Star Speak

BETWEEN THEM
Part 16

Out through the window, the stars could be seen in the early mist of dawn.....

She sat wrapped in her sheets... shivering out of cold and emotion....
A bundle in a black quilt .... all alone in that big bed in a lone room in a lonely house....

She was desperate to get back back into that dream....

She closed her eyes.....
Back, she reflected, on the dream....


She had been walking in a park with Shradha... her best friend for life.....
The park.... well, it looked like a park.... with lovers' seats and plants all around.... and a canopy of steel .... a kind of pillared grid....

And then, there she had seen Krish.... a red tee and jeans... well, he did look smart..... with an old friend of his from school......

And she had been watching him with Shradha, giggling.... as usual!
But then, he seemed to be oblivious of her... as usual.....
By then they were walking away onto the roads.... with the two boys following them out, a long way off....

It had started raining...

She and Shradha had run to a house.... not old... recently built.... with a staircase running up on the side....
The doors had been locked.... So they sat on the staircase... and miraculously the rains were gone.... and she was all dry....

Shradha was saying something and going away.... She was gone before Shriya could ask her to stay....

To not leave her alone there.... As just then she had spotted Krish there.... and was scared.... no, badly scared....

As she had always been.... And still was.....

He had come up the stairs .... She could not even move out now..... She sat rigid.... and scared....

He leaned over her.... She leaned back away from him...

He was so near now that she closed her eyes..... petrified...

He took hold of her hand.... It made her eyes fly wild open...

And he smiled at her... that crazy special smile of his....

And he spoke....

"Tell me what you want me to do..... What do u want from me?... Go on..."

She was staring into his eyes..... At his face.... And at the black skies spread with stars above him.....

And all the stars seemed to be edging her to reply to him.... To talk her mind.....

And he was smiling....

And too close....

She couldn't talk..... Not with him holding her.... Leaning over her.... And having her pinned to the stairs....

And the stars above, and him, and her were lost in eternity.......


Shriya opened her eyes.....
And looked out of the window..... Million questions running in her mind.... Still petrified and shivering....

The stars were answering her in the twilight.... And she shivered.... At the absurdity of the answer.....

He was close ?