On The Subway (Part 4)

October 23, 2003

“We’ve been through so much. When I look back, everything seems incredible”, she said, as the car hit the turf of the Brooklyn Bridge.

“And still, you have not let me free from your grasp”, he chuckled.

“Shut up”, her face turned into a frown, and then an innocent smile.

A few minutes of silence followed. She was still looking out of the window. The Statue of Liberty was visible in the distance. She turned back and looked at him. Her thoughts went back to the time when she had first met him – a simple man clad in white shirt and black trousers had accidentally walked into his office. She mistook him for one of the waiters from her hotel downstairs, only to realize that he had come to interview for the position of her personal secretary – a job he never got.

As she looked at him now, he realized how ambition had fueled and propelled him into becoming the man he was. He had struggled in his life, fought hard against the odds. He had left his country – the very country he had never vowed to leave, to achieve his goal. She knew he would return some day – but not before doing what he had come to do. And she felt proud sitting beside the most celebrated realtor in Manhattan, who still retained the boyish charm of waiting for her by a city street.

“I’ve seen too much in my life. The spate of betrayals has shattered me from inside. I can’t bring myself to trust anyone. But I want to trust him. He has been through his share of challenges. And he is a broken man too. And still, he stands strong”, she thought to herself.

He adjusted the rear view mirror. A blue van was visible in the distance. As he turned the silverware, his eyes fell on her somber face. He could read her mind.

“Sometimes, two broken pieces can fit together to form a complete whole”, he smiled.

The van inched closer.

September 27, 2003

“Madam, your tickets for New York have been booked”, the secretary’s voice echoed from the speaker phone.

“Thanks Margaret”, she disconnected the line.

“I’ll finally meet him, after two years”, she couldn’t stifle her smile as the thought possessed her.

She opened her drawer. A dark red book lay unobstrusively in the corner. Red had always been her color, even for diaries. The cover of the diary bore the emblem of the chain of hotels she owned, the flagship of which was housed in the 13 floors beneath her feet. She took it out and opened it to the page titled September 27, 2001.

“He’s leaving today – leaving this city, this country, this place. I could have never imagined my words could have hurt him so deeply. I never knew my intemperance could bruise his ego so badly that he would not think twice before abandoning the road we had set foot together on. But I had never meant to hurt him. I never could, and I never will. Maybe this is all for the good, maybe he deserves something else. Or maybe I needed this. But somehow, it seems wrong. I’m sad and I don’t know how the future will unfold. Will it ever be what it was like?”

“Yes, it will be now”, she exclaimed as she closed the diary and replaced it.

The phone beeped again. She pressed the speaker button. Margaret’s voice reverberated ,”Ma’am, Its them again. Should I put you through?”

She paused for a second. “Yes”, the time lagged affirmative came in a heavy voice.

After a while, the phone buzzed, “Madam, the matter is really serious now. This is the second warning…”