Dagger

Pruthvi woke up upset. It’s been three days since he talked to Sana. The “missed call” signals which Sana used to send have stopped. Usually, Pruthvi would dial back to Sana right after he receive these signals. That is how they used to connect during their school vacations. Pruthvi looked at the telephone with a heavy heart. Shocking to his knowledge, he saw that a caller ID device was now connected to the telephone. Prithvi was sure that something was wrong.

Both Pruthvi and Sana were pursuing their higher secondary education but in different schools. They could meet and talk only in bus waiting sheds. There were nine more days for school reopening. For Pruthvi, it felt like ninety days.

On the day of school reopening, Pruthvi rushed to the bus stop. He had a list of desperate questions to ask Sana, but he cannot meet her now because her father was standing with her. Sana stood there looking at the direction from which the bus would come. Strangely, she wasn’t turning her head in any other direction. The bus arrived. Sana and her father got inside and took their seats. Now, he could meet her only in the evening. After six hours of waiting, the school bell finally rang. Pruthvi ran out of the classroom, ran past the school gate and continued his sprint to the bus stop. He could see Sana in the shed. She was waiting for the bus just like it was any other day. The bus was coming from a distance. Her body language said that she would get into it, “but why would she get into the bus without talking to me?”, he thought when he was still running.

Pruthvi reached the shed. There was a sizeable crowd. Sana.. Sana.., calling her repeatedly, Pruthvi walked near her dissecting the crowd. The bus stopped, and the crowd started rushing into it. Maybe she didn’t hear me in the noisy crowd, he thought. Pruthvi quickly climbed onto the bus and walked towards her. She was now only two feet away. He could not go any further, but she would hear him this time. Sana.., he called. She now turned and looked at him. She didn’t smile. She didn’t say anything. There was a shade of disappointment in her face. She then looked away. He didn’t know why, but he knew it was over.