If you have missed the first part of Clair’s story, you can read it here http://bit.ly/16h6aN7
A little hunch it was…a thrill in the heart that sent shivers down the spine. She knew very well that it’s him but still she never wanted to turn around and look. For how can she forget those walking steps she use to recognize from far off, his body fragrance when he embraced his arms around her, that breath she felt against her cheek….when his delicate scent use to waft through the foyers.

It’s been years and Clair has now grown up to a beautiful old lady. A girl who once was exceptionally beautiful, graceful and enticing! And time has transformed her into exquisite beauty. It’s been years and a hazy picture of her first meet with Victor still appears in her thoughts…when their eyes first locked. She longed all her life to see Victor once, to meet him and hug him tight, to cry her heart out in his arms, to see him once…just once.
They say, the more you long for something (or someone) the more it runs away, and the moment you leave chasing, it comes right back.
It was this rainy afternoon when Clair was bidding goodbye to her spouse while he was leaving for his tour. She was brushing her granddaughter’s hair and the phone rang.
Clair: Go pickup the call Amelie.
Amelie: Ohh1 Granny why do we have this landline till now? I hate that annoying noise.
Clair: Amelie!!! Go right away.
Amelie: (Picks up the phone) Granny there is some Victor on the other side. Asking for you!
Her world stopped, the moment she heard this name. She felt like a young lover who just received a call from her crush. She went into the flash back—-when they were both young. Suddenly she realized that she is an old lady who is not supposed to behave that ways. She resurrected herself somehow..
Clair: You go and take care of Gracie. I’ll take the call.
Clair: Hello! Victor…………….
Victor: Ahhhh!! Nobody calls my name the way you do it. It’s still the same sweet tone. How are you?
Clair: (long breaths and heart beat running with the speed of light) I am fine.
She had nothing to say. Nothing at all!
Victor: Can you meet me at the park on the waterside? Anytime tomorrow?
How easy it was for him…to call, to ask for a meeting and that too at the same park!
Clair: I am not the beautiful girl you met 50 years ago, I have grown old..very old. Why do you want to meet me?
Victor: Just come. Please
Clair: umhmm. Okay!
She kept down the phone. She tried to circumvent that old feeling of love, but couldn’t. She was happy, surprised, perplexed and bewildered. No matter how far away he was but he still managed to turn her world upside down. Somehow he had that privilege of turning her world into a topsy-turvy land. Clair went to her room and slept with some thoughts in mind. Would it be an offense to Lucas (the spouse)? What will my family members say? Should I go and meet him or just forget everything and sleep?

The morning came up with the thoughts of “the mornings she spent thinking of him long back”. Her expressions exhibited her intentions very well. She took out her favorite dress, bathed, got ready and took something in her fist. The moment she stepped out of her room, she ran and came back to the mirror……to make sure if she is looking pretty. And suddenly the old silly Clair was back…
The same old tree, the waterside, the bench..everything was just so same.
And now when she has already heard Victor’s steps coming from behind, her heart is filled with thrill, a weird feeling of fear. She doesn’t want to turn around and face him. Because she has had enough of his indifference and it took her almost 30 years to get out of it. But now she’ll not even live that longer and she doesn’t want to die with regrets related to him.
Victor: (puts his hands on her shoulders from behind) Hi Clair!!!
Clair: (removed his hand…stepped forward….dropped a tear……opened her fist and gave him that coin).…… The coin which said “Heads we get married, tails we break up.”
She drops that coin oriented as HEADS……and leaves.
He left her years ago without saying anything, without explaining anything and now it was her turn to leave…without saying anything, without explaining anything!
Yes she loved him like anything; yes she wanted him in all her next lives; yes she wanted to hug him tight. But she couldn’t, because she had a spouse to be answerable to, she had a family to look back and moreover he left her when she needed him. She can’t go back……………She’ll love him till the day she dies and even after that, but she can’t go back…..
P.S: Love is a crazy thing.