Re-loved: A small piece of fiction

I

For a 19 year college girl, it was spontaneous, it was new, it was real...for Her it was the first time, a craze, for Her it was Love...

She didn't know why it started and how it started. Just out of school, fresh into college life...She was learning to dress up, wear kajal, carry fancy bags...She was learning to have a boyfriend, She was learning to love...

And, so She gave all Her love to Him. She expected love back, and She got that. Cloud nine was easy to reach then, to love and to be loved was easy...

She was one of the very regular girls that you see on the streets everyday.And, like all other regular girls, she had eyes full of dreams. Like all other girls, she had a heart full of fresh, untouched love.

She was funny in the beginning, she hated college. She wanted to go back to school. Alas, her poor friends who used to wipe out her tears and pat her and love her to make her love her college and new found friends! She soon learned to accept the changes in life…And, soon she started changing…

She had friends, just friends, all over. Love to her was filmy and dramatic and she never indulged in those…until one day someone told her what a fool she was not to realize love, until someone told her how loving love was! She thought and thought…and felt suffocated. She soon opened the windows to let some fresh air come in…And, then she met him.

He was so different. Yet, all the differences summed up to a lot of liking…She was young, she was new to the world of love…and she wanted to see love…so she loved!

And, after a while, he loved too, or so his lips uttered. And, there was so much love…

Every date was recorded twice…once on her calendar with a red heart…once on her memory with a loving touch…and, they loved…

Love was then going out hand in hand, love to her was meeting everyday…love to her was talking on the phone every night, love to her was secrets, whispers and sweet fights…

And, she loved…

Love was then completing one year…love was then loving words on gifts…love was then writing poems…love was then cribbing to him about studies…

Love was college life, love was waiting for him…love was listening to him, love was crying after a kiss and goodbye…

Love was fun, love was having someone…love was “I Love You”s…Love was “I Miss You’s”…

Love was movie halls, love was sitting close…

Love was songs, music and six strings…

Love was dreams about him, love was talking to him…love was fighting with him…

Love was in having him with herself…Love was being possessive, love was only her and him…

Love was promises, Love was breaking them and saying sorry…

Love was fighting about a third person…Love was that third person taking her place…

Love was breaking up…shedding tears…looking back…Love was trying to move on…

She loved, she lost…her fairy tale love ended abruptly…And, she realized love!

II

Six years…she had grown to be a woman. And, like all other women, she had pains buried in her…she had a smile on her. She was successful, she was happy. She never meant to change, but she changed…she grew. Older, wiser.

Long ago, she had forgotten to close her windows, and after a long time the breeze blew in again. And she met him once again.

He had changed. Yet, all the changes summed up to the old ‘him’…She was older, she was wiser…and she was too old to love…yet she loved again! She re-loved.

No date remembered, no love shared…

No more going out hand in hand…yet being a shoulder to cry on, to lean on…

No fights, no whispers…she was quieter, she understood…

They had known one another for 6 long years now…so it was not the words, nor the gifts…it was just a heart-full of feelings…

No more waits, no more goodbyes…She was beside him…

It was just “being there”…

It was sitting face to face, eye in eye…

It was now just listening to him…it was just taking everything in…

It was in seeing him happy…it was only him and him…

It was then just a shout on a bad day, just a dry smile on a nicer day…

It was then having anything and anyone…just to see him happy…

It was crying to herself when he was sad…it was feeling happy when he was fine…

It was Re-love…

For a 25 year old woman, it was silent, it was continuous, it was true...for Her it was the heartbeats, a feeling deep-felt, for Her it was Re-love…

She now knows, it never stopped…she knows it’s there to stay. Into her womanhood...She was learning to act like a woman, cry silently, hide a heart-full of tears behind a pair of dry eyes…She was learning to love a man…she was learning to re-love…

And, so She gave all Her life to Him. She expected nothing more of Him. Cloud nine wasn’t easy to reach then, to love and to love all the more wasn’t easy...yet she re-loved.

III

She loved, she lost, she moved on…

She re-loved, she had nothing to lose…so she re-loved all the more…