Wishes of woe

I met her at a birthday party….a common friend had invited us…..she seemed coy and demure….i asked her if she would pass me a plate and she never replied…just handed it to me….i thought it was pretty rude and decided that she was mean and vowed not to talk to her……I met her again on the beach….apparently she had followed her elder sister and her friends; and was lost…..i was there with my mother and we dropped her back home…..one day I came home from school and as always began to call out for my mom…..my mother walked up to me and asked me to behave myself….I entered and I found her sitting on My chair….drinking some juice and eating freshly baked cookies…..mom explained to me that her family had moved next door and that she would play with me everyday……we had good fun….i guess we grew up together…..laughed and played and studied together………she was not one bit reticent……every single time I said good bye, I would remember her broad smile and the warm hug she gave me…..she was the only one who knew that I had a crush on a girl two years older than me…..she was the only one who knew of my clandestine activities as an adolescent…..she talked a lot about herself….her dreams, desires, likes, dislikes…everything under the sun……
Like any other day, we were wandering in the neighborhood when she first told me…..her father had bought a new house in the city….he was a doctor and worked in a BIG hospital….and had loads of money…of course I got to know about all this, from my mother and not her….i looked into her lovely blue eyes as she told me that they had packed up all her stuff…..we clambered over the wall and entered the unkempt garden…..the house was built many years ago……no one ever lived there and the garden seat was our favourite abode….We had just a year before we would join the rat race….fighting to earn professional credibility and make a living for ourselves….we sat there for a long time…I don’t know how long….but it felt like forever….pin drop silence…..and I heard a soft sigh…I turned to face her and looked into her eyes…..were they moist?????no no I was being stupid…..but before I could utter the words I had so longed to say, she grabbed both my hands and held them…..i was lost….and even before I realized my palms held her lovely face as i kissed her…..we walked back hand in hand…..no promises to write because we knew that it might not be possible…but she said that every year she would send me something on my birthday…….i smiled as I was reminded of the birthday party…….
The cards came every year. I sent her one too…her letters were long n talked about everything she did. I wrote back with the same fervour…..i could not keep up with the pace though….. slowly their frequency diminished…..untill all that was left between us was a birthday card…..the tradition continued past the four years at college and two years at work untill i finally decided to visit her…..it was not hard to find her place….all through my journey,i could relive every moment of the time we spent and I could recollect all that we had shared in the past….there was some foolish hope that she had not forgotten ….that she would be waiting to get back….what should I surprise her with?i finally settled with the idea of getting her a book on gardening….i knew that she had a lovely garden and that this was her passion…..i bought the book at a travel book store and embarked on my mission of finding her co-ordinates…..an hour later, tired and dirty, I got out of the truck that had given me a free ride and thanked the driver……….i looked at the sprawling bungalow that loomed in front of me and walked up the driveway….the garden was lovely and I looked around expecting the rose bushes, the hibiscus , the chrysanthemum, the dahlias and the lilies….just as she had described…….i was greeted by her mom…..she looked old…..but hugged me with tears in her eyes……she took me up to her room and asked me to step in……the door was ajar and I tried to tread softly…lest she was sleeping….the room was huge and ornate…..as I entered I saw the oak table that she had described in one of her letters…..her grandmother had given it to her on her eighteenth birthday…..on the table I saw every single card that I had sent….taped….there were some extra ones too…..i was prying…I knew it was wrong….but I had to know who had sent it….did she have a boyfriend? Why hadn’t she told me? I opened the card n smiled to myself heaving a sigh of relief….she had dated it with my birth date…..three months ahead…she already had a card all ready, to be posted….i shook my head cursing myself…..and moved on to the next one….the same date…a yr ahead…another year….another year…another year…..i turned to face the door….i missed it at first…..then I saw her….the serene face….a perfect picture……I walked up to the bed and read the familiar immaculate writing next to the lamp…..plain and simple…as she told her sister to send me the cards year after year after year; long after she was gone……