She stood alone at a corner of the Alumni meet, the martini in her hand. Even after all these years, his eyes knew where to find her. She stood at a corner, against a tree, never looking up; the saddest girl ever holding a martini. Perhaps she was waiting for someone. He looked at the glass of juice he had held in his hand since he had come in. In the small swirls of his drink he could see the years as if everything happened yesterday. He never knew what had happened between them and he guessed neither did she. He knew she had attained what she thought she wanted; he also knew she had not achieved that one thing that could have made her truly happy. She had told him about it long back and he knew when exactly she had decided to destroy it. But then, they had pushed away each other.
He made up his mind. Slowly he walked behind the tree and humming to himself called up his imaginary wife. He hoped that the voice was loud enough. After a few minutes he looked around the trunk and saw no one.
He walked out and smiled to himself. Hate, disgust, anger; they were all better than sorrow. He could never let her be the saddest girl ever holding a martini. She hated him now. Perhaps she’ll be able to forget after all these years.
She looked at him from a distance. “Fool”, she thought. "Even after all these years he thought he should protect her." But somewhere deep down a young girl long dead within her wanted to receive that call.
She looked down at her martini. The liquid reflected back the saddest girl ever holding a martini.
PS: Title Courtesy, Vanilla Sky.
4 comments:
just amazing! loved it!
"Fool", she thought. "Even after all these years he thought he should protect her." She just turned her back and rang up her husband to check up on her 2 year old son. Both the martini in her hand & the man on the phone forgotten.
Why don't you start writing for Bollywood melodramas? :) This story will go down well with them. Perhaps the producer will just ask you to change the ending a bit, the 'saddest girl' should go back home and stab herself to death. And there should be a song around that time. It will surely get nominated for the Oscar from India.
"But somewhere deep down a young girl long dead within her wanted to receive that call"... that's the line of the post :)
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