I Miss You Everyday

Dear Mickey,
Hey Mickey. What's up? Long time huh? I hope you're doing great. It's Diwali again and you know, this is the time of the year when I miss you more than anything. I miss our pointless banter, our fights - I miss our friendship.

You remember? We always did the Rangoli together. How you'd claim that you are a better artist? You were funny. You couldn't even draw a circle properly. It was only me doing the Rangoli and you would just sit there passing me the colours and giving your master opinion. Remember our fathers used to bring the lights and we'd fight over the best decorations? Now when I sit to recall, I see we actually always fought.

We used to fight, beat each other up but we were always there for each other at the end.

Remember that Diwali evening of 2007, when we were bursting the crackers and some older guys had come to take away our possessions. We beat them up together. How we managed to do so still remains a wonder. It was mostly you though.

You were always the stronger one and maybe that's why you could do what you did.

We practically grew up together. Remember the first time we met? We were four and it was the time of Diwali - you had just moved in at our complex and had come to the community park for the first time. One fire cracker exchanged and we were instantly friends. I don't remember any story behind our friendship. It's like we were always friends. Football, chess, doll house, hide and seek, Chinese whisper and what not - we've played it all together. And then one fine day when you had come over and we were watching Disney - what were we watching? Phineas and Ferb probably, you had said out of the blue, " I'm your Mickey and you're my Minnie. "( We weren't even watching Mickey mouse then ) I don't think this meant anything back then. We were six. Mickey and Minnie were best friends and so were we.

You know we should have never grown up. With growing up, comes all the difficulties and complexities of life and I don't think we were mature enough to handle them. I was 15, sitting in a room reading a novel about how two best friends fell in love and it was the first time I wondered what if we fall for each other? With time, I started realising that I like you, in a way, more than friends and this feeling grew stronger with each passing moment.

Gone were the days of utmost comfort and carelessness, now I began to feel giddy around you. My best friend had become my crush. I wanted to tell you this, because between us nothing has ever remained a secret but the problem was I didn't know how. And then came the news of your father's transfer. You were shifting to Delhi after class 10. Remember how copiously I cried, hugging you tight?

You promised we would stay in touch and that best friends never drift apart. Well, that was before you knew about my feelings. And when I had confessed, you had just turned your back to me and said, " It's better to stay out of contact. "

I'll never be able to understand the reason of your weird behaviour that night. You have no idea how much I cried that night and in my heart of hearts, I believed that on the day you leave, you'll hug me tight saying, " Forget what happened. Just stay in touch, Minnie "( Oh! How much I miss that nickname ) But I was wrong, you didn't even come to meet me.

You just left.

It's been 6 years Mickey and you kept your ground. Neither did you contact me nor did you respond to my efforts. But we were best friends, how can something so trivial drift us apart. Now, I don't want anything. I just want my best friend back.

However, today as I sit drawing the Rangoli alone, all by myself, without you to pass me the colours, all I wonder is : Didn't you miss your Minnie even once in these six years?

I miss you everyday.

Love,
Your Minnie.
Ah! Minnie wished she could send this letter to Mickey, but then it's destiny is to join her collection of unsent letters.
~ Kaninika Dey.