No matter how far I go, I carry you with me in my thoughts.
A short glance turned into a lingering gaze and the gaze into reverie. It happens always if two souls are destined to meet.
The sun was setting, painting the sky crimson. On the wooden bench, under the shade of chinar, she was all alone reading a book. If looks could kill, I would have dropped dead. There were roses in her face and the depths of night in her tresses. She tilted her head and looked at me through her owlish glasses. I felt her glare on me like the heat of a blistering sun.
Her thoughts kept coming and going, like my breath, all night long. As the morning spread its wings, I waited for her at the campus gate. Black jeans with red top, she was looking as beautiful as I had sketched her in my dreams.
Days passed into weeks and weeks into months. I made her feel my presence around her. And her way of noticing me, glancing through the corner of her eyes, wafted a cold breeze through my hair.
It took a lot of me to talk to her. She was in cafeteria alone, like a desert rose. I leant forward to say hello and started a conversation. The silver bracelets jangling around her wrists were distracting me. This first conversation with her was melodic like a wedding song. The moment she left for classes, I gasped for air to breathe.
With each passing day we were becoming one, gazing at each other, feeling the soft whispers of our breath.
Listening to the rhythm of our heart beats and smelling each other’s perfume, the feeling for each other was a destiny, but falling for each other was a decision we made together. I always felt an unfamiliar happiness just being in her company, as though a secret door had been opened.
Winter arrived. Trees shed their golden leaves. The chinar was standing like a skeleton. The sky was pregnant with snow. It was time to depart as vacations were announced. Under the chinar we embraced each other. I did not feel the special connection I longed for. I wondered what lay beneath her expressionless face. As she was about to board the bus to her home, we embraced each other again. But her soulless body against mine and the cold kiss narrated the whole story to me. She was not coming back.
Now I am bleeding on paper to deal with my emptiness. No matter how far I go, I carry you with me in my thoughts.

[email protected]

Baseer Abass