Mumbai Diaries - Epilogue (The One with the Closure)

He came back to her, bruised and exhausted. She wondered this can't be real...it wasn't, but it felt so real.
He could see the pain and love in her eyes, but there was something missing beyond his comprehension. There were no tears. He asked "How have you been". She hugged him, a hug firm but hesitating one, a tender one yet corruptible.
The distance between them had put them in a position where both were trying to understand each other, just looking at each other, words not required between them, they never were necessary. She thought could this be the reason for putting distance between them. Could something so beautiful once, be destroyed by a mere words; or the lack of it?

Suddenly the pain seemingly felt physical, she thought about the unspoken dreams that she had dared to imagine, the dream of a life adulterated by no one; the only life she could imagine since their meeting 3 years ago. Fighting the world seemed like a formality, when they joined forces.

"Does it have to be so hard? Doesn't this pain makes you realize that what we have is real and its a mistake to go apart?" he asked again.

"The pain not only makes it real, but reminds that it is not meant to be" she replied.

That hit him hard.

"Shouldn't you be happy that what was not meant to be is not happening and you got rid of it."

"I wish things were that simple."

He went numb.

She spoke, "What we had was not love"

"We had love. But unfortunately love is not enough these days. Maturity is required as well."

She chuckled "Maturity! Isn't it an overtly used term these days. Blaming everything on it. When it comes to adventure and shenanigans, everyone seeks immaturity, but otherwise maturity is required. I am beginning to think that immaturity was what kept us together, in fact led us towards each other...".

"What?" he cut her off.

"Yeah! How else would you explain us. We are so different from each other. Our interests don't match. We are like two sides of coin, never destined to meet each other. On some level, we should have known that this day was bound to come."

"Well, if you put it like that, it sure seems the explanation. But it seemed easy that time and looked like our difference somehow were connecting us."

"Well, that was our infatuated mind taking over maturity."

"I understand now" he sighed, dropping his shoulders. "But how are you okay going forward with this?"

"I think I am being mature now", she smiled. He smiled back.

"But tell me this, how do I get closure?"

"Ha, never the one to shy away from the technical terms."

"How else to prove I am different!"

"Closure is nothing but accepting that there is no 'us' anymore and being brave enough to imbibe that."

"Like being happy for you and future?"

"No you fool, you don't have to feel anything for me anymore...be as apathetic as you can. If you care, you are only hurting yourself."

"It will be the toughest thing to do..."

"Me too"

"Who would have thought not caring would be this tough...."

"It is tough when you have promised 'Thousand years' to each other", she tried to joke, but the gazing intensity of him melted anything that was calm inside her.

"Yeah, a thousand years" his words carried something venomous that even shook the nothingness in her.

Suddenly she felt lighter. The cloudy dust that had shrouded everything seemed to be clearing out and she could sense this from within. The heaviness that his remembrance brought was felt no more and she could un-shackle herself easily.

Atlast she woke up with a smile. After an array of dreamless nights, she leveraged the all important lesson that would catapult her towards an ordeal free world.
She can be herself again, completed after a long time.

This dream had done the job much better than her own consciousness could ever do.

"Thanks for 'the thousand years' and I am coming back", she mumbled as she smiled her way back to sleep.

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