42 Quirks

Funnily, they never hit it off on their first meeting.

She hated his guts, the instant she saw him. He hated the sight of her, the instant he laid his eyes upon her. Their first meeting would have come down to a fist-fight if they weren’t restrained by some sensible thinking, which was done by their friends.

Neither of them ever knew the reason for that fight. When they went home and thought about it, neither of them could remember what had started it all, but like all good girls and boys, like members of a civilized society, they just believed, no, they assumed there had been a reason and they forgot all about it. What it eventually transpired into was this: every time they met after the fight, they looked daggers at each other.

And so the days went on.

Fate, it seems, has a strong liking for upsets. She is always out to lure people into traps, her most favorite trap being love.

It was a chilly saturday morning. Winter had just knocked on the door of time and was holding open, the door for autumn to leave. The trees had shed all of their leaves except for the trademark few, which they wouldn’t shed to indicate their stubbornness to begin all over again when spring would call. The race-track was almost empty. No one in his right mind would dare to venture out in such a cold. And the race track was, by all standards, a distant bet.

A rational onlooker would have been surprised by the silhouette pounding across the track at that time of the morning. (Of course, an onlooker would not be rational, if he were to be found in such adverse conditions himself, would he?) But there it was.

He started his fifth timed run. He had already broken his records four times. But he would realized that only when he returned to the gym for his showers. He just wasn’t concentrating on the time. Or his timed runs for that matter. His mind had been occupied by something. The problem was he did not know what. His child-like brain refused to acknowledge the existence of youth and his mind refused to give up. He got befuddled trying to think about what exactly it was, that was bothering him. He tried to think about it clearly, but it didn’t help. He tried to think in an obtuse manner, no luck there either. Then he decided to sit down and analyse what had caused him to get so aggravated.

He stopped mid way in his run and looked around for a place to sit. There were a few starters’ blocks that had been kept in preparation for the University finals that were starting in a weeks time. He walked over to them and sat down. And then, at that very moment, she sneezed.

He stood up, half startled and half surprised. He had never expected anyone to be there at this time of the day. Unsure of what to say he said the first thing that came to his mind.

“Who sneezed?”

A shadowy figure appeared from behind the starting blocks. She had guilt written all over her face. But it was not visible to him yet. She tried to steel herself not to show it to him. But she knew she wouldn’t succeed at that.

“Who are you?” His voice had returned back to normalcy now. There was no hint of the surprise and startle that had existed a few moments ago.

She moved slightly and came into the light. She removed the cloth she had used to cover her face to protect herself from the chill and let him see her.

He looked at her, a thousand thoughts running in his head. Everyone of his questions was being answered. The answers were coming in bursts and torrents. Suddenly everything was becoming crystal clear. He fought to keep up with the thousand revelations that had burst into his head all at the same time, like a thousand light-bulbs going on at the same time.

At that precise moment, the sun chose to make a dramatic appearance over the horizon. The first rays of the sunlight broke on the race-track. A warmth ran awash over the two of them and it felt good. As if in cue, she came closer to him and rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

She had answered his question. And more.

Death and Taxes- The only two things assured in life, they say. He had always been ready for the taxman.

The coffees at Pete’s had never tasted so good. That’s strange, he thought, I have never had any coffees at Pete’s before. A full minute had passed since the last sentence muttered by either of them. Is that what you call, he mused, an uncomfortable silence? Or is this a comfortable one? Well at least I am comfortable. Wait a second! Why aren’t my feet touching the ground? Oh! I am floating already? Shame on me!! I am supposed to exercise control on my thoughts…

And with that he returned back to terra firma.

She had been looking at him all this while. He thought he saw something in her eyes. Was that love? Or was he over-exaggerating? Or was it? Oh well, too early to guess and too late to see it clearly…

She watched, amused at the struggle happening in his mind. She finally decided that he had been given enough time. She brought her hand to his face and waved as if wiping a Television Screen.

That seemed to do the job. He came to, and sheepishly looked at her.

