Arya eased the silent tension between them, “There is another Sameer I know.”

“A friend?” a visibly nervous young man spoke.

“No, he’s a photographer and a writer and his works are simply awesome. Wait, I’d show them to you.”

The young man replied with a glint in his eye, “Oh, the blogger Sameer?”

“Yes, that’s him. You know him too?”

The young man simply chuckled in pride.

Arya shrieked much to the shock of other people sitting quietly in the cafe, “No way, you are the Sameer. I cannot believe it. Small world really!”

Sameer was too flurried to say anything.

Arya broke the silence again, “So Sameer is a shy guy. Well, what can I say? Nice to meet you. I am a fan of yours and you can give me an autograph later.”

Sameer turned more red with embarrassment, “Sure. Of course.”

“But there is one thing I don’t like about you,” Arya remembered something. “Your views on God are simply not compatible with mine.”

Sameer asked her curiously, “Care to elaborate.”

Arya explained, “You don’t believe in God, do you? It’s easy to decipher from your writings. There is a God. I have no doubt about it.”

Sameer was not going to take a differing view lightly either, “Looks like you have a proof.”

Arya explained again, “Some things don’t require proof. You just know it is there.”

Sameer disagreed, “That is so convenient to say.”

Arya continued with her argument, “Look around you, this world is so perfect and beautiful. This careful design could not have been just a coincidence. It has to be the work of someone.”

Sameer defended his view, “But what if it is a coincidence? I seldom believe in a thing without proof — my writing would reflect that too. I believe life is meaningless and we are here simply to bide our time and go away. Who created this world? I don’t know. Why was it created? I have no answer either. Until some evidence to the contrary is presented I’ll prefer to hold on to my view.”

It was at this point that a peacock began to hover over their heads sprinkling love potion over them.

Arya laughed, “I knew you’d say that. At least I got you talking. I guess we shouldn’t argue on our first date.”

Sameer laughed too, “Yes, that wouldn’t be a good start.”

“After marriage, when we look back at it, it would surely make for an enjoyable memory.”

“Arranged marriages are weird, aren’t they?”

“Arya, get here as fast as you can,” a panicky voice spoke on the other side of the call.

The bag of groceries in Arya’s hand slipped through her fingers on to the road as her heart sank. Her hand, holding the phone to her ear, trembled. She thought she would faint, but she gained composure as a cab honked for way.

“Is everything okay? What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing’s happened. All’s fine. Just get here.” came the response as the call ended.

She went through a plethora of emotions in an instant – an instant that felt like eternity. Looking at the skies, she prayed and hoped for something positive with all of her heart – it didn’t matter what, she just hoped for something good, though her mind was overladen with fear.

Cab – she had to find one quickly, but she couldn’t see any empty ones around. She couldn’t possibly wait for a bus at this point. She ran, as fast as her legs could, towards the hospital.

She wanted to call her brother-in-law again and find out the reason but something held her back. A little hope still lingered in her heart and she didn’t want it to be extinguished – not now, not later, never. She continued running.

…

“What did you do in school?” Sameer asked.

“What do you mean?” she replied.

“School sports. You are so bad at running. Did you ever finish ahead of anyone?”

“Who cares about running? I like to wrestle. If we were together in school, I would have beaten you up.”  Arya said as she twisted his arm behind his back and had him submit to defeat.

…

Today she did care about running. Today she ran like she was seven years old. Straight, fast and into everyone and everything that came her way. And she hoped Sameer had learnt a little wrestling from her and would not give in to submission now.

Some minutes later she found herself at the entrance of the hospital. She took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from her forehead and stepped in. She glanced around and found nothing unusual but this was only the entrance. Her heart rested on the third floor. She hoped it would be that way too when she reaches there.

The elevator would take too long. She climbed the stairs despite her knees warning against it. As she reached the floor, Pranav came out of the ward crying. “He’s not responding anymore,” he said as he rushed away in the long, crowded corridor.

She was numb now. She felt nothing – no emotion upon hearing those words except for fatigue from running. She slowed her walk as she made way to the corner of the ward’s other half partitioned by a pale white wall.

Her eyes first glanced at her father-in-law. He was holding Sameer’s hand and without an expression on his face. Then she turned, a little hesitatingly, towards Sameer. His eyes were open. His mouth was too.

Sameer was breathing, but barely. He was mumbling some words in acute pain but it did not seem to make any sense. When he saw Arya, he tried to lift his hand towarda her. She helped him with it and noticed the coldness of his hand. At that very moment, the pulse left his body and he turned cold forever.

Sameer’s father burst into tears at the sight. Arya remained numb and fatigued. No tears came to her. She had cried every night thinking about this. She had gone through this a million times in her head. At that very moment, she felt nothing. Nothing at all. She ran her hand on his face. It was cold and disfigured; his jaw – rock-hard, his eyes – glum, his lips – dry, his scalp – bald and scarred, his skin – ghost-dark.

…

“Why did you marry me?” Sameer asked.

“Ah, let me think. One – you are ugly, two – you are cold-hearted, and three…” Arya began to answer.

Sameer cut her off, “No, I don’t think I want to hear the third one.”

Arya answered anyway, “… and three – because God has written it that way.”

…

With knees too weak to stand, Arya sat down on a chair next to his bed and fell into an instant slumber. When she awoke, there were earthworms crawling and conversing on her body.