All in Those Lights

He stood dazed near the sea…bathing in the sparkling moonlit rays…puffs of cool breeze ruffling his attire…his shiny long locks rippling in front of his closed eyes… With a heart filled of emotions and a soul immersed in desires, he expected for the perfect moment to catch her glimpse. As he slowly raised his head, all those desires trapped within him began to transform into restlessness, shackling the urge to face her formidable brilliance…

A cloud of questions flounced all around him…Why did not he come back so? Why did he leave her alone? Has she waited every night? Will she recognize him?

Amidst the torment of creating perfect answers, little did he know that in all true sense she had been the one, waiting to get a glance of his azure eyes…wishing silently to soak herself in his skin…longing to articulate her limitless ocean of affection to him…

But all that she could whisper with her soft flimsy voice…was…“Please return to me. I miss you every moment.”

The voice swept into his ears as each word touched his facial scars.  At once, he opened his eyes wide…nostrils splayed…a trickle of sweat ran through his temple.  It was all a dream. The same dream that had made him awake on umpteen number of such full moon nights. The same voice echoing in his mind for the past years.

He had always tried his best to recollect the dream…analyse and understand it. However, the only thing he could recollect was the resonance of those two words in his mind. He got up from his bed and languidly walked towards the window. The arid darkness started to transform into gleaming moonlit rays, with each of his footsteps.

Standing by the window, he finally decided to confront his dream for the last time. As he closed his eyes, he forced himself to recall every bit and piece of whatever he could remember. But at that very instant, every part of the puzzle seemed to fall smoothly in its place. The trapped memories of his self-began to unlock, resonating around him…

The young man ran with all his powers, in the middle of the night through the woods. Customary to the arrangement, she stayed at the rendezvous, longing for their tryst.  At his glimpse, she brightened his path and he securely made his way through the dense shrubs and wide tree trunks. He looked at her with reassurance. With a heavy bag on his back, he ran swiftly towards the sea and hopped on the boat at the shore.

Throwing the bag at one end of his boat, he sat on the other end and oared the whole night. During all these moments, she accompanied him and he respected her as her true companion. The moonlit sky listened to their unending conversations…his brags of his thievery…his flaunts of narrow escapes…his boasts of his skills. He sang to her…screamed his love for her…called her …She in all was sense to him.

She silently heard his tales…admired at the praises…shimmered with happiness in his victories. For her, he was a handsome and charming thief who had already filched away her heart, the moment he kissed her soft lips. She became wildly fond of his beautiful face, his rugged-looking soft skin and his perfect strong-built shape.

He was the only one who could gaze all at her without losing even slightest attention…talk whole night to her without even pausing for breath…share all his secrets with her without even feeling unsafe. In return, all she could do was, brighten the night for him as if it were a day.

Reaching the other end of the boat, he shouted at her with all the softness he could gather in his words…“My fate is bound to yours.”

Smiling as always he bade her farewell and kissed her once again. A tear ran down the corner of his eye, unusual of his character, as he ran into the woods.

Unaware of the fact that this was going to be their last tryst , she winked at him in reply…

It was the last time that she ever saw him.

Thereafter, as usual, she awaited his return on every full moon night, waiting above the woods. Days passed into months and months swept away into years…years into decades……but he did not return…

He opened his eyes and the scar along his chin elongated as a familiar smile came on his face. That was the instant for which he had spent many sleepless nights lost in understanding of the dream. He had always known what fate had in store for him. However, that night blew life into his forgotten love…he felt a very strong connection…an undying thirst to meet her…an uncontrollable urge to stand in front of her…an unstoppable yearn to look at her once again…and hold her tightly in his arms never to let her go. Never to be parted ever again.

The night was lit with full-moon and the moonlit beams stayed for him to brighten the road to her. Barefoot, he ran for her…the same wood that hid his identity for decades, now steered him towards her. He stopped suddenly as he reached the shore. There she was, expecting him to be back as always. She was his crazy little moon. The young man smiled as he looked up at the moon, mesmerized and astounded…to say to her how beautiful and enigmatic she still was…

“I am back…my fate is bound to you,” he screamed at the moon, giving away flying kisses at the scars of moon, just as he used to do.

The moon looked at him with the same sparkle in her eyes…as she had looked once at the young rebel and recluse who did not belong to anyone but her. She lit his face with her brilliance, hiding away his scars.

He took his boat to the sea for the last time…never to return…only to sail through the skies to reach her…

“Sir, why are you ripping off the photograph from the missing list”, the policeman asked his boss.

“This scar-face man…did you not know…one of the local fishermen found his body in his fishing net, today morning”, replied the inspector readily.

That night an extra star was added to the sky…It was all in those lights…