Post # 8 Hope.... #atozchallenge

As she took her portions of food, she was aware of Aagney looking at her.

“ You still don’t eat much, do you ?”, he asked when he saw the amount of food there was on her plate.

“No. Just for the hunger, that’s all. Not much concerned ”, she said.

“ Dieting? Beauty conscious and all that ?”, he teased her, trying to lighten the mood.

“ I’ve always eaten less. We’ve always had measured portions, see? And I’ve never been beauty conscious, whatever that means. I’ve just wanted to live and be alive, in all senses ”, she said, her tone silently fierce.

He looked at her, taken aback by this reaction.

She was looking at him, her gaze intent. For a moment, a flame seemed to take birth and die in her eyes.

That was when he saw it.

The scar.

“Hey, what’s this ?”, he asked, outlining the scar, with his finger barely touching her cheeks. “ How come I haven’t seen it before?”

“You haven't. It wasn’t there back then. That’s a gift I received later”, she answered, concentrating more on the bowl of tomato soup on the table.

“Very faint. I didn’t notice it that day at the Mall either”, he said.

“ That’s not surprising. I didn’t expect you to, either. And how would you? You were busy with the eyes and lips, weren’t you ?”, she spoke, taking care to sound casual.

He chuckled.

“Yes, I remember telling you, ‘delicious lips’. I honestly don’t know why and how I said that. I was that nervous”, he said and bit his tongue.

“ You used to say my lips resembled cherries. I remember perfectly”, she said, not looking at him this time.

“Yeah, of course”, he fiddled with his spoon and grew silent, the smile suddenly fading from his lips.

The onslaught of memories.

She glanced at him stealthily, from the corner of her eyes, and continued to eat.

“ You never told me how you knew about my friendship with Fr Varghese at the Church”, she said, when the silence continued for five minutes.

“ Ah, well, I told you I had seen you at the Aquarium. I’d seen your friend also. And later one day, I saw her at one of their showrooms, where I’m a usual customer. I knew Ancill, the Store Controller at  that showroom personally, so I enquired with him about her casually, telling him that she reminded me of one of my friends.”

“ That’s about Roshni.  How about me, my job and all that ?”, she interrupted him.

“ I’m coming to that.  This guy Ancill is a friend of mine, and he takes part in a lot of social gatherings and all that. While we were conversing, he showed me the snaps of an event he had attended some days back. A pep talk or some similar seminar for kids, at which he had been a volunteer.”

Shreyasi remembered. Some young boys known to Dr. Mathews had been there, bringing in donations from known quarters and helping with the arrangements.

“ And in one of those snaps, I saw you. With Fr Varghese. Handing over a Memento, or something like that.”

She kept quiet.

“ I knew Fr Varghese because I used to send donations to the Church, and I’d usually receive a personal note from him, thanking me. Somehow, that kind of inspired me to write that note, and I approached him and asked him whether he knew you personally enough.”

“What did he say ?”, she asked, eager to know.

“ He kept quiet for some minutes, and then he said that he knew you. That you’d been to the Church once. And then, I gave him the note sealed in an envelope and requested him to hand it over to you the next time you both met. I just hoped that you’d come to meet him again.  I’m thankful he considered my request. On the day of Easter, he informed me when I rang him up to wish him.”

Shreyasi smiled to herself, silently thanking Fr Varghese for his discretion.

“Shall we go now?", he asked. He’d paid the bill.

She nodded, rose up from the seat and moved out of the cubicle.

The car was waiting for them at the entrance.

“ I hope this is a new beginning, Shrey. I sincerely wish,” he said, as he drove out onto the road.

There’s no new beginning, until the old one ends, Aagney. But yes, there is a hope. Always.

She stared at the dark road ahead, smiling at the lights along the path.

Hard is my goal, harder, life’s course

Yet I plod on, with no time for remorse….

Heart speaks the most, but head rules over

Warning me at times, to take it slower…

Hope pulls me hard, keeping me strong

Faith stops me from doing things wrong…

How do I deny, that I find the world sweet!

It’s as sure as this moment, my goal, I shall meet !!

To be contd....
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This post has been written for the A to Z Challenge 2015.