Love Keeps Us Going

By Joyjit Sengupta

She stood watching as the airplane disappeared behind the clouds. The drone of the jet engines gradually faded out. He was gone. Twenty odd years of togetherness had ended up in mutual separation. Each was free as the other, to choose a life of their own.
Their children were grown up, independent and working. She had a steady job and a well-furnished house but it was all empty now. Perhaps she needed to think and plan the rest of her life, but she was a bit tired and needed a break for now.

She was alone in a crowd of people arriving and departing. Empty trolleys stood queued up and waiting, others stuffed with baggage were pushed and wheeled.
Security personnel in bold uniforms and of impressive built, scanned people and objects that raised suspicion. Many stood in long queues to get their boarding pass. Some read books; others listened to music on their iPods. People talked on cell phones. It was a picture of people waiting and passing time before they could move on.

She too sat and appeared to be waiting for something or someone but she wasn't. She was just taking her time to settle down a bit before she took the long drive back to her work at office.
She was in a deep state of meditative contemplation with silence growing within. The sights and sounds did not simply reach her. She was in retrospection...
The summer Sun was going down in the far end horizon. Stars had begun to show up. The evening was just beginning. Night was yet to fall. She was barely eighteen and he twenty-one. Life lay ahead just like the night and it was but love at first sight.

They walked hand in hand on pavements and sidewalks with streetlights burning overhead, all through the night. It was magical, mystical with no past no future but the sheer power of the moment expanding and stretching itself eternally.
A life of love began on a high note and with every passing year, it grew even more. Job, money, house, children everything came by. Life was good and getting better by the day. But the fire of passion was wearing out. It was years now that they walked hand in hand, or driven to that hilltop.
She had forgotten to buy him a new tie and he could not remember when he had bought her a gift or wished on her birthday. One by one the list of forgetfulness added up until the time came to bid good-bye. Something had gone wrong somewhere and now, she knew where it had. She still loved him and wondered if he did too.

But it was all too late now. Maybe she could have figured it out sometime before.
As she got up to leave, her eyes fell on the huge screen that announced arrivals and departures. The screen was flashing a message, which said a particular flight was returning to the airport because of a technical snag. It was the one he was on.
The aircraft touched down gently on the ground. All passengers were rescheduled on a flight for the next day. She just stood and waited at the arrival lounge and then she saw him coming through the gates. He had seen her too. Soon they hugged and held their hands to get back to the life, which they had loved and lived.
They say the power of love can move mountains and part oceans. It is the greatest of all emotions. There can be petty differences and tough tines too but when we give in to the situation, we give up our love and getting it back may not be easy.