Mirage!

Prompt: How I won my ship back?

Once there lived a little girl. She was very simple and naïve. She did all the things her masters ever asked her to do. Very truthful, her zest for life was remarkable. From morning till night she enjoyed every moment and lived her life to the fullest. She was very friendly, approachable and fun to be with. She had very few close friends, but she cared for them deeply.

She had one peculiar habit. She loved that tall window in her palace, which offered a nice view of the town below. She used to spend some time everyday standing by that window, going through the events of the day or thinking about something or just thinking about nothing. She never did that on purpose and she was never able to concentrate on one particular thing. Though she did not even know why she was doing it, she did it nevertheless. This was her way of communicating to herself, reaching to the Princess inside her. Her every wish, her failures, her secrets – the window sills knew it all. She would hold on to it and stare at the view aimlessly till it grew dark outside.

Then one day, when she was silently enjoying her silence, the site of him crossing the street, caught her attention. He was tall, handsome and sweet looking. She took an instant liking to the Prince. Life was never the same again for her. Every day she used to wait for him to pass through her place.

It took him merely few minutes to cross her place. But it was like a year to her. She lived her hours for those minutes. She was obsessed by him. She felt claustrophobic in her palace. As the days passed, she started liking everything about him. Insanely; Dangerously! She was so blindly and deeply in love with him that she could sense his presence even at a distance. By his smell, by his voice, she did not know. How she wanted those strong hands to hold hers; those lips on hers; his warmth to expel her mist? She smiled to herself. Her garden was in full bloom. She experienced bliss. Completely! Life was colorful. She felt the birds and rivers sang only for her.

She felt, he was everything, and everything was him! And he in turn seemed to enjoy the attention. Passed on those lovely messages to her; would turn around and give her one of his naughtiest smiles, every time he caught her eyes. Not a day passed when they did not meet, when they did not feel for each other, all the while becoming an integral part of each others life. The moment of separation each day was painful, but with that came the hopes and dreams of the next day; and life till that moment was a boring drag.

But one day, he did not come, and she missed him. That continued for a few days and she missed him badly. When that prolonged for months she began to worry about him. Whoever said, out of sight, then out of mind, was an idiot. His memory in her kept haunting her everyday and she felt only during his absence from her life, he started growing in her more. Than ever! And one day he came along. She ran the lengths of her palace to greet him as usual. He smiled back at her as usual, dutifully. She was happy but slightly disturbed by the presence of his friend at his side. She reasoned out that they could be general acquaintance. And when this accompaniment followed, she became worried and spoke about this to her friends. They said what she dreaded to hear. What she had stubbornly refused to accept, all along.

She felt terrible at the loss. At the same time she was incensed. How could he ever leave her? She hated him. She loved him. She did not know what went wrong. Were things assumed? Was it a cold betrayal? Was it just another ploy of fate? Whatever, anyone said or did did nothing to allay the feeling of lost - of losing someone so precious and heart-fully possessed. Only then she realized how deeply she loved him, and how he was much more than a love to her. He had been her life!

As like the ultimate Master, her master had other plans for her too. Suddenly everything changed. She was denied speech. She was denied right to her thoughts about him. It was tough; tougher than holding her own breathe; even tougher than the urge to drink water when thirsty. She wanted to put and end. An end to everything - to herself! But realized she couldn’t do it. For the sake of her master. For the sake of the Prince.

She was torn. Neither was she able to settle and bury the love; nor was she able to stop it growing. She was alive for the sake of living, and she was living because she was still alive. Everything everywhere looked normal and abnormal. A thing that turned her on, the same thing turned her off. All wanted her to stop that way of her living. All of them, whom she loved deeply, who loved her deeply wanted her to stop things abruptly, before she ended up with more hurt and the ensuing regret. So she made a choice. The choice was to lose. To lose him! To lose to him! And in that losing she won back her life.

GATES OF MEMORIES REFUSED TO CLOSE
HOW I MISSED U, NO ONE KNOWS
DAYS PASSED ON LIKE YEARS
I REMEMBERED U IN MY SILENT TEARS
GOOD BYE. AH, SAVANT PRINCE!

Now she stares long into the space. Her eyes are unfocused, unlike her thoughts. The birds still sing, but melancholic tunes. The river still flows serenely, but in an apathetic pace. One thing different is that a small blotch in the corner of the paper which grew to occupy the entire side is now restricted, controlled and pushed aside to stay in the corner. Forever! The stain still present, nonetheless!

Tears, well up in her eyes! A tear, drops down, in the memory of the Prince. That one drop spills into million drops. Avalanche! She can still sense him in the air.

At a distance, faintly, she hears the temple bells toll, jerking her back to reality. She bids a farewell to the window sills, gives a final glance to the path where she first met him, and moves away wiping her tears. She now has got a kingdom to rule. And a life to live!

The window sill rattles in the chill evening drizzle, as if calling back to her saying, ‘Not by winning alone can one truly win!’