A Heart-Beat Away!! (Last Part)

(Hi Guys, I guess it’s climax time. Happy reading folks and please do post you comments. They motivate story writers a lot!! :) )

CLICK HERE FOR FIRST PART
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Spandana turned her head away and walked up to the window and peered out. A drop of tear glistened in her eyes.

“What happened, Spandana?” I spoke as a pale gloom descended on her.

She shook her head and clutched her chest. A tinge of pain crossed her face.

“Are you alright?” I tried to stabilize her.

“Ya. I am ok” she responded still watching something outside the window sill.

“How could you..” the words choked in her mouth “How could you not accept the girl’s proposal, Aarya? How could you be so mean to a sweet girl like her?”

“Spandana, I haven’t finished yet” I reminded her. How could this girl make such fast assumptions?

“I did accept her in my life” I spoke to cheer her up.

She turned around and hopped right next to me. “So you accepted her love that day?” she chirped eagerly awaiting a positive end to my story. Life does not always have a happy ending.

“No” I responded waiting for the dejected reaction to return again. But strangely she was more hopeful now than ever before.

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The pain-strewn face of Shres appeared to be more sorrowful than arrow pillowed bheeshma pitamah’s face in the Mahabarat serial. But I had tasted enough pain in my first love to last seven generations and did not want to suffer again. She gulped down her coffee and ordered for another one.

“Give me one reason why you don’t love me AJ?” she tried to reason.

I shook my head and looked down. I didn’t have any answer to her question.

“Love failure?” she probed further.

I let out a deep sigh. Wish this meeting finished soon.

“Ok” she declared, “I will not trouble you after this”

I looked into her dark brown eyes filled with sorrow. “I hope we can remain friends”, the words just fell out of my mouth.

After a few seconds of silence, she smirked. “I will meet you daily”

“Daily?” I spoke, a little surprised. She nodded once more, took her purse and walked towards the front door. I could see her wiping her tears off with her chudidhar pallu. Feeling really bad I clumped my head into my folded arms. What have you done AJ..

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The next day, as I waited impatiently for my company bus to arrive at my stop, I could see a coconut vendor peeling the coirs of the coconut to strip it to its bare hardened shell. It was very early in the morning with little traffic on the road. Suddenly from no where, a yellow scooty made a screeching stop right opposite to my bus stop. Shres got out of the scooty and parked it in the two wheeler stand and just sat on it watching me.

A strange feeling crossed my heart and I quickly crossed the road and went up to her. “Hi Shres, Morning’ ” I wished her.

An angry face with dark circles below her eyes greeted me. She hadn’t slept well or slept at all. She forced a smile and nodded her head.

“So what ya doing this early?” I spoke up trying to divert her attention from any memories of yesterdays’ events.

She looked at me and then looked in the direction of my company bus which had just arrived at the bus-stop. With Shres not intending to continue the conversation beyond my greetings I had no option but to cross the road and walk into my bus very confused. What is this girl trying to do..?

I soon understood her game as she would drive her scooty to my stop, would gaze at me from the opposite side of the road but would not talk with me. The first few days, I walked up to her to greet her, but soon I gave up my last bits of hope for any conversation. There was nothing I could do, to make her talk to me. My frustration grew proportionally with the dark circles beneath her eyes.

But today was different. It was Shres’s B’day and I was about to present her with a really awesome gift.. A gift that she had asked for. As I parked my bike at my bus stop, I patiently waited for her to arrive at my stop. I checked my watch.

7:10 AM

She was always on time and for her to be late was something unusual. I quickly looked around to find my bus quickly approaching my stop. After asking the bus driver to proceed without me, I quickly rang up Shres’s number. I had not called her for a month now. I had missed her so badly for the past month and slowly started to realize my feelings erupting for her.

I could hear the dial tone ringing in sync with my heart beat. Com’on Shres, pick up the phone...

I quickly called her friend and got to know where she had gone. I zoomed on my bike to KK Nagar Rotary Club.

As I wadded through the different camps set up on an empty playground, I could see Shres standing in a very short queue of about 5 to 6 people. I silently walked up to the person standing behind her and politely asked him to let me behind her. After a curious look and some nasty words under his breath, he allowed me to stand behind her. Feeling a little stupid, I gently tapped on my darling’s shoulder.

As she turned back, her eyes nearly popped out.

“Hi Shres, surprised?”

She just gently nodded and turned her face away from me facing the queue. Shit.. I came so far and she wouldn’t even talk with me.

“Shres, I am sorry if I have hurt you” I pleaded. Her face looked placid with absolutely no emotions. We were quickly approaching the front desk and I could see that only one person separated Shres from the table containing a pile of forms.

