facebook page and have a look at her upcoming novel Unsettled.
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