Watch Over You [short story, part #3]

Dear fellow bloggers, readers and writers. This post is in continuation of Watch Over You #2. To understand the characters and the plot properly, you need to read all the previous parts. Feel free to give me your feedback in the comment section below. Enjoy!!

Was it wise? Not going to hospital? She tossed and turned for a while and then gave up. Zayne was still sleeping. She didn’t want to wake him up so she got out to take a walk in the nearby park. There was an eerie calm in the air. She was feeling an unknown freshness in herself. She walked for a while and then sat on a bench. There was a young couple sitting on a picnic mat. They looked happy and in love. It’s wonderful how people attach themselves emotionally with a place. They get assailed with memories, right after looking at that particular spot where they spent time during their past visits. Happy memories. Sad memories. Different memories of different people, bonded with a single place. Nora still remembered the day when she had come here with Zayne for picnic. They were watching the sunset and were talking about silly things.

“You know, sometimes I think that I have figured you out completely, that I know you so well, but then you do something unpredictable and prove me wrong again,” Zayne had said to her, smiling and shaking his head.

“What?” Nora giggled. “What did I do now?”

“You believe in ghosts,” he said flatly as a matter of fact.

“So? I try to keep an open mind,” she said, still trying to control her smile.

“But still,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was quite unexpected.”

“When my dad died, I was eight,” she said, thoughtful. All of a sudden, the air changed from cheerful to gloomy. Even the sound of chirping of birds became distant. “It was really hard to accept that he won’t be there with me anymore. I was really close to him. My whole world revolved around him. I couldn’t stop crying. Barely ate and slept. Then one day, my mom said, ‘He hasn’t gone anywhere, honey. He’s still with us. Watching over us. He wants to see us happy. If he saw us sad, he’ll be sad too. And we don’t want him to be sad, do we?’ So, I stopped crying. Because, obviously, I didn’t want my dad to be sad. And started believing that my dad is always with me, as a ghost. So, I kind of started believing in ghosts. I know, how weird it sounds. He is not really a ghost, but I know he is always watching over me.”

Zayne had a funny look on his face. He lifted his hand and touched her face tenderly. Too many emotions were passing over his face but it felt like he didn’t know how to put them into words. He rubbed his thumb over her cheek. “I am sorry, you lost your father,” he said softly.

Nora smiled a sad smile and shook her head. “It was a long time ago,”………….TO BE CONTINUED

Image: Pixabay