That Night

She paced back and forth in her backyard. It was almost dawn. The plan was to run away in the dead of night. They were going to elope!

It was final. They could not bear staying away from each other. They knew they would never be allowed by their families and societies to marry. And while they did not want to shame their parents, they could not bear to spend their separate lives unhappy. No, some things had to be done whatever the price. And as long as it involved the two of them being together, no price was too high to pay. She was sure. He was certain. The rest would work out. In time. They were confident.

She muttered to herself. What was taking him so long? Someone or the other could come by any minute and ask her what she was doing outside so late at night. They would look at her bag and wonder. It would not take them too long to figure out. True, they would not know who the guy was; she had ensured that she never made any direct reference to him. But that was a minor detail. Running away from home was the greater sin.

She looked at her cell phone. It was almost three quarters of an hour over and above the appointed time. Drat! Trust him never to make it anywhere on time! Not even on this momentous occasion! This was ridiculous. How annoying could he be!

Uh oh, but here was another problem. In her excitement, she had forgotten to charge her mobile phone. It had just one bar of battery left. Another couple of minutes and her cell would conk off, leaving her lost and confused.

Her heart raced. She could not believe all of this was actually happening. She was worried about how it would all end.

Her battery was almost dead. She thought she would switch it off once and switch it on again. This sometimes increased the battery life by a couple of minutes.

Switch off.

Wouldn’t switch on.

Pressed harder.

Still dead.

Panic.

She pressed the power button a little harder.

The battery came to life.

Relief.

Tweet tweet… Sms!

“Hi baby. I have lost my way. But I know I am just a minute away from you.”

Anger. Darn his screwed up sense of direction!

The battery conked off again.

The sound of an engine being killed reached her. She was terrified. Who could it be at this hour?

She slunk to a corner waiting for whoever it was to go away. She hoped nobody would catch her.

She tried to switch on her handset again.

The cell powered on. Whew! She better find out quickly where this guy was philandering in the night.

Tring tring…

“Babes I’ve been trying to call you for the last five minutes! Where are you?”

“Right here, waiting. Where are you?”

“At your door! Come out fast!”

She ran out, not even bothering to cut the phone.

There he was… Grinning in his usual, stupid way.

She hugged him.” I thought you’d never come!”

“Oh baby, I took a wrong turn. I couldn’t find your house…”

“Ok enough talk! Let’s run before we’re caught!”

Vroom….

Aah… Was this what was called ecstasy?

She felt ecstatic.

-Princess