Love and life

What is love? Is it related to life?

What a topic I have chosen!You would laugh at me ,yet I feel love and life are like the two parallel lines that hardly meet.Once you fell in love ,but your love was not reciprocated. Did you stop loving him or her?

No i didn't stop loving him.I loved him continuously and he never responded. I met him at a shopping mall. He was buying a shirt and was stuck.I was looking at his face-----somber and serene with features sharp, but shapely.He was much older than me,maybe a septuagenarian. And I in my teens! 

I talked to him incessantly like a parrot that had been trained to speak a special language.He only nodded --sometimes responding with one yes or rejecting with no without giving any explanation.I wished he would sit with me in the nearby cafe and I could know more about him,but he was aloof to the whole world around him.I was unable to bear his sheer apathy . I always wished to be important. How could he deny my existence-? I wanted to fill his life with gusto,but it was only a reverie.

He came out from the mall and I followed him.It was seven o'clock in the evening.He entered his car and did not bother to invite me.He drove his car speedily as if he would miss his flight.I followed him.

The car halted with a jerk  in front of a house after it had covered the distance of three kilometers. He opened the gate ,unlocked the front door and entered the house.The house was situated near the seashore. It was illuminated with dim lights.I heard the sound of the waves splashing the shore.I was sitting in my car and was trying to guess everything about him.He must have a wife and children.So why should he feel interested in me? She must be very beautiful and young.I would like to meet her.

I  stepped out of my car ,headed towards the gate and knocked the door. I thought I would apologize for my undesirable curiosity. He opened the door and was slightly miffed.I smiled and said,

"Please forgive me for intruding your life.I could not resist the temptation of meeting your life partner who must be far more interesting than me."

He left the door ajar and allowed me to enter. The living room was sparsely decorated.A couch and two chairs with a center table were the pieces of furniture that allowed the visitors to enjoy a comfortable stay.The wall was decorated with an old photograph of a young man with a broad smile on his face. Nothing else could entertain anybody there.

"Come.You are like my daughter."he said.

I entered another room adjacent to the living room.

The room had a clumsy appearance.In one of the  corners there was an armchair with a bundle of bed sheets.The small table near the bed was armed with a glass of water covered by a coaster.A tray with a few medicines were adorning the small table.The creamy wall had the picture of a sinking ship that could remind you of the Titanic.An old lady was lying on the bed. Her whole body was covered with a rug. The face was wrinkled with painful expressions.The moaning could be heard in-between.

"She is the only one who is left in my life."said he looking at me.

"It was seven years ago when we had been enjoying the Christmas eve.I had thrown a party to my colleagues. My son also had been there with his fiance. We  made merry ,ate drank and danced.I was deeply in love with my wife and could not bear to see her dancing with anybody else."he paused.

"Suddenly one of my close friends started hugging my partner and I felt jealous. I hated him and my beloved.Why had she become disloyal to me ?I threw the liquor I had been holding in my hand to her body and lit the lighter.The celebration turned into a nightmare.It was a raging inferno.Everybody was screaming .My son came to his mother and tried to rescue her from the devastating fire and he also became a victim to it.Somebody had called the fire brigade . It arrived shortly ,tried to appease the wrath of the raging flames.The victims were taken to the nearby hospital.A few of them were saved , but the most affected were my wife and my son.I watched the whole show with a strange satisfaction,but when I came to my senses I had already lost my son.He succumbed to death ,but his mother survived.O Lord! What I have done to my sweet family?I cried and cried ,but things were out of hand."he took a long breath.

"I looked at her,her sweet face was still intact.The fire had ravaged her body and her internal organs .I confessed the crime I had committed to the police and was sent to prison for five years.My wife was looked after by one of her close friends.She had survived ,but had lost her voice.She only stared at me as if explaining her innocence. Her friend cursed me, yet promised to hand over her to me if she survived after my discharge from the prison.She knew  how immensely I loved her friend."he stopped .

He went near the bed,helped the lady  take a  sip of water and  swallow the pills."I love you dear more than my life.Please don't leave me.Get well soon."he said.

I heard his story ,met the lady whose eyes expressed many doubts that had to be cleared.I kissed her hands and said," Don't worry! He is yours for ever."

I bade him goodbye and came out of the house.He waved back. I stepped into my car and took the parallel road leading to my residence.