Love Beyond Death

She was shot in the neck on the right side just below the chin. A
fountain of thick red blood poured out marking her critical condition.
They rushed her to the hospital where her life was saved but the bullet
had damaged her spinal cord, which resulted in the paralyses of all her
body below the shoulders. She could hardly start speaking when she came
back to her senses after remaining unconscious for almost two week but
her body did not move at all.
Her parents,who lived in a remote village, were informed but they did
not give any heed to the heart rendering news. Their reply was in
accordance to their tribal traditions that they had departed her
forever at the time of her marriage. If they would ever accept her
back, that would be in the form of dead body. Like all the wretched
poor fellows of the world, they were fatalist who believe that whatever
had happened with her happened by the will of God and they would be
none but damned ones if they were not contented in his will.
Miseries never come alone and when they come, they make their victim
alone so that their deadly strike can be morte destructive. It happened
with her as she was left alone by all. The man who shot her was no one
other than her own husband with whom she got married just two months
ago. He left the home just after the incident and did not come into
sight ever since. In the absence of one's husband liability is usually
shifted to the shoulders of parents but her parents had turned
heartless and refused to see her alive. She herself was unable to move
even for a single step. All her world had been restricted to her bed,
where she was lying and all her universe, to her hospital room. There
was an immense darkness beyond the walls of the room, into which, even
her thought could not travel.
Doctors viewed the matter in detail and after a long series of
different tests and reports concluded that she had very little chances
of recovery from present condition rather that her remaining alive for
long is almost impossible. Only a miracle can bring her back to
life.
In this dismal state of affairs, when all had lost hopes of her life,
there was one who had refused to leave her alone at the mercy of cruel
circumstances. He was the younger brother of her husband, a boy of
thirteen who, in his overwhelming sincerity and innocence was not ready
even to think for a while of her death. When she came back to her
senses for the first time, he was standing, in tears, besides her bed.
Her hardly uttered and half-broken words ensured him of her survival.
Later stages of her treatment nourished a hope of her life in his
heart. A small ray of light is more than sufficient to show the path
when it is complete darkness all around.
Soon he got, as much certain of her life as he was of his own. This
certainty made him devote completely all the energies he possessed to
attend her. He remained extremely concerned and watchful to the quality
of her treatment by staying all the time in the hospital and taking
great pains to improve her condition. In short, he did everything of
which he was capable to get her better. He used to talk to her on her
favorite topics, used to bring smile on her face with his innocent
jokes and funny actions, and used to wipe away her tears, of and on,
whenever she had wept and he had to do it quite often.
All the activities of his life were revolving around her and she too,
had accepted him as her only object of attention. He had a burden on
his heart for the crime his brother committed and the more he attended
her the lesser this burden oppressed his heart. Though complete
deliverance was not possible yet his services to her were a source of
relief from his acquired guilty consciousness. Man often has to do a
number of such acts as a compensation of those actions, which he has
not at all committed. The reason is sometimes the satisfaction of one's
heart and sometimes the inevitability of such an act due to the
circumstances. The idea is that whatever crime is committed on this
earth is repaid and counter-weighted by human beings though not
necessarily by the same person. Beauty of the world lies in its
delicate balance between tears and smiles. Earth never keeps the blots
of blood on its surface. Someone has to wash them up.
So did he serve her and it had become all his life. She too, had
developed a kind of dependence on him resulting in a strong emotional
affiliation. He was the first person in her life who has given her
hopes and dreams, full of life and colors, even in her catastrophic
condition. He entered in her world like an angel occupying the most
sacred and pre-empted place in her heart. A dying man loves desperately
as love blossoms more in fleeting things. She was dying and she made
the pains of her death endurable with the pleasures of his innocent
love. She shared her emotions with him, her thoughts and feelings, all
about life and death, her distrust and hatred to the world, her past
life and present agony, just everything. He used to listen to her
keenly and his great interest in all her narrations was the kind of
reward she was looking for. Though he was too young to understand all
her feelings and thoughts, yet his sincerity and intensity of
involvement in her made her satisfied and contented. Communication does
not always take place at the level of language or ideas. It often
occurs implicitly as it happened with them. They had become the real
soul mates to each other.
In the meanwhile, her condition kept on deteriorating and she was left
only an alive statue with a little movement in her lips. She had
developed bedsores, which usually end only in dust. She faced her
approaching death very bravely and when she felt that the final debacle
is not far away, she asked him to make a commitment, not to weep on her
death.
His already aggrieved heart burst out through tears and he
moaned,
" No, I'll not promise for something which I am sure I cannot keep.
It's not in my control so please don't ask that."
A faded smile spread on her face and forgetting all her pains of death,
she uttered affectionately,
" My dear, don't be fool. If you want to be with me, then don't weep at
all and if you don't love me anymore and want to get rid of me then
I'll not stop you from weeping. True love is always as silent as deep
seas so my dear, please remain silent on my death to prove your truth
of love. I assure you that true lovers never stay apart and we are true
lovers".
He nodded his head and made a promise while wiping his tears, never to
weep again.
She died that night an easeful death without much ado and difficulty.
Her dead body was taken to her village where she was handed over to
mother earth. He remained silent during all these ceremonies and his
silence was surprising for all, particularly for his family. They
somehow, welcomed it as a pleasant change. On third day of her death,
he came back to his home. No body heard him speak as he did not talk
anything to anybody and went straight to his room. Soon the voice of
snoring was audible outside as he was much tired and was sleeping
soundly.
The next morning, he did not wake up. Doctor told them that he suffered
brain hemorrhage during his sleep. Their regret knew no bounds when he
clarified them that such cases usually take place due to some unwept
emotional distress. She had rightly asked him not to weep at all in
order to be with her.