I quickly jumped ahead of Shres and turned back to face her. “Please Shres. Don’t do this to me. Please talk with me. I will do whatever you want”

“Do me a favor” those golden words rolled out of her mouth at last. Phew!! This girl is so stubborn.. I bent my head close to hers.

“Get out of my way” those words crashed out of her mouth onto my heart.

She brushed me aside and requested for a form. Not wanting to be left behind I too requested for a form and my eyes nearly popped out on reading the request in the form.

“Organ donation?” I whispered fiercely to Shres.

Wanting to quiten me, she spoke “If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. It’s my birthday and I want to do something useful”

Nothing thinking for another second, I blindly filled up the form and gave it to the person much before Shres could finish it. The person sitting behind the desk collected my form and motioned me to another line presumably for a blood check-up.

I could see that my actions had disturbed Shres and she was struggling to complete her form up with her hands shaking excitedly. I gently look the pen from her and spoke one line with as many meanings attached to it, “Tell me everything about yourself”

She broke into a smile and her eyes became moist presumably because of my actions. She quickly provided all the details for the form and we hurried up to the blood check-up line.

“I have a small gift for you”, I spoke and gently placed a velvet-furred box in her left hand.

Her hands trembled a little while opening it and her eyes shot up in anger for there was nothing in the box. Before she could lay her hands on me and I quickly slipped a gold ring on her finger. Her eyes quietly admired the twin dolphins circling each other, sculpted beautifully.

“So is it a gift of proposal?” she enquired. I shook my head with my eyebrows making a quizzing expression pretending to not understand her words.

“That was just a happy birthday gift”, I could see the anger flash in her eyes again, “coupled with my love sculpted for my dear girl friend”. As I finished the last line, she smiled and gently placed a kiss on my right hand.

“So our ship of our love has finally set sail” she quipped poetically.

“The stormy seas await the ship” I spoke puzzling her to no end. The story had just begun.

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I patiently stood outside the pooja room for his darshan.

“Do you want idlies or dosa for breakfast?” shouted my mom.

I choose to ignore the question for I had a bigger task to complete. I heard the tinkling of the pooja bells which usually meant that the daily poojas were over and I could proceed with my task. I quickly stepped into the pooja room and placed a sheet of paper in front of him.

The papers ruffled in the wind and he quietly opened his eyes and took them in his hand. He read through the papers and closed his eyes and shook his head vigorously.

“Nithya..” a loud shout screamed from his lips. “Water…”

My mom came scurrying from the kitchen and handed him a pitcher filled with water. He drank from the pitcher and quietly folded the paper and gave it to me.

“What does future hold for her appa?” I quietly asked him.

My mom quickly snatched the horoscope and scanned it. She had earlier studied deciphering horoscopes but had discontinued after her marriage when she had married one of the best astrologers in town. My dad works were renowned and he could predict the future with great accuracy.

“Who’s is this?” questioned my mom with her usual doubt filled anxiety.

“She’s a friend of mine and her parents are looking out for a groom for her” I lied.

“What does her horoscope predict dad?” I questioned him again.

He shook his head more vigorously and hissed “Death”, he paused “….will come soon, followed by re-birth”

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I switched on the AC to counter the stifling heat and mild groans of Shres. Cars were not Shres’s taste. I should have brought my bike...

I quietly switched on the radio and quickly the Pachai Nirame song brought out the sweet hums from her. It was the right time to tell her.

“Shres, I spoke to my dad” I paused. A curious glance followed by an automatic reduction in radio volume told me that my words would be hard to convey. She raised her eyebrows non-verbally asking me to continue.

“He says you will..” I could not complete the words. I pressed on the accelerator in frustration. Damn..

“Says what?” she questioned.

“That you will die” I could see her face turn ghostly white. I took her hand and placed it on my chest “and so will I for you”.

“Really?” she cross checked.

I turned to look deep into her brownish black pupils “My heart beats for you”

“AJ….. check out” came a roar from her. In a split second I could see that a child had mistakenly scrambled onto the main road. I hit the brakes and veered a sharp right to avoid the child. The car hit the median and for a fraction of a second, flew right up and landed on the other side of the road, rolled over twice to lie on its back and then, everything went blank.

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“What happened to Shres?” Spandana spoke with tears filled in her eyes. “Aarya?” she shook me.

I tried to swallow the locked saliva stuck down in my upper throat. I just shook my head and buried my head in to the pillow. Some things should never be remembered or recalled.

“Aarya, please tell me. What happened to Shres?” she pleaded.

“Shres is no more” I replied somberly. I could see that Spandana was more crestfallen than me. She clutched her chest again.

“Hi Aarya, how are you doing now?” spoke a brownish colored, nearly bald person who entered the room.

