Red Wine And The Pineapple Cake

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Manali Gadiya
May 13, 2019   •  22 views

I love the way winters enter the daily day slowly and silently and make a place for all the warmth in the world. Just the way he enters my mind. The only difference here is, winter is replaced by warmer days and thoughts of him are replaced by daydreams about him. Today is one such day where I am missing him a little more than I do every day. Such is the only time when I wish that we both lived in the same town. Either I had chosen to study in the city he lives in or he chose to work in the city I am studying in.

It is a December night and I am sitting on the water tank on the terrace of our building. I was waiting for my sister to fall asleep so that I could come here and sit with a bottle of wine and pineapple cake. If she were awake, she wouldn’t have let me get out of my blanket, thanks to the cold outside. The peace I find here at this time of the night, I haven’t found it anywhere else. And the new terrace cafe opened in the building close to our building is adding to the feel-good factor of this night. Their guitar day today is filling the void of music I was feeling till now. The chilled air, wine, beautiful music, and his favorite pineapple cake gives the trance I would want to live in a little longer.

“I exactly knew where to find you at this hour if not in your bed,” He said sitting beside me. At first, I thought it was the wine and missing him feeling that I was hallucinating him. When I saw the half-full glass of wine go empty inside him, I realized he was here for real. Though I don’t trust my eyes yet, I wanted it to be true.

“Am sure you spoiled my sister’s sleep for this information,” I said looking at him confusedly not yet able to process what was happening.

“What? Why are you staring at me like this? Am I interrupting your ‘me time’? I can go back if you want to?” he prepared to get up to leave. My instant reflex was to pull him down and let him sit again and this time a little more closer to me. He takes my left arm in his and I rest my head on his shoulder.

“It is my ‘me time’, but you don’t surprise me like this very often that I would let you go.”
He gave me the wine glass refilling what he had emptied. The music from the cafe was getting faster, their customers are very responsive to the music they are playing. Along with faint chatters, I hear the cheers and support the guitar player is getting for what he is playing and his partner singing. The night is so silent that I could even make out some words within the faint chatters. Now, he beside me filled the void of him I was feeling a while ago. We, taking sip after sip from the glass, were talking about various things around. I could suddenly feel chills on my face. It took moments for me to realize that he had applied the cake cream on my face.

“Very playful” I irritatingly tried to fill his face with cream but ended up filling mine. Our laughter made the faint music just disappear. Playing with each other and when I got tired of laughing, I laid on my back facing the sky breathing heavily and he followed the suit.

“So… Why are you here?” I asked him.
“You know why!” I think I knew it.
“I don’t know why you are here!”
“You’ll find that out soon.”
“Tell me, why are you here” I demanded this time.
“Just to remind you something”
“Remind me what?” I was losing my patience now.
“To remind you that, you have a life outside me too. Till when will you be talking to a soul”
“You know how good I feel when you are around. I don’t want it from anyone else.”
“I want something from you. Will you give me?”
“You had never asked for anything when you were alive, now what do you need?”
“Just tell me yes or no? This is the first time I am asking for something from you…” I couldn’t say a no. It was the first time he had asked for something from me. But I know it already what he is going to ask for.

“Should I take that as a no?” He very well knows how to get me to say a yes.
“No no… what do you want me to do? tell me” and I gave in.
“Let me go Aarzoo. Let me go from you. Till when will you keep talking to me like this and prove the world that you are mad!”

“You know it, that I have tried to. And the world has to say something annoying for anything we do. And if talking to your soul is madness, I don’t care.” I sit up and take the cake box, bottle, and glass to leave.

“That night wasn’t your mistake, it was an accident Aarzoo. How much will you punish yourself for something you didn’t do?”

The sounds from the cafe suddenly disappeared. I could hear the sound of empty glass bottles being picked up. This empty silence has been talking to me again. I silently walk back home not ignoring what he said. No one stays forever.

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