Full moon

          The full moon is shinning right above my head. I am sitting on a long staircase. I have a thick blanket around me. Still the coldness of the night makes me shiver both inside and outside. I am waiting for him. With every passing moment of the night my heart is beating faster and faster. Will I see him again? What will I do if I don’t see him again in my life? The bigger question is what will I do if I did SEE him?

                       

          It was a huge ancient fort. Thousands of people were sleeping like bask of crocodiles. My friends were sleeping behind a huge pillar. I couldn’t sleep after that horrifying calamity. I started walking around. I saw some people at corners crying. Some were simply staring at empty space. I came out of the fort. I saw volunteers carrying corpses. Some carrying wounded bodies. Looking at each body I prayed to god. I shouldn’t see his handsome face on those lifeless corpses. My prayers were fulfilled. I continued walking. I don’t want to see anymore of them. I was walking in a long lonely street. Tall buildings were standing melancholy on both sides. I saw a volunteer coming in opposite direction. He warned me not to go any further and return back to fort. I ignored him. I continued walking.

                       

         I joined the company two years back. It was the first time I saw him. He was there to conduct orientation program for four new employees including me. He was in formals with a tie like any other normal corporate geek. But I guessed he would be Mr. POPULAR of the company. I was just staring at him and didn’t listen to a word he said. He was walking us around the office and explained everything in a gentle polite manner. Yet I thought he was very masculine. It was as if he was listening to me. He suddenly stopped talking. He looked at me. His face was expressionless. It was the first time our eyes met each other. My thoughts went blank. After few seconds his eyes moved away from mine. Both of us suddenly realized others were staring at us. He continued his program as if nothing happened. Everyone’s attention was back on him. Nobody bothered much about it. That incident happened just for four or five seconds. But I couldn’t forget that moment. I played it over and over again in my mind. I was trying to read his mind at that moment. But I couldn’t decipher anything. Our eyes never met again during that presentation. Even if it did accidentally he would shift it in a millisecond.

   

        From that day onwards I started learning more about him. I was right he was a popular guy in the company. He was a very sociable person. He had friends in all the departments. Even my friends became close to him. We started going out on group dates with our common friends.  But he never spoke to me. It was very weird. Once in a while we end up together alone during parties or outings. Every time when we are alone he keeps staring at me. No words. No expression. I had a feeling he was trying say something or read something in my eyes. But there was only awkward silence. He would then turn his head away. He must be angry about something I did. Or afraid of something about me. But why should he be angry or afraid. I never spoke anything wrong to him. I would have hardly said four or five hi-hello-byes.

      

        He broke up with his girlfriend a month after I joined. All the girls started stalking him from then on. Everybody wanted to be his friend. I thought he was just a weirdo. But I always wanted to know what he was thinking when he was staring at me. I don’t know why I counted this but he dated twenty six girls in the past two years. I felt weirder because he never made a conversation with me not even in a formal way. I don’t understand him. He was so different when he was around others. For the past three months he is in relationship with my best friend. So we get to meet more often because he accompanies her everywhere. So there was more awkwardness between us. But nobody noticed that because when we were in a group we keep ourselves busy with others.

     Today morning, seven of us including me, my best friend, her boyfriend and his friends came to this river bank for weekend. It was when there was an earthquake in the sea which made the river overflow. Hundreds of people in the nearby villages were running for life after the initial rise in the river. Warning bells and drums were screaming along with hundreds of people. We started running along with them. There were some trucks waiting for us near a bridge. We were running towards them. For a moment I turned around and saw both the sea and the ­­­­river rushing towards us swallowing fields, trees and houses. We rushed towards the trucks.  There wasn’t space for everyone. Four of us climbed a truck. He and two of his friends went to check out other vehicles. Trucks started moving. People who couldn’t get into the vehicles started running behind the trucks. But he was standing there near the bridge with his friends. He was saying something to them but his eyes were fixed in the direction of the truck. I knew it was his usual look.   

      The truck took us to a fort. Thousands of people from different directions were dumped into that fort. Ngos and government people were helping the people. They distributed blankets and food. We registered our friends’ names under missing people list. We waited for them along with others. Noise of the crying people made me sick. After the sun set they said the river was calm. Officials sent six boats to rescue the survivors. After few hours, a boat returned with twenty people. Most of them were badly hurt. But our friends weren’t among them. I inquired them and found out that there were still many who were coming behind.

        I was walking in the long lonely street. The road was wet and dirty with all sorts of things. I took every step carefully. The street was so long. It seemed to have no end. It got colder and colder as I moved forward. I saw my feet getting wet and noticed that I was walking in ankle deep water. It was getting deeper as I walked. So I stopped and waited there. Initially there was dead silence over the vicinity. My whole body was dumb with coldness but my mind was wandering over my memories of him. He was a mystery which I never solved.

          I saw a boat coming towards me. Few meters away from me, it stopped and ten to fifteen people stood up. They started walking away from the boat as it disappeared into darkness. Some were carrying the injured on their shoulders. I stood like a statue in the ankle depth water. They walked passed me towards the fort. I saw each face with utter concentration but none was his. When my heart sank in sadness, I saw a dark figure walking towards me from the place where the boat stopped few minutes ago. It was him. Though I couldn’t see his face, I knew it was him. He was completely wet but not hurt. He was now close enough for me to see his face. At that moment, I remembered. I remembered seeing the same face. I knew what was weird between us all this time. I remembered everything as if it happened the day before.

            The full moon is shinning right above my head. I am sitting on a long staircase. I have a thick blanket around me. Still the coldness of the night makes me shiver both inside and outside. I am waiting for him. With every passing moment of the night my heart is beating faster and faster. Will I see him again? What will I do if I don’t see him again in my life?

            It was a huge fort built few years back for the safe hiding of women and children during the war times. Hundreds of women and children were brought here few days back. My entire family was sleeping behind a huge pillar. I couldn’t sleep knowing that he was out there somewhere fighting for our people. I stood up and started walking. I saw the injured soldiers being carried to the fort by few soldiers. I was examining each face carefully. I prayed to god I shouldn’t see his handsome face on any of those injured ones. My prayers were fulfilled. I kept walking until I reached the end of the forest. The forest was so dark. But I saw a dark figure coming out of it. I couldn’t see the face but I knew it was him. He looked tired and exhausted but not hurt. He was now close enough for me to see his face.

            He looked happy to see me. So was I. Neither of us spoke anything for few minutes. I took the blanket from my shoulders and gave it to him. He covered himself with that. Then we started walking towards the fort. Still we dint say a word. But it wasn’t the usual awkward silence. We were comfortable in each other’s company. The silence around us was like an unknown beautiful romantic song which was very familiar.