Not
Written by: watersand
“I can’t tell you what it is. But I certainly can tell you what it is not”, he said with his usual nervousness. She asked the most obvious question. “So, what is it not?” He thought for a few seconds and said rather clearly, “It’s not a ghost from my past”. “Your past!”, she said, trying to control her smile which showed up anyway. “Not even saying ‘hi’ to a girl who stood next to you under a tree on a rainy evening doesn’t count as past! Not the kind of past that you’re talking about” “I have a thought”, she said almost jokingly, “It might be a ghost from your future”. “You know, of the one who you are destined to know!”. He wanted to believe her. He was trying hard to give some meaning, some purpose, some reason to this picture that kept crossing his mind. He shook his head and walked away.
The next morning he told her, “it’s not a ghost”. “It’s an actual person. Increasingly I can recognize all her features. Her hair, her smile, her hand reaching out for me. It’s all real. The real problem is just with the colors. If I am able to see past the colors, I can see who she is” . She rolled her eyes and said “Are you serious? You are obsessing unnecessarily over this!” “But hey, here’s another thought. Why don’t you smile in your mind next time you see her smile?” She had no idea how her well-meaning wickedness was acting up on him.
The next morning he told her “it’s a person alright. But she is no more. She is dead! And I think she had lived a rather peaceful life. Or at least she had a painless death. I can see it in her smile. But her smile never changes. Even when I smile at her or make a grumpy face. It’s so unfortunate someone so nice should die. It’s actually terrible”. She couldn’t believe how impossibly funny this was all turning out. “And you made grumpy faces in your mind! Such stories! So, you don’t have too much of a choice, do you? She is dead and she is not even a ghost. So, you can’t even talk to her. Better leave her alone, right?”
“You might be right”, he said,” She should have come to me earlier, I could have saved her perhaps. And that’s why she appeared all soaked in color. She was a future that never happened or a past that waited too long that even the future passed in front of it” . She smiled again and said “You know you make me laugh sometimes”
api