She held a shining coin in her hands, “A penny for your thoughts, mister?”

He stared hard at the coin and soon his features hardened with the stare.

She took one look at his face and fearing the worst, popped the question, “Something… uh… wrong?”

“Yes.” He replied solemnly.

“Dare I ask what?”

“You sure you wanna hear it?”

“Uh… Yes.. I guess…”

“Then listen carefully. I ‘ll nead at least a million more of these thoughts if I ever were to buy you a decent ring. From what I can see,” he paused, dramatically looking at the penny, “it seems the exchange rate isn’t much!!”

His stern features relaxed into the barest hint of a smile. She realized that she had been had.

Relief washed over her like the rains of spring and before she knew it she was crying. These, of course, were tears of joy.

*****

Why, then, did things go wrong? He stood on the platform and looked at the vast hordes of people moving about like ants. Scurrying away to destinations known only to them, carrying their work known, again, only to them, working for a queen called Fate and bound to a king called Time.

He crossed the station and found his way to the exit and started looking for a cab. A yellow and black machine sidled up to him and a head popped out with a question,”Where to buddy?”

“Ward number 42,” he replied off-handedly.

The taxi trundled along. The cab-driver tried to make some small talk.

“Been here for long, guv?”

“No.”

“Planning on being here for long?”

“Dunno. No, I guess.”

The taxi-driver chuckled. “Everybody says that, mate, everybody says that,” he said in a sing-song voice.

“Here you are. Ward number forty-two.”

Without waiting for the cabbie to recite the fare, he held out a hundred rupee note and said, “Keep the change.”

“Thanks, guv. You’re a pal!”

He closed the door after him and disappeared within the confines of the room.

The cabbie turned to a nurse standing beside him. “He is so nice, I can’t believe he is not normal. If only, it were not for his super-hero shit, I’d say, he is hundred percent okay! Makes you wonder why such things happen to good people like these.” He said pointing his thumb to the closed door.

The nurse giggled and the duo moved on along the corridor their footsteps making an eerie hoof-beat noise on the linoleum as they marched. Far down the corridor, a distant click was heard.

The Lunatic Asylum had been secured. Not that anybody was about to escape. After all, where would… no… WHY would anybody go?

At the other end of the corridor, stood a figure cloaked in black. With a soft movement of the hand, the figure slipped back its cloak. A pair of hazel-green eyes looked at a door that had closed, but a few moments earlier. Had someone been able to look into those eyes, he would have very easily described them as misty.

“Soon, my dear, very soon….”

And the figure in black vanished, leaving no trace that it had even existed in that spot, a couple of moments earlier.

“If you are a figment of my imagination, and I, a figment of yours, then why do we fall in love?”
–Born Stinger

She replied in the affirmative.

The waiter who had been a mute spectator all along, hurried led them to a table overlooking, well, nothing actually. Or to be really truthful, overlooking a wall. His expression was pitiable. And he was pitied. At least, this time.

“More Coffee, Madam?” The waiter blurted.

The Avenger looked bewildered. And then it dawned on him.

“I am really sorry, I didn’t mean to be late. Actually, my watch stopped working and I thought that if I enetered early, you would realise that I have fallen hopelessly in love with you. And I am blabbering again. But I can’t help it. Will you marry me?”

But it was too late. She could not control herself. She was in stitches. He looked at her helplessly, with the face of an injured puppy. He turned to the waiter.

“A strong black coffee. The strongest you’ve got. And a vegetable sandwich. The lady will order shortly. As you can see, she is quite indisposed currently.”

With these words, the barrage of laugh, that seemed to be subsiding, burst forth again with renewed vigour. He simply looked at her and smiled.

“Tell me when you are done laughing. I wanna tell you something.”

“Wh… wha…. what?” She said between chuckles.

“I said, when you are done laughing.”

“Ok, Ok. Go Ahead.” She raised her hands in a mock defensive pose.”Hit me with all you got!”

“I was not kidding when I said I want to marry you. I really want to.”

“Oh my God, you haven’t realised yet? Don’t you know who I am?”

