A Door Ajar…

I was walking down the grass in the woods when I noticed a lush, green meadow. The meadow was so inviting that I couldn’t stop my bare feet from treading along the thorny floor. As I winced my way to the softness of the meadow caressing my bleeding feet, I stumbled upon a piece of weathered rock and fell flat on my face! Ignoring my protesting feet, I pulled myself up with great difficulty and crawled to some extent towards the interiors of this beckoning and beautiful surrounding, hidden from the eyes of mankind.

I stopped to rest for a while.

While my lungs panted for breath, my eyes swept past the inviting flowers to spot a cottage far away. As the cottage caught my eyes, my stomach announced that it couldn’t bear the hunger anymore with a growl so loud I thought the squirrels nearby heard. So, having nothing better to do than to be stranded on this beautiful land with practically no amenity, I decided to try my luck and knock on the door of the cottage at the distance. Thus, once again, I tortured my bleeding feet to tread along the soft grass to knock on the door of the lonely cottage in this land of beauty.

Impossible!

I stood aghast at the cottage door…

”Impossible,” my head kept on saying…

He was dead a month ago. I was told he was dead! He knew that he was going to die and so he had made a list asking me to fulfil his dreams for him. And, that was perhaps the only reason why I had left home with nothing but the list of dreams that were now left for me fulfil. I had walked from one town to another begging for food and water. I had slept on the pavement in the pouring rain and the scorching heat. I had sacrificed the luxury just to fulfil the last dream of his, marked with a star, to indicate how important it was to be fulfilled! And, now, coming to this meadow, I had thought that it was the beauty of this meadow that he had intended to show me. But, no! He perhaps had better plans…

With my heart beating against my throat now, I stumbled my way up the front steps of the cottage. My shivering hand reached up in front to knock on the door only to find the door ajar…

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, I realised with what perfection this cottage had been built. It had been built just the way it should have been built, because, I realised, it had been built only for me…

As I stood at the door not being able to withhold the tears now streaming down my burning eyes, his shadow moved around the bedroom. It looked like he was engaged in giving me the best ‘heart attack’ that he could manage! It took him only a few seconds to recognise the pattern of my breath because soon enough, he emerged out from the bedroom in only a pair of torn denims with a peculiar expression on his face – an expression so peculiar that nobody, but I, could perceive what he really meant to say at that time. And, at that very moment, I lost myself again. I lost my strength and my determination. I lost my fear and my silence. I lost everything I was for the entire month trying to walk on his footsteps. I was tired. I was so tired that the only thing I now wanted was to be a child in his sturdy arms again. The only thing I now wanted was to lean on his shoulder and to cry burying my face against his bare chest. The only thing I now wanted was to be his wife again.

Seeing me standing at the doorway, he walked towards me with his arms open. ”The dinner’s ready. I’ve made your favourite dinner tonight, dear.” Saying this, he lifted my shivering self up from the floor and carried me in his arms to the bedroom to claim me as his wife again, to give me what was always mine, to give me himself.

He left the door ajar to let the watching sun go to bed and bless us with a new life ahead…

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