SHORT STORY #1 - LOVE REINFORCED

“So! Where did I stop yesterday, my dear baby”? I asked my nine year old daughter as she sat down beside me on the sofa.

“You were going to meet Sarah, daddy”! She said closing in, keenly to listen to the rest of my story.

“Yeah right. So, after four years, I met her in the same school we had studied together in. I was standing right in front of her looking into her eyes and I proposed for the third time to her in my lifetime.

“I love you, Sarah”. I said from my heart.

“Oh James! Not again. I thought you were over me. Don’t do it, please”. She begged me.

“It’s been four years and there isn’t any change in the way I look at you. I want to be with you, Sarah. Why won’t you understand that”? I cried.

“You are my good friend, James. I don’t feel the same way you do. But even if I do fall in love with you, I cannot marry you”. She opened up.

“But why? Religion isn’t an issue here. Then why”? I said.

“My father, he would definitely not agree”. She sighed.

“Why? Is it because I’m from a middle-class family”? My temper was rising.

She let out a big no.

“Then what”? I raised my voice.

“The same reason why I wouldn’t want to marry you”. She said.

I was shocked. “And that would be”?

“Engineer and doctor don’t make a good match”. She spat at me.

That was a double shock. “What! That’s ridiculous! What makes you think like that”? I said.

“It has always been like that James. Accept it”. Sarah said.

“Look! I love ‘YOU’, not your ‘DOCTOR’ profession. And by the way it’s a bond between two hearts, not two professions. Understand that”. I blurted out.

Sarah stood there, staring at me, speechless.

“James, I really like you. But practically speaking, there will be a lot of problems in future because of our profession”. She said calmly.

“Like what”? I said instantly.

“Ego”! There was the quick answer from her.

Now I was standing speechless.

“I know about you. You are so short tempered. So am I. And added to this, ego will thrash our relationship”. She said anxiously.

“No Sarah, it won’t. I have faith in my love. I have waited so long for you, that I wouldn’t let ‘ego’ spoil our relationship”. I swore to her.

“Really easy to say it James. As far as I know, none of such relationships lasted”. She told.

“Sarah! Don’t go by what you see or hear. There is always an exception in everything”. I told her, provoking her to come back to her senses. But she was just so stubborn.

“No James! That is not possible in real time world”. She said.

“Sarah! Please! I love you”!

“I am sorry. Terribly sorry. This is not going to happen”. She said with tears in her eyes.

“So like in all films, you are going to push me into a situation where I name my daughter with yours”? I told her as my eyes became wet too.

“Oh my God! Dad! Is that why you named me Sarah”? My daughter asked curiously. I smiled at her and said, “Let me finish, baby”.

She just plainly looked back at me and said, “Good bye, James. I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again”. She walked off as I stood there numb.

“That’s it for today, baby! Off to sleep now”. I stood up and took my daughter in my arms and walked towards the bedroom.

“Okay, daddy”. Sarah said yawning.

“Let me ask you something, Sarah. So now what do you want to be? An engineer..”? I asked.

“Or a doctor..”? Her mother, who was standing by the door, said raising her left eyebrow.

“I want to be a doctor like you, mommy”, saying she ran down to her mother.

Both Sarahs smiled back at me as I hugged them.