“Why, you are a nurse, at the Academy. No, please don’t start laughing again. I would really prefer it, if you said it in simple words instead of ridiculing me.”

“Ok. I’ll say it really simply. I am the Temptress. Or rather I used to be the Temptress. Until I joined the Academy, that is.”

The Temptress looked at him with an eager eye. She wanted to see how he would take it. All the others before him had broken down, convinceed that they were merely enchanted by her and that they were not really in love with her. She wanted to see how he would react. Of all the come-on lines she had heard, his had been the best. And the fastest too.

“I know. Is that supposed to make any difference?”

“It is. After all I can enchant anyone who crosses my path. And so I have done with you.”

He thought about this for a while. Then he slowly shook his head.

“Not possible. I was smitten by you even before you looked at me. So it does not wash with the rest of the evidence. Moreover, the effects of your enchantment do not last for more than an hour, by which time you usually made good your escape. This time, I was dying to meet you.”

“Sure didn’t seem like it. You made me wait half-an-hour. I thought you were gonna stand me up.”

“Uh-huh,” he shook his head, “I repeat, my watch stopped working.”

“Well, if that’s the truth, then that settles it.”

“Settles what?”

“Settles the answer to the question.”

“And the answer is…”

“Ummm…”

He held his breath.

“I’ll have to think about it.”

He was dissapointed.

“How long?”

“How long does it take to buy a wedding ring?”

A smile appeared on his face and widened into a grin and then broke into a laughter. When the tide had subsided, he found enough breath to ask, “Are you sure you don’t race cars in a Grand Prix?”

“As a matter of fact, I used to.”

*****

The stryofoam cup in his hands was empty. He threw it out of the window. Painful memories. He hated those kind.

The train was slowing down and it came to a halt. He alighted and was soon engulfed by the huge tidal wave of people. The indicators announced in a clipped-mechanical voice, “Train arrived on Platform number Seven is running on time. Passengers are requested to kindly check their belongings before they alight the train.”

Sigh. The train was on time. He was on time. The passengers were on time. And on that fateful day, someone else had been on time too.

To be continued…

He stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, an insignificant part of a huge crowd…

He hated that, not the crowd, but the feeling of being insignificant. He had always thought of himself as the saviour. He prided himself in being the avenger, a name he had given himself. He liked it. The Avenger. He had once heard it while sitting in a coffee shop. Then it had not mattered much to him. But as he grew and realized his true potential and his hidden powers, it all came back to him…

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by the fog horn, which he considered to be too loud. He thought of delivering a powerful zee-ray beam and reduce it to ashes but decided otherwise, after all he had to reach home. His family was waiting for dinner. He pushed and elbowed his way in and found a suitable seat. He checked his bag and threw it over on the luggage rack and returned to his seat.

It was already taken.

He smiled at the man, his smile conveying too many emotions all at once. The man sitting on the seat smiled back, as if to say ‘Sorry buddy, but you know the rule here: finders keepers, losers weepers.’ He understood, but what he couldn’t understand was the extent to which his tolerance had gone in the past couple of years. Ever since he had joined the S.H.A. (The Super Heroes Anonymous) to escape from the glitterati, things had slowly changed…

The initial days at the SHA were very good. They mainly consisted of discussing his prowess with his fellow mates at the office. The regular medical check-ups and the therapies that he had undergone to keep his super-human powers under control had been exhaustive. They had drained him of his energy. But he took it all bravely, like true super-human that he was. Pretty soon he had his powers in control and the nurse too.

He had fallen for her the very first day. He remembered it vividly.He had walked through those large wooden doors taking in the enormity of the place, and at the same time feeling intimidated by it. He was caught unawares by the nurse carrying a tray of medicines. It was bound to happen. They crashed and the instant he looked into those large hazel eyes, he knew that they were made for each other. It seemed like an eternity before he could finally muster up courage to say,

“Sorry, I was not looking. Can we go out for a coffee?”

“That was the fastest pick-up I have ever seen. What do you do, race cars in a grand prix?”

