Read from the begining.
‘Gerald never spoke about you – how were you his friend? I did
know most of his friends. I mean I ve never seen you, I don’t know you, and now
you appear out of no where and expect me to get off the train and then spend my
entire life with you?’
‘Do you realize this is what people refer to as insanity?’
She ended her practicality spiel with a hint of sarcasm.’
Every word she spoke made perfect sense, yet something in him
kept bothering about the time. His watch read 10:05 PM. He couldn’t quite place
what was bothering him more, that rank stranger who asked him to get off the
train before ten past ten or the fact that he was running out of options to convince
Rosalyn of his love.
In the meanwhile, the train started to approach Jatin Das
Park, the penultimate station before Kalighat. As the train slowed down, he realized
that the conversation was going no where and soon he would run out of time.
He thought of a last resort – as an act of desperation -to pull
her out of the train by force. There weren’t too many people awake to witness,
but if she resisted then it could get dicey. Yet not doing it, would translate
to a regret for the rest of his mortal life, and he wasn’t prepared to live
like that.’
He looked into her eyes, and pleaded one last time with all
his heart and soul –
‘Rosalyn – I want you to know – that I love you and I’d do
anything for you’.
Rosalyn was startled. How did he know her name?
What happened next is something, which turns this simple
love story into a whirlpool, something which makes it surreal.As the train
stopped at Jatin Das Park, she stood up to run away from him, he latched on to
her right hand trying to pull her back. The door was just a couple of feet
away. She resisted and a scuffle ensued. Rosalyn slammed the bags with her left
hand on his head.He fell down, a little away from the door. The sliding doors
opened swiftly and she jumped out of
the compartment and started to run
ahead. Having a rather high-heeled shoe didn’t help the pace.
She twisted her
ankle a few coaches ahead.Just then the rogue overhead announcement system,
urged the passengers to stay away from the doors, as they were about to close. Meanwhile
he had to get up quickly and get out of the coach before the doors closed in
exactly 30 seconds.He dragged himself out of the train just in time – 15
seconds for the doors to close.As he rolled over on to the platform he saw
Rosalyn trying to get up and run with the shoes in her hand.He shouted
–‘Rosalyn don’t leave me’. 5 seconds for the doors to close.She turned around
to look at him once, and that was the
last time he saw those wonderful eyes. As he hunched on his knees he saw her
jump back on to the train as the doors closed.
A lump in his throat threatened to
burst, tears welled up and his heart sank as he watched the train leave Jatin
Das Park station. Each passing compartment took away the last ounce of hope he had
left of seeing Rosalyn.He slumped back and sat down on the platform wondering
why did he do this at all ? He hadn’t seen his watch in all this commotion.
The
watch showed 10:10PM – and that is when he heard a huge explosion inside the tunnel
ahead. A not so distant burst of flames engulfed the tunnel with smoke.Alarm
bells went off and he could hear distant commotion from the street above,
people screaming and running, and the mind was fuzzy. He just couldn’t get up
and walk.Just then someone helped him get up. It was the same stranger on the
train. He was at a loss for words.He broke the ice again.‘Gabriel I am sorry,
this is how it had to happen – I had to do my job.’‘I am sure you realize I had
a new role to play and there was no way I couldn’t execute it.’ ‘A job which
you excelled and something which I never wanted to do – I did it only because I
couldn’t stand and watch you suffer, you are one of my own – do you remember
now?’
‘I had to take her with me since you refused the
last time. Her time was up. I’ve been trying to warn her all day long – I tried
to cancel her trip to office – but she just wouldn’t budge. I tried to delay
everything on her way, thinking this might dissuade her from getting out of her
home, which was the only hope for another extension. But she was persistent.’
‘I must say, being the angel of death is tougher
than I’d imagined.’
‘And look at you – you gave away eternity for this
woman?’ ‘Don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you back then – I tried – but you
were in love and you wouldn’t listen to any of us’.
Father knew this would happen, and if He let you
know in advance, then it would make Him unfair to the rest, and you and I both know,
that is impossible. Or perhaps, if He agreed, then He would have to do this for
all of humanity – which is not such a smart thing to do isn’t it?
‘I did ask Him to stop you from doing this but He
said that though He is sad, but He will never stop you from your free will and choice.
You’ll have to own up to your actions and their consequences’
The stranger’s words were slowly entering his
sphere of consciousness. It all came back to him.
Mr.White, the stranger in the white suite was his
replacement as the angel of death.
Gyanban thoughts - The story heads into climax in the following episode.
I liked reading this even though it was from the middle, should make time to come and read other parts :))
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know that Venice's interview is up on my blog. Thought you might want to see..
ReplyDeletehttp://travellers-fruits.blogspot.in/2012/05/story-of-storytellers.html