Scribbles

Once upon a time, there was a place called Far-Far away. And there lived a boy and a girl. The boy was twenty and the girl a few months younger. He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful. They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they had fantastic dreams about fairies and princes, like all the others. They believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them. And that one fine morning they will meet. Yes, they believed in a miracle. And that miracle actually happened!

One fine morning the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

"This is amazing," he said. "I've been looking for you all my life. You may not believe this, but you're the 100% perfect girl for me."

"And you," she said to him, "are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I'd pictured you in every detail. It's like a dream."

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour.

They were not lonely anymore. They talked about a lot of things. The boy told the girl about a lot of things he didn’t even know that he knew. He told her about how the shining sun rose majestically from between the hills and on his house on the hill-top. And she told him about how the waves from the ocean splashed musically on the wall beneath her window. He told her about the times of glory he had had and of the moments which lay in the labyrinth of his mind, not to be spoken about to any mortal again. He told her about the times he had cried and about the times he was happy without a reason. He told her about his idiosyncrasies and his vanities. He told her that he was like this narcissist wonder boy who never liked acknowledging his flaws. She told him about her childhood whims and fancies. And he listened to how she had to give up her dreams. And she told him how she dreamt again.

They kept talking as only two people in love can. They kept talking till it became dark and the sun slowly crept down into the ocean. They kept talking till the nightingale began to sing. They kept talking and the swallows migrating to the south saw them and smiled. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. It was a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one's dreams to come true so easily? Is it really what they believed what it was?

And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, "Let's test ourselves - just once. If we really are each other's 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail. And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we'll marry then and there. What do you think?"

"Yes," she said, "that is exactly what we should do. And even if we don’t meet again, all I will have is the fond memory of this beautiful evening."

And so they parted. She to the east, and he to the west!

The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary. They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other's 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met. It was like the whole universe playing a small part in bringing together the destinies of two strangers. It was an omen. But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were. The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

Though they went their separate paths, they kept thinking about each other. They spent their mornings sleeping on the bed and reminiscing about the loveliest rendezvous of their lives. And in the evenings they fantasized about the future. They used to think what they would say to each other when they met again. Just a civil handshake! Or an awkward hug! Where will he take her for coffee? How she will take him to the beach and then tell him how she spent all these years thinking about him. And then he will show her all the letters that he had written her but couldn’t post. Life for them had become a dream. Until one day the dream was shattered.

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A year later, both the boy and the girl met with accidents, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years. When they awoke, their heads were empty. They didn’t remember anything about how they had spent the twenty-one years existing, let alone the dreams they had had.

They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to find a place in the fast paced routine we call life. They came to remember who they were and what they did. They became friends again with their old friends with whom they spent their days and nights. Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 70% or even 80% love. But they never got the feeling- ‘this is it’!

Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon they were thirty.

One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to buy some chocolate truffle, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street. They passed each other in the very center of the street.

The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts. Each felt a rumbling in their chest.  And they knew:

She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of ten years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other like two strangers would, disappearing into the crowd. Forever!