He realised his mistake and immediately sought out to rectify it, hoping over and over again that it wasn’t too late…

“No, I mean… I wanted to make up for my clumsiness and I thought I owed you one. And, er…, You are quite beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off you for one second. WHAT AM I SAYING?”

She just laughed and moved ahead. Probably, she was accustomed to people becoming tongue-tied by her beauty. Probably, she thought of him as another addition to a long list. And him? He was still cursing himself for having lost a glorious opportunity. She stopped and turned and said:

“My duty ends at six. If you are still around, meet me at Pete’s, I think I’d like that coffee.”

He was so happy, he flew. He flew all around the place and finally came to a stop when, out of the blue, someone yelled, “All right, all right, you can come down now.” He realised that he had been the very thing he wanted to control and evidently, this was not the place to do it. He near-damned ordered his mind to stop and came down on to terra firma. He looked at his watch. It was four. He still had an hour to finish his work and meet her at Pete’s. He rushed up things and by the time he was finished, the sun was on his way down…

He looked at his watch. The passenger in (his) seat was reluctant to move. Or may be he had super-glue stuck to his behind. His legs were not aching, they never could. A superhero’s legs never ached. He just wanted to sit and think in peace. It was difficult to exercise control on one’s thoughts standing in a moving train and the person in front leaning on him. He just wanted to sit so that nobody could interrupt his thoughts… He just wanted to relax – his mind more than his body.

To be continued…

I am never late for a show. That’s my habit.

However, this one time, due to unforeseen circumstances, it happened. I reached the theatre hall barely before the third bell was to be rung. I searched for my seat. (The kind usher was happily chatting away about the pros and cons of the play. I didn’t have the heart to interrupt his conversation. Would you?) Finally after 30 long seconds I found it.

“Ummm, excuse me but you’re on my seat…”

A polite request to get someone out of your seat..

“Can’t be… Here’s my ticket…”

A polite answer to someone who’s faking his way into the theatre…

“Well, we have a confusion here. Two tickets with the same number… Ok, there are two options.. Either we go and complain to the authorities or you move in and let me sit. Whatever happens later, shall be taken care of later, wot say?”

He wasn’t looking at me when I said those words. The instant I competed them, he turned and said -

“No.”

That’s it? That’s all he had to say? Well I couldn’t stand there arguing with him. The show was about to start. I decided to move into the other seat and pushed my way in. I did not forget to give him the you-have-landed-in-a-soup-buddy glare which he reciprocated with the ok-so-sue-me glare.

Before I could turn the war of glare into a war of words (my favorite) the lights began to dim, indicating that the play was about to start. I decided to shut up and watch the play. I had heard that the start of the play was a treat for the eyes.

So I started to concentrate when suddenly I heard a whirring sound. I tried to ignore it but the sound persisited. Finally I turned to see my neighbor holding his cellphone in his hand looking at it buzz intently as if it was something of a pleasure toy… Irritated I chided him saying -

“Why don’t you attend the goddamn call?”

“It’s my wife. She’s expecting me back home any moment now. If I answer it she’ll know I amn gonna be late. If I cancel it, she’ll think I’m partying. The only option is to let it ring so she’ll think I am driving.”

“Ok, Ok, but can’t you atleast turn the noise down?”

“Duh… It’s on vibrate mode, dumbo!”

“Duh… I know, but padding it between your palms might help”

Suddenly there was this flash of light, and the stage was filled with light. The characters had begun to appear one by one and the scenes had started. DAMN!!! I missed it…

“Shit…”

“What happened?” he asked the question as coolly as you would ask ‘What time is it?’

“You made me miss the beginning… I waited for so many days to watch this play. Thanks to you, now I’ll have to come again, which is next to impossible…”

“As I sat there muttering under my breath trying to concentrate on the play, he leaned over and said. Don’t worry think about it this way, you are actually helping the producers earn some money.”

“Yeah! And in the process losing mine, you… you… moron”

I settled for moron. I wanted to say something better but, I settled for moron. He turned to me coolly and said -

“Well, that’s your lookout.”