“Hm.. Am fine” I stammered to reply, trying still to decipher the identity of the new person.

“Hi uncle, we both are good” replied Spandana wiping off her tears.

“Doesn’t seem like that” came a little savored remark.

“Move over guyz” came a sharp voice from an African-American nurse. “Give the man some space. Will ya?”

Spandana and her uncle quietly started leaving the room.

“Hey Aarya, Spandana is leaving next Friday to India. Flight’s at 2:30 PM at JFK. Do come over if you can”

With a sorrowful look on her face, Spandana bade me good bye and closed the door.

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“Can I speak with Dr.Mahesh?” I half-shouted trying to raise my voice over the crowd which bustled behind me.

“Dei macha, How are you?” shouted back my best friend.

“Why are shouting my ears off dude?” I tried to pull his leg.

“I am just replying on the scale of your decibel levels” came a tongue in cheek reply.

“Ok listen. I am in Dubai airport now and would be in Chennai in a few hours”. Then I came to the main point. “I met a girl called Spandana and ..” narrated to him the whole story.

“So what’s the point?” spoke Mahesh after my brief story.

“I heard her voice again in the airport when I went to drop off Spandana. I bet there is something common between both of them” I declared.

“Like what?” he spoke.

“I have a haunch..” I started cautiously, knowing fully well that doctors don’t believe in magic. By the time I finished putting out my logic to him, I could hear loud disapproving groans from him.

“Dude, you are mad” came a sharp reply.

“Mad in LOVE” I finished the sentence.

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As I rushed up to the receptionist desk, I could see that I had disturbed nearly everybody trying to catch up with some sleep in that late night hour.

“Which room is Spandana Adhikesavan admitted to?” I panted trying to catch some breath.

“She is in the operation theatre” came a reply from a woman sitting behind the receptionist, presumably a head-nurse.

“Thanks” I ran quickly up to the main operation theatre on the first floor. Thirty hours of flight journey combined with a day of searching for proof of defending my haunch had completely drained me. But it was all worth it as I was finally going to meet Shres again.

As I walked towards the operation theatre I could see that the operation had finished and the chief doctor had come out. I ran upto him.

“I am sorry Mr. Kesavan. We tried our best but your daughter is no more” the words crashed heavily on Spandana. Those words thundered on to me also and I slumped against the tiled walls followed by tears and wails from Spandana’s father and mother. Mahesh came running upto me.

“Mahesh, she is no more” I cried on his shoulders. Damn.. I had missed Shres for the second time.

“I want to see her” I spoke after a few seconds.

I clutched the operation door and pulled it open and entered. Kesavan tried to nearly stop me when Mahesh intervened.

“Who is he?” spoke Kesavan. I could hear the faint voice of Spandana’s father from the other side of the door.

“Did you daughter have a heart transplant operation?” spoke Mahesh.

“Hmm.. Yes” replied Kesavan vaguely.

Mahesh then told him why we were there followed by shocked reaction from Kesavan.

I gently walked up to Spandana. The doctors and nurses had left the room. With the operation light still fiercely beaming on Spandana chest, I pulled chair and sat down and slowly placed my head onto the out-stretched palms of Spandana.

I came here for you and you have left me again. As I closed my eyes, I could feel a gloom descend on me and my heart beat slowed down. And suddenly I could see a white light flashing brightly.

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I defended my eyes against the bright white light by blocking it with my limbs. I could hear the soft Uillean Pipe blowing sweet music into my ears. I knew I had come back. I could see a white road leading up to a white castle. Not wanting to miss out this time, I quickened my pace and reached the huge white doors of the white castle. It opened with a huge creaking noise on my slightest touch.

“I had been waiting for you” I heard a sweet voice from Shres who was wearing a big white gown with a matching crown of white flowers adorning her head.

I rushed towards her and hugged her and cried inconsolably. Tears flowed on from my eyes. I had found my Shres at last.

After a few minutes, she gently pushed me away and spoke “Your time to leave the world has not yet come. As you may have found out, my heart had been transplanted to Spandana”

I could just shake my head in amazement. I had never heard of tales or stories where such amazing things had happened.

“Will you take care of my heart and my love?” spoke Shres.

I simply nodded my head and I gently placed my right hand on hers, to promise her. Suddenly I could feel something pulling me back with a great force and I could see Shresta turning into a small black dot in the vast white spaces around me.

“AJ”. I could feel a soft hand running smoothly through my hair.

“I am back” spoke Spandana. “I knew it all along” she continued before I could ask her anything.

Mixed with disbelief and extreme joy, I hugged Spandana. “I will love you forever, Shres” I whispered into her ears.
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