#TheFinalCountdown
I was on the ground. I lost my last chance to say “sorry” to Ashwin. So this is the end. Now everything is dead dark. My head hurts, I wonder if I got shot in my head too. So at last am gonna meet my girl in heaven and that thought alone made me happy. Hope we don’t end up in hell. My brain was processing all these thoughts and my head throbs with pain. I opened my eyes.
I saw the blue sky, the passing cloud and also I was lying beneath a tree. I felt tired and wondered what part of the world is this? My eyes started to search for Aasha and soon found her looking at me anxiously. Her lips moved but no sound came out. Wait. I shook my head and tried to receive the sounds around me. She said, “Wake up… What happened?”
I got up from the ground. My head was spinning and I didn’t know what happened. Where in the world am I? Aasha touched my forehead slightly asking, “Are you okay now?” I stared back at her blankly. She took my hand and started to walk ahead. I looked around and… I know that place.
It was that bus stop where this story began. I checked the date and time on my mobile, ‘12th August, 8:10 am’. I was going to drop her in the bus stop. Hope you remember that I dashed on a tree in Episode 1. That is why my head throbs and I can’t believe that I had a shock dream, well nightmare, in that few minutes. I really didn’t know if I was dead or alive. I felt like I was in the inception movie.
Movies had taught me that in one second humans can have a million dreams and can get tired of it. In my case, I dreamt of a dreadful 18 days. I am alive and so is Aasha. We are alive and this thought echoed in my head repeatedly as I was walking her towards her bus stop. We almost reached the stop. Aasha stopped, turned at me and said, “I can cross the road by myself. Go home and treat your head.” Then she started to move away. Suddenly it dawned on my dumb head and I reacted instantly searching for something around. I found that black car, the same number plate as in my dream with Ashwin in the driver seat.
My dream ran again in my mind in a fast forward motion. I don’t know how or why that was happening then but I knew that I had only few seconds to stop that nightmare from becoming real. I was on the road, moving towards his car, as I saw him watching my girl, raising his car accelerator. I felt frustrated and got closer to his car. At last his eyes met mine and he stopped the car. He was staring at me for few moments before he got out of his car. The moment he was out of his car, I hugged him tightly and shouted, “I am sorry… I am sorry…,” as loud as I can while trying to lock the already flowing tears behind my eyes.
Ashwin was in a complete shock as he never expected that. But he recovered soon and hugged me back as his lips smiled and eyes glistening with tears. He said, “No problem man. Cool.” I kept on apologizing while he tried to soothe me with warm words. Aasha saw us and came running towards us with joy. In that moment I dialed a number and as Aasha got closer, I put the mobile in my shirt front pocket.
Aasha exclaimed, “Hey Ashwin! How are you? Such a long time!” I interrupted her saying, “Aasha, I am sorry.” She, with a cute smile on her lips asked me, “What? Why?” Ashwin held my hand and nodded his head, signaling me to keep quiet. I dropped his hand and said, “It’s already late and I must apologize at least now.” I turned towards Aasha and confessed everything to her and finished the dark side of the story to her with an apology.
Once I apologized, as expected, I got a nice slap from her. Guess she used all her strength; I had to try hard to stop my hand from rubbing my cheek. I dropped down my head in guilt and said, “I am so sorry.”
Suddenly, she jumped and hugged me tightly (well, she had to jump to reach my height). Crying she asked me, “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Ashwin who was watching us till then, replied her before I could, “Because he loves you a lot and didn’t like to let you down for any reason, same as me.” Aasha looked at me and asked, “Did you think I would hate you? You did all that for me.Though, what you did was wrong, how could I hate you?”
Saying this, she hugged me tightly and whispered, “I love you” in my ears and placed a kiss on my cheek. Ashwin laughed and winked at her and she turned his face away from us. He smiled and his happiness was visible in his face. Aasha let go of me and started to enquire Ashwin about his love story with Jessica. I could see them taking back their friendship from where they had left it during our college days.
I moved away from them slowly and picked up the mobile which was on call for the past ten minutes and said, “I am sorry.” There was silence in the other end. I asked, “Hope you heard the whole story?” and I got the reply, “hmm.” I sighed with relief and again apologized, “I am sorry, Jessica.” Yes, at last I got the guts to apologize to her and so I had dialed Jessica. After few silent minutes, I heard her cry.
She recovered soon and asked me, “How was the slap?” I hid my laughter and replied, “Not as much as yours. Hope I would get a better slap when we meet?”She replied softly, “Of course, you would. I don’t know how long it would take me to forgive you, after all what you did to me. Till then never ever appear before me. If you do, then I might kill you.” She cut the line and I smiled with relief.
I smiled happily after a long time. I got back to my friends and Ashwin gave me his office card and asked me to join his company. I hesitated and Aasha signaled me to take it and so I did.
Ashwin dropped us in my home and Aasha invited him to come inside. Ashwin asked me, How did you know about my love and all?” I smiled and replied, “I will reveal that secret in your marriage.” He smiled and said, “Machi, wait! I will park my car and join you.” I nodded and went inside as he left to park his car. Then he got a call from an unknown number. He picked up the call and said, “Hello?” The person in the other end took only few seconds to apologize, unlike me. He smiled and replied, “I love you,” and came running inside our home with joy.
***Happy Ending***
Story started at August # 12 and ends with Episode # 12
“I really do not know how to justify the dream and the happenings in my life. Still, I cannot believe it. But it taught me that there are some things in the world that man cannot yet understand. It can wield its power in any form. It can be love, affection, friendship or may be God. Whatever it is, it helped me to understand me and correct myself. I will never know if such kind of miracle would ever happen to anyone. But I know that this happened in my life and I got my final chance to apologize and correct my mistake. So the moral of the story is not to wait for a miracle to correct your mistake but to do it immediately. You may not be lucky with miracles like me and so if you had to apologize to someone, please don’t hesitate and do it now. That one word ‘Sorry’ might bring miracles to you, who knows? ‘The word Sorry can make, a saint a sinner and, a sinner a saint’ are not just empty words.”
I really thank Vishok Narayan and Anitha kalaiselvi who helped me a lot with editing and drafting till the last moment.
I dedicate this story to my best buddies Dhilip Maniraj, Ashwin Prem Solomon and Anitha kalaiselvi.
I love to present this novel to Vishok Narayan as a gift to his marriage.
And it is also a special dedication to Kashiba Aasha Shaheen.
Thank you all,
-K.B.Ashwath Kumar
-K.B.Ashwath Kumar
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