She took another step.
The cold wind kissed her lips and a chill ran down her spine. She tucked tighter on her red kashmere shawl (the colour adding a touch of irony...which would have bemused her profusely any other day), its corner flapping away violently. As if holding onto dear life. As if imitating her state of mind.
She took another step.
Looking ahead into the distance, her vision a blur, she tried to think of nothing but the task at hand, the effort of physical motion. But the mind wandered. Images flashed through her mind one after the other, like a stop motion film of her life. She saw a face...a face as perfect as a face can be...so pure and gentle and loving, a twinkle in the eye, the disarming half smile, and then she saw it turn, saw him...the back of his head resting upon his shoulders (uncharacteristically bent she noted) and the rest of his body walk away...a piece of her broken heart....clenched in his fist...bleeding. She saw another face, a more familiar one...and saw it turn and walk away...another piece of her broken heart...clenched in her fist...bleeding. And another. And another...she saw them walk away....faces she had known all her life...faces of family and of friends....of people who had betrayed her.
She took another step.
Each seemingly heavier than the previous one.
The wind, cold and hard, braced accross her smooth skin , taking away a tear or two in its wake. She could control nothing today, neither the images running in her head nor the emotions they invoked in her. She could not hide from the world around her...neither the pain they caused nor the strength it took to carry on...not anymore. She felt helpless as she had never felt before. It all came to her...twenty five years...all at once...like a gigantic wave determined to crash in her and leave her listless...to blow her away with it.
The ground beneath her was hard and rocky, the land...barren. The setting almost perfect...but for the re-assuring sound from the distance...luring her to turn around. She cudn't have turned back now....neither did she want to....not now when she was only a step away (was she scared ? yes, terribly. n yet she knew she will go ahead with it, she was more determined than she was scared). She was but a step away from jumping off the highest cliff in the area.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
And she took the step. Her last one...off the cliff.
And as she plummeted down...a strange feeling took over. A feeling of complete stillness...a physical sensation of being absolutely still in space n time. And she saw her life being played out in a jiffy...to see it as a film rolling backwards...see every moment of her life pass into the distance unknown (almost like standing in the middle of the street and seeing racing cars in infinite numbers fly past at insane speeds so u can only catch bits n pieces of their being). She felt weightless. And it was beautiful.
A split second later she heard the sound of a loud crack.
And the top sheet of water gave way...letting her reach its belly. The warmth of the sparkling water spread through her shivering body...soothing her nerves and feeding her heart. She felt her hands and legs again...and with a swift motion like that of a mermaid....she rose up to the surface. She opened her eyes to a different world...more like 'she' was the difference in the same world.
The magic of the water (jus like they had told her) was such...that it took away her pain and her hurt. And even though she had imagined, that the magic would erase all memory of those who had caused her so much pain...she realized....in those few precious seconds...she had actually just magically learnt to "let go...to forgive...and to move on". And while the memory remained...it didn't seem to upset her as it did in the past. She felt alive and beautiful and incredibly light. As if a huge burden had been lifted off her chest...she could feel a renewed 'zing' to the rhythm of her heartbeat. She smiled...thinking of how much she had held onto in the past...and how petty it all seemed now.
Smiling (her heartbreakingly beautiful smile)...she swam to the shore and walked towards life like a phoenix rising from the ashes, taking its first flight.
-x-
Please Note:
1. This story is purely fictional and any resemblance to anyone dead or alive is purely co-incidental.
1. This story is purely fictional and any resemblance to anyone dead or alive is purely co-incidental.
2. It is easy to 'let go...to forgive...and to move on' with the help of 'magic' in a fictional story....but real life is far more brutal. And True...it doesn't relieve the people who had caused all that hurt n pain of the responsibility of their actions...but that burden is for them to bear now. So forgive and move on...for your own sake. It is not impossible. All the best :-)
