They kissed each other their “good-byes” and left for their respective works. He was feeling repulsed from taking another step away from her. Every moment reminded him of how long he is going to be away from her. How far he is going and most importantly, will he be able to keep up with things from that long. Will he able to keep her trust? What will be the next time they meet. ***********************************************************************************

A loud thud, and she woke up startled. Her brow was sweating, and hand trembling. She looked around and a saw a familiar setting.  The bedside table had the flowers she put there that morning. The photo-frame had not ‘cracked’, the way she thought would be. The window was slightly open, to let in enough air to not suffocate her and closed enough to not freeze her. The space next to her though, was empty. Just like it has been for the past few months. She gathered herself and realized it was a dream. She was not unfamiliar to what she saw though; every night she would see the same thing. But tonight was different. It showed what had happened last morning.

***********************************************************************************

“If you knew you were going away, why would you even come near me?”

“It is simple, I love you. I did not realize until a few days ago that I want to be with you.”

She sobbed, mumbling the words she had dared not say for so long.

“What?”

“I LOVE YOU. Do you not see that? You think it is going to be easy for me to live like this, so far apart? How will I stay for so long without seeing you? What about everything else? Answer my questions.”

He smiled. Her questions always made him smile. Not because they were stupid, but they were the simplest questions with the most difficult answers.  

“I do not know about any of these answers”

“Then you are no leaving.”

“But I have to…”

 “Then, I have to stop you…”

Tears trickled down her soft cheeks, he picked one drop on his finger and he licked it.

“See, now we cannot be separate, ever.”

“That’s stupid.” She tried not to smile but he was just too good at it.

She hugged her, ”please don’t go…”

He held her close, “I need to.”

And he was gone.

***********************************************************************************

She stood by the lake just outside her house, looking at the fiery red sun, setting behind the mountains. A small hill they used to climb together, just to get away from the crowd. Spend hours together, in each others’ arms. Thinking about absolutely nothing. The silence would be broken intermittently by her questions. And he would answer them. Getting lost again, in each other. Love was never so nice with her. She had been through the pain before he came along. He too had learned things the hard way. They both knew what the other has been through. And they both had promised themselves to not let that affect them.

She looked at the sun and smiled. Her phone rang, it was he, calling to tell her he was ready to leave. She wiped her tear, “all the best…”. She knew it was not what she wanted to say. But she stopped before her thoughts took control of her senses.

***********************************************************************************

“Get up. Get ready. School is in an hour.”

“Five more minutes”

She was never the lazy type but tonight she wanted to sleep a little longer. She wanted to see what happened next. Her dream had reached a dramatic end. She saw herself, standing close to a man. And he was about to leave. She did not know where or why. He was just leaving. She tried, but the dream would not go any further. She woke up a little surprised. And  anxious. What did it mean? Was all this going to happen to her?

She got up and left for school. She rushed back home in the evening, ran to her elder sister and narrated the whole dream. She smiled at her.

“You don’t have to worry about all this right now. You are too young.”

She was just nine after all.