These Colors Don't Run

He waited at the end of the corridor. It was taking too long. His eyes were closed, and he was trying to listen to the faintest of noises. It was dark at the other end and he was unable to see clearly. He had no idea why it was dark. Maybe it was a wall and there was a turning. There is no way that the entire place after the corridor would be dark. It just can’t be. It felt so wrong and he wanted to get up suddenly and run towards the other end. But he couldn’t, and he had to wait patiently. He listened closely. There were footsteps. Four of them, military boots. He still didn’t open his eyes. Then he heard a faint sound of sandals. He listened to the rhythm carefully. It can’t be her. That is not the rhythm of her walk. He was familiar with the rhythm of her walk as much as he is familiar with his own heartbeats. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the side from where the sound was coming, and he saw her walking towards him. She had a little limp in her walk and looked almost unrecognizable, but it was her and he knew it. Her head was held high as she always used to keep it. Nothing can daunt her pride.

She looked at the person sitting at the other end and couldn’t believe her eyes. All these years nobody had visited her. And out of all, he was the last person that she had expected to come looking for her. She looked at him carefully. He has changed a lot. He was wearing a uniform and with the badge on the shoulder, she could understand that he was a Captain now. She was happy. He made it. The closer she got to him the slower her steps became. This is wrong, this is definitely wrong, she thought. Why has he come for her now? What does he want from her? She had specifically asked him to never meddle in her issue and he had obeyed that but now, he was there, and her heart started beating faster. When she was informed that she had a visitor, she expected it to be one of her family members, or her colleagues or any of her friends though it was unlikely but out of everyone it was him. Someone who barely knows her and had nothing to do with her life other than a single incident that connected them. What if he had come regarding it. No, it can’t be. He can’t risk it now. After all that she has been through. He just can’t.

He looked at her. Her hair was shorter than he could remember. Her face was pale, but her body looked fine. She is exercising and that is good. He had always feared that she might have given up on life, might have lost hope. He was scared that he was taking too long and hadn’t done enough from his part. But when he saw her, he was assured that he hadn’t lost her. He always knew that she was too tough for giving up and that was the belief that kept him going, kept him working hard, to finally do what he wanted to do. On the day that she had asked him to promise not to meddle in that issue, he had lied. He could never not meddle in her issue. He could never not come for her. His eyes teared up seeing her closer. She was really there. In the past five years, many things might have changed but not the love in his eyes when he looked at her, the love that she never saw.