“Sshhhh!! Quiet, we are trying to watch the play, Why don’t you boys go out and fight?”

Boys? The damned old hag had the nerve to call me a boy? Wait till the intermission is announced. We’ll see who’s a boy…

I continued to watch the play of colours on the stage. The play and its actors were in full swing. Everyone was enacting his part beautifully. It was the moment of truth, the moment when the hero is about to discover that the murderer is none other that the selfless uncle, whom he doted upon since his birth, the grand finale o emotions, the touching saga complete, the most emotional scene when suddenly I …

“You actually dared to bring a packet of wafers inside a theatre hall?”

“Ummm, Yes, I guess, as you can plainly see…”

“Do you even have a slight idea as to how irritating that is?”

“Uhhhhh, no.”

“Is this your first time in the theatre?”

“Yes, I guess?”

“Do you understand English? Didn’t you read the prohibition notice?”

“No, what was it about?”

I was highly irritated by now, add to that his intellectual inferiority was beginning to grate my nerves… I could blow up anytime. Suddenly I was reminded of a scene on a local channel where they showed irritated cinema hall patrons on candid camera. Then I realised this was a shoot for maybe another candid camera sequence.

So I decided that I would be the coolest customer this guy had ever encountered. I snatched the packet of wafers from him and started munching on them as loudly as I could. I offered some to him as well. I could distinguish the horror on his face and another emotion which I classified as “pure, unadulterated terror.”

His mouth open in awe, he looked a very funny sight. I bade him shut his mouth while munching as loudly as my jaws permitted. Sometime later even they began to ache. So I searched around and sure enough I found a bottled soft-drink. I picked it up and slurped it as noisily as I can. And soon enough before, I could finish the wafers and the soft drink, the first act folded. (I think I actually saw one of the actors on stage glaring at me when the curtains were falling.) The intermission was announced.

He yanked me out of my seat and nearly dragged me into the lobby. I was smiling all the way to other patrons who were throwing disgusted looks at me. When we reached the lobby he screamed,

“What the f**k do you think you are doing??”

“Giving you a helping hand!! Damn this one would make a nice reel for primetime, eh? I mean, the sound of me munching wafers was so rhythmic and the slurping was a once-in-a-millenium event, eh?”

“Prime-time? Helping hand? Do you even realise, you almost killed the show? This ain’t no stupid candid-camera sequence, you ass****.”

It was my turn to stare at him with my mouth agape, wafers falling…

“You mean…. this wasn’t… it was… I mean…. I didn’t… This…. I…. you…. No hidden camera?”

“NO!!!!”

“Damn!! Why were you doing the stupid things then??”

“That was so that my actors could get a feel of bad, worse and worst audiences. Needless to say, you have excelled yourself at that. You have been the most perfect jerk I could have ever enacted.”

“You? Enacted? You mean you are an actor with the troupe?”

“Actually,” he said rather sheepishly, “I am the director of the play. I had decided without letting them know that I would make tem suffer the worst audience in this play. I had planned on some minor ‘events’. But I guess, you took the cake!!”

“And the wafers…” I blurted…

Wot say?

“Life is not always what it seems to be – sometimes even we have to play the role of an audience to be recognised as heroes”
- Born Stinger.

I stopped and turned.

It couldn’t be…I said to myself…It just couldn’t be… her.

While I was standing there, contemplating which of the two results – me going and speaking with her or me ignoring her after having seen her – would be more disastrous, I saw her walking towards me. So the decision was made. The next step was to think about things we had in common so that I could start up a chat and, if lucky enough,sustain it… And it was then that I rememberd our first conversation…

*******

Everyone in the school had the hots for her. I was merely a number in a long line of aspirants for her courtesy… That was when it has happened. As I was coming out of the maths class contemplating on an integral problem, that I thought the professor got all wrong, I saw her standing in front of me.Actually I noticed it seconds before we collided. The collision being averted only because she screamed…. “HI!!!”

