On The Subway (Part 6)

October 11, 2003

“This is it – the perfect ring”, he thought to himself as he peered over the ornate piece of diamond, crafted in the Windy city, “I’m finally going to propose to her. Amazing, isn’t it, after what has transpired in all these years?” – the rhetoric was no one but his to hear, and no one but his to answer. “Lonely, I’ve been all my life, but no more, no more”, he said to himself and picked up the phone to call her.

It was her answering machine. His voice trembled as he spoke after the voice mail beep,” Its me. I just returned from Chicago. Can we meet tomorrow for lunch, hmm, at the Times Square subway station? I’ll see you there at twelve”, he was about to press the ‘End’ button when he suddenly remembered, “Oh, and I have a surprise for you”

He couldn’t recollect why he wanted to ride the subway instead of driving his Porsche. Maybe, the crowd of the transit comforted him, and provided the platform for transition from the cold, dark world of loneliness to the hopeful light of togetherness.

October 12, 2003

As he climbed up the staircase to reach the floor where trains from the opposite direction arrived, he realized he hadn’t gone over what he was going to say as he held out the ring before her. He needed an epilogue, a punch line, something that was befitting the pinnacle of the roller coaster life their lives had together been. As these thoughts raced through his mind, he saw her. It was too late. Impromptu was the word.

She needed to tell him that she was at fault trying to come back into his life. She knew he wouldn’t understand any which way if she tried to tell him the truth. Hurting his ego could have been the only potential weapon against the man who loved her beyond anything else in the world. But now, he had foregone even that. She was powerless. “How do I make him hate me?”, she thought to herself, taking each measured step towards him.

As they walked towards each other with totally disparate emotions in their hearts, the subways and the city crowd zapped past them in both directions. They came within breathing distance.

“Listen..”, she had barely uttered her first word when he got down on his knees, held out the ring and said, “Will you marry me, Princess?”

She was choked, overwhelmed with emotion. In that moment, she forgot who she was, what she owned, why she lived and how she was going to die. The moment of nothingness had nothing save her and him. It seemed the world’s busiest train station around them had frozen in a time warp. She had waited for this moment for two years. She had sniffled in her bed on countless nights. Every day, she picked up the phone to call him and disconnected before the bell rang. She had lived in perennial hope, tracking his net worth every single day, and waited patiently for the day that he was twice as rich as her. She had sold off her personal belongings, had her house revalued, all in an attempt to be less poor to the world in wealth, but richer in anticipation of this moment.

“Yes”, she whispered, and burst into tears. He got up on his feet, and hugged her.

October 23, 2003

“It seems we are being followed”, he gasped. She turned her head and saw the van that was frantically following the Porsche’s tracks.

He pressed hard on the accelerator, and swiveled the vehicle, in an attempt to confound the stalkers. In the midst of the vortex, she thought to herself ,”Its my mistake. Why is he being punished for it?”

The van rammed into them from behind. The momentum transfer was phenomenal. He almost lost control of the vehicle. The side guard hit a BMW and was on its way down the Hudson.

She looked at his face. His skin was taut with attention, eyebrows raised, mouth open and bafflement pervaded his eyes. If only she could reverse time and let him go, and take the body blow on herself. She decided she had to be decisive, like she always had been. She opened the door, and leaped out.

The horror of what happened was incomprehensible. He couldn’t believe what had happened. As he turned back to see her, he saw her lying on the road. As he roared in horror, an oncoming truck rammed the Porsche into the bridge’s walls. A free fall followed.

The van driver cried, ”What just happened?”. The man beside him replied, “Doesn’t matter, as long as our job is done”, as he dialed a number on his cellphone.

“Target eliminated”, he whispered.

“Any problem?”, a heavy voice questioned from the other side.

“There was a girl with him. She was run over. She’s dead too”

--------------------- The End ------------------------