Ever Forever & a little more
EVER FOREVER AND A LITTLE MORE
By Adeel Salman
He looked outside his apartment window. The long journey from Pakistan to JFK Airport, New York… then to his apartment in Bronxville… and now back to Manhattan… he hadn’t slept for the past thirty six hours…and yet not a bit of fatigue. She was the reason… he smiled to himself.
He stepped outside his apartment building. Seven years… it had been seven years since he had known her. And today was the grand finale. He was finally going to meet her. Finally he was going to bear witness to her physical presence in his life. At last he was going to look at this girl in flesh and blood. He rushed to the bus stop… His heart was racing. He could feel his blood racing through his veins. Every passing moment, every passing second he could feel the love inside him growing… surging… burning him. It was nice and cloudy, slight gentle drizzle now and then…
Walking on the wet pavement at the bus stop, her words were still fresh in his ears. She giggled and asked, “So when did you first realize you love me?”… He smiled, and carried on, “well it was I guess somehow always there… I mean… whenever I was down with the blues, you were the only one who came to my mind to whom I could pour my heart out”… she laughed, “Yeah Yeah… and what about all the hotties…” He cut her off, ‘Wha…no … no way… Angel don’t you say that… it’s you…. It has always been you…” He slowed down, “just been fool enough to say it to you”… she smiled. He could feel her breath fall on the mouth piece. Each and every second he had loved her was fresh in his mind as if it was happening then and there. The rain drops streaked the glass on his window, taking their sweet time… slowly carving their way down the glass… just like his memories.
The bus stopped finally at the fifth avenue. He scampered out… ah New York City… the city had a strange magic about it that separated it from all other cities in the world… the towering structures, the busy streets, music in the streets… ah he had missed the city… Soon he started walking towards Madison. The city was alive… it felt the city had embodied her… at that moment, he was in love with the city, the wet air, the grey clouds, and the little cold breeze... everything was perfect. He looked at his watch… He waved at a cab. ‘To Madison please’.
He eased back in the seat and looked outside. His heart was beating against his chest like a power pound on the bass of the drum. He couldn’t help smiling. He kept looking at the watch now and then. 1:00pm, still 30 minutes before he could see his angel.
‘Angel, can I ask you something’, he asked coyly. ‘Sure’, she wrote back on the messenger window, he waited a few moments during which she quickly wrote back, ‘what… say it… no holding back’. He smiled and finally mustered up the courage to say it. ‘I want to hear you voice… can you call me… please’. She smiled back and said, ‘Goofy of course, wait up’. A few moments later his phone rang. He picked it up and found himself intoxicated with the sweetest music ever. Her voice was sonorous, like… like… like the music of heaven. He savored it all, drank it to his fill… quenching his thirst for her. She could feel that… She could feel the ache he was going through. She loved him so much. She wanted to reach out to him… she wanted him to hold her then and there in his arms… he wanted to pull her close to him, feel her heart beat against his… he wanted to love her at that moment… feel every single inch of her body… and wanted that moment to last forever.
The taxi pulled up outside Madison. He paid the fare, didn’t bother about the change, and hurried towards its entrance. He sat outside on a bench. Looking nervously at his watch… scanning people coming his way, he kept looking for her. Somehow he knew that even tough he had never seen her. He would know who she is when she would come. The watch read 1:30pm on the dial. He nervously bit his lips. Slowly the time moved on to 1:31pm… 1:32pm… she is not here yet… he stood up and started pacing the pavement… his heart began to beat… he could feel the anxiety grab hold of him. He tried talking to himself, “Maybe she just got late”… “Bad weather maybe”… “Bad traffic maybe”… exasperated… “Please come soon, dear dear God please send her soon”.
He was almost at the verge of breaking down. He had waited for seven years for this moment… burned night and day… schooling himself to patience to wait for this moment… and now it seemed as if… he just couldn’t even say it then and there to himself.
His strength began to abandon him. He could feel his senses giving away… tears swelled up in his eyes… he so much… so much wanted to meet her… the watch read 1:35pm… the last five minutes were nothing less than five lifetimes.
As he was about to collapse, suddenly it all stopped. The whole world came to a stand still. His heart beat stopped. He held his breath. He could feel the presence of someone behind him. He strained to look behind without turning around. This lasted for a whole second. And then with a surge he turned around and was face to face with this girl. He knew it was her… that smile… the shinning deep eyes… standing right in front of her was this girl whom he had never seen but felt as if he had known all his life.
Both stood there, facing each other. She smiled a little and said, ‘hello ’. What followed was fast yet she knew it coming.
He moved forward put his arms around her, and pulled her close to himself. She coyly responded. His heart beat against hers. He could feel the whole universe surge into her. He could feel her body melt into his. He pulled her even closer, her whole frame pressing against his. He pulled his head back and looked at her. And then both just bent forward and locked their lips in a kiss that both had waited for all their lives. He could feel himself becoming one with her. Her lips, her warm sweet lips twined with his. Gently kissing her… getting wild at times… it was all ecstasy. Nirvana!
After what felt like forever and yet was not enough, he unlocked his lips from her and looked at her and said, “You came…”
She smiled, nodded and said, “Of course I did… I had to… and I am not going to leave ever…”
He looked in her eyes, “Ever… wow that seems like a long time”
She smiled, punched him gently, “GOOFY”
He smiled back, “but I want it ever, forever and a little more”.