Puzzled I looked first straight into her eyes, and then behind me and then started to walk on, afraid I would reveal my weakness if I stood there any longer. She immediately turned and said…”Hey, That’s no way to treat a woman! Where your courtesy?”

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“That’s no way a woman, who expects to be treated well, must behave. Don’t you think so?”

I cursed myself. She smiled. Good, so she hadn’t taken offence. I’d have to be more careful next time. And we stood just like that. There was a moment of awkward silence between us. She chose to break it before I could venture to do the same.

“So, aren’t you gonna ask me out for coffee or something?”

“Is it a part of the bargain?”

“If you meant the privilege of speaking to me, I’d say yes to that!” and she laughed. It was a carefree laugh. So we want to play the intellectual tug-o-war, do we? Well I am game…

“No,what I actually meant was the privilege of getting totalktome. I don’t talk to strangers. Especially not to ones, who think they are a privilege. Thank you and have a nice day.” I started to move toward the cafeteria,where I had to solve other (less) important problems over a cup of coffee…I managed to sneak a glance at the goddess, She was…well…dumb-struck…

*******

I sat poring over the integral-snakes that my professor had assigned me. It couln’t be. I could not go wrong with the problem. The solutions had to match. Either the printed solutions were wrong or… NO it had to be the printed solutions.

“It’s the third step in your problem.Change the minus to a plus. The rest of it looks pretty okay…”

So she still hadn’t given up. Hmmm. I was dealing with a perseverant phenomenon here.

“Thank you,” I said politely.

“You’re welcome, you now officially owe me a coffee.”

I had to admire her persistence. My long buried skills were returning. Good.

“So do you always charge for your unwanted assistance?”

“No,most of the timepeople get it for free…”

“And, Something tells me I ain’t getting this for free, right?”

“I charge only those who can pay me back.”

“Let me tell you I don’t pay for unwanted assistance. I accept it as complementary.”

“I never said I was gonna charge you…”

“What, then, was the coffee for?”

“To start this conversation…”

Game One. Round One. Goddess.

“OK.So you won. What is it that you want of me?”

“Hey, Was that easy or what!! Fromwhat I was told about you, I think you oughtta have done better that that…”

“And what were you ‘told’,pray?”

“Nothing, I had to sustain the conversation, somehow…”

“And why did you want to do that?”

“Because I like having sensible talks.”

‘I am afraid you have chosen the wrong person to do so. I am neither sensible nor do I talk.”

“You know, It is so difficult to find someone who can talk sensible?”

“I know. And I have been disappointed many times.I donot wish to be disappointed again.”

“Ahhh…Ze competitive streak eez returning M’sieur?”

Game two. Round One. Goddess.

Man, does she know how to deflate or what!!

“Ok,back to the point. Why do you want to sustain a conversation with me?”

“I hate having conversations that last for less than five seconds after which you are in a tearing hurry to rip off – either your clothes or your feet – from the spot. Those are for sluts and their customers. I believe you are not from the same class of people…”

“And how do you assume that?”

“Because I am not…”

“Is that a public statement or a personal belief?”

“What do you think?”

“Why does it matter to you what I think of it?”

“It should, shouldn’t it, I mean a mirror must reflect the feelings of the person looking into it?”

“What makes you think I am your mirror?”

“Because you are asking me exactly the same question I am asking myself this moment…”

I stood there looking at a person I had always believed existed somewhere on the face of this earth and who, secretly, I hoped I would never meet. But I had met that person and that was that. She seemed to have read the thoughts in my mind as she gave out a tinkling laugh.

*******

My thoughts were yanked back to the present by the tinkling laugh. I smiled at her and asked.

“Do you still play those games?”

“I still do play games. Not the same ones,although. I have grown up now. Haven’t you?”

Somethings never change, do they?

“If you were to live different lives everyday,you would love to be Humphrey Bogart one day and Arnold Schwarzenegger the next, and that would be definitely great.The only problem is you wouldn’t have a day to live by yourself.”
- Born Stinger.

