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Just Saying

Just Saying

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Snowflakes and Samar, Chapter-1 by Himanshu Chhabra

Snowflakes and Samar

The metro honked and paced out of the station. They were still standing there. With her sobs dying in his chest and tears surpassing the holes in his sweater, leaving salt spots on his soul. He filled the gap between his fingers with her hair and supported her head. Her little arms were trying hard to lock him in them. “ Don’t go,” she fisted his sweater with both hands and hugged him with all the energy left in the universe. 

She could feel his dim heartbeats one after the other. Until he decided to depart. His hands trailed off off her back and her eyes constantly pushed back the tear shores hitting the dryness of his eyelashes. The next metro was already there on the platform. He had to leave now.

“Please don’t go,” she screamed her heart out. The station echoed for a while.

“I Love you December…” His soul muttered. Yes, he was still in love with her. The love that was so pure that it refused to ski down his eyes.  However, there was no way it could last forever. There was no way Samar and winter could happen together. They were all opposite, always fighting with each other. He still remembered the day when he gave her this name. When he called her ‘December’ for the very first time. The day when Amber became December. He still remembered the exact words her said to her, “Amber, oh my December. You are the one where every season ends. You are the one always beside summer. No matter how many years pass by, we would still be there accompanying and always before and after each other. We are the seasons that control time, sunsets and sunrises. We are the seasons that make this world move upside down.”

He remembered a lot more than that. He remembered every breath they exhaled on each other’s skin. He remembered every whisper over the phone call, witnessed by so many nights still hidden somewhere beneath the blankets and pillows. He remembered every dress she wore. Every word she ever said, as well as every word she was about to say.   

The metro honked and he knew now was the time. He scooped up his bag and hung it on his shoulder. A door opened right in front of him and he left. He left without looking back at her. The last thing he could hear was a sentence badly wrapped with tears. “Please stay for one more day… Please.”

The metro started to move and soon he was out of her sight. She had lost him. Her cellphone that was already lying on the marble floor lightened up with a text.

Samar: We need to talk.’

She quickly picked up her cell phone and started to type a reply. However, sooner she realized that the text was sent an hour back. There was nothing left to talk about now.  An hour back, when things were different. An hour back, when they were still together, madly in love. An hour back, right before the moment that made them apart. An hour back, when the ‘Stay’ did not split into two words- ‘Don’t go’.

She fell down on the floor and stared at her cell phone screen for a while. All she could read was his name over and over again. His sweater was no longer there to soak her tears. They fell on after the other on the floor. All lonely and distant from each other. A stranger helped her to stand again and handled her bag and cellphone.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. The stranger was gone before she could thank him well.

“You want one day from me, and I can’t spend another day with you,” someone was standing right behind her. The voice was familiar. The fragrance was familiar. It was Samar.

“I want you to tell me five words.  The ones that could convey exactly what you are feeling right now. I don’t want sentence. I don’t want stanzas. I just want five words from you. And, in return I will give you something.”

She turned her head towards him and went completely blank for a while.  He always had this effect on her. He held the power to stop all her senses with just a blink of an eye. She wiped her tears and ran to hug him.

He stopped her. “Five words…” he said.

She stood still with tears in her eyes and finally spoke after a couple of seconds later. “Sorry… Love… Silver… Again… forever.”

She said the first five words that hit her mind. The feelings were conveyed. His mind filled the space around those words with more words. Words that formed sentences and stanzas. Words that couldn’t make him stay but made him say. “Five days… You have got five days. Not from the future, because I cannot see any future with you. Not from the present, because we are nowhere near each other in the present. I give you the power to spend five days with me from our past. Any five days that can make me fall in love with you again. Any five days that can make me stay. I promise I will behave like a person I was that day. There won’t be any adulteration in feelings from my end. Just try to make every moment count.”

He finished and started to walk towards the staircase. “And… don’t play it as a game. There is always someone who loses in games. And, you won’t want any of us to lose.”

He finally disappeared.


...to be continued...



-Himanshu Appie Chhabra


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