“I can’t live without you,” he said. Actually it sounded more like he was insisting. But she was not a person who would listen.

“But don’t you see? I have to go. I have stayed long enough with you. I know you can’t live without me. But that doesn’t mean I dishounour my promise to the instituition. I have a contract with them that stipulates the time that we can spend together. There cannot, and I mean cannot, be any violation of this contract.”

“Don’t give me silly excuses like those,” he said, almost flying into a rage. But then he realised anger was useless. If love didn’t work, then anger definitely had no chance of working. He decided to try another ploy…

“But, what about the days that we spent together? Can’t you stay back as a rememberance for those? We had such fine moments… Remember the time we spent together on that hill station? And those late nights when you’d cuddle up to me for warmth? How can you forget all of those so easily?”

‘Yes, I do remember, but do you remember the time you refused to take me on a vactaion, even though you knew we both needed it? And how about the time, when you almost betrayed me?”

“Almost… But I did not… because I loved you and I love you all the same now, if not more!! Please don’t go!! I’ll die…”

“I would have loved to say, serves you right. But I won’t, because I love you more than you can imagine. I have loved you ever since we’ve been together. I have loved you when you were at your best and I have loved you when you were suffering your worst. I have loved you even when I thought you were doing the most despicable deeds… I have loved you more than you can ever fathom. BUt can yu say with the authority that I assume, that you have loved me no less? Can you say that?

He grew silent. His silence was deafening him. And she must have thought it too, because he could see the sadness in her eyes. The sadness he dreaded… the sadness that told him he was fighting a losing battle… Still, the man that he was he chose to fight… but he did not have any weapons left. He finally mustered up courage to say-

“You can’t go, you have no right to leave me. I brought you here from the instituition and I hold all rights over you. You have no right to leave me…”

She laughed. Her laugh was not one of mockery or derision. It wasn’t the kind of laugh you would give when you saw a fool’s act. It was a laugh you give when you catch a child with his hand stuck in the cookie jar. She laughed at his innocence, the fact that he beileve she’d actually accept that and stay…

“You really think you have a right over me? How did you forget? You have not bought me or brought me here. I have come here on my own accord… You have no right over me except those that I give you. You have leased me from the instituition. And now that the lease period is over, I must go. It is as simple as that. Don’t you understand?”

He looked at her in surprise. He could not believe she’d actually said those words. But now that she had, they hurt him like hell. Hell – so this is what it must feel like. If this is hell I never wanna die, he began to think… For a passing moment, his thoughts were distracted by the mention of Hell. But he pretty soon regained control and said -

“You know what, if you keep up with this, you are gonna end up in hell.”

She stood there stunned. As if someone had hit her with the thing she’d always dreaded. Something she never expected to come, least of all from him. She slowly turned to him, fighting the sea of emotions that was building up in her, fighting the intense desire to burn him to ashes, fighting her desires to leave him at once and let him rot, die, decay whatever…

“Of all the things you could say to me, do you know, that one was the most despicable. You consign me to hell? Think again, if you do that, that’s the place you are going to next? Are you sure you want me to end up in hell?”

He started crying. She knew that was the end of it all. She had to leave now. Any delay on her part would mean a penalty. and she’d alredy suffered it once… She thought about it and decided to leave immediately. She turned to leave, but could not resist having a one last look at the sorry figure she was leaving behind… He was writhing and groveling, but she had already made up her mind to leave… She loved him, but this is how it had to end. And without turning back again, she left…

Two doctors came running, armed with stethoscopes around their necks. They rushed into the room and one of them began to check the patient’s pulse.

He was already dead.

“We’ve lost him. Seems like the attack was massive. The death must have been peaceful, ” said the first doctor.

“No, I don’t think so. It seems like he wanted to live. Looks like he had a heavy argument with her…” said the second doctor.

“Her?” all of them chorused.

“His soul. He begged her to stay, she couldn’t. He tried to convince her. Looks like she won…”

“I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, ‘Ain’t that the truth?’ ”
-Quincy Jones, Victory of the Spirit