Seeing the girl walking towards him, the  boy, standing near his motorcycle, at the bus stop, near the airport, said loudly, “You are very late in coming today!”

“Sorry, I got a bit late. I was not able to catch the bus on time,” said the girl.

“I have been standing here for about one hour,” the boy complained, “You must have left your home late. Every minute there is a bus from your place.” He put on his helmet and started his motorcycle.

The girl looked to her right and then to her left and then seated herself behind the boy.

“Where do you want to go?” said the boy.

“Anywhere, but please leave this place quickly,” said the girl, putting her right hand on his right shoulder.

“Shall we go to the Old Fort?” said the boy.

“Anywhere, your choice.”

By this time, she had put her hands in his jacket pockets from behind and finished the distance between his back and her chest. Obviously, the boy liked it. His anger disappeared in a second. That was the magic of the magical touch.

“Listen…” said the girl, bringing her mouth close to his right ear, “we can’t meet at this bus stop near the airport.”

“Why?”

“Many people from the office change their buses here,” said the girl.

Suddenly, they were facing the red light. He stopped his bike and turned to the girl and said, “Then where should I meet you?”

The girl thought for a second and then said, “The bus stop near the mosque. But, you must stand at a little distance from the bus stop.”

The light changed to green and the boy moved the bike forward. He began to find his way through the space between the cars.

“What are you doing? Drive carefully!” said the girl.

The boy was in a mood and he throttled the bike. The girl pinched his side and said, “You are in mood, aren’t you? Don’t you get over excited!”

Having parked the motorcycle in the parking lot, they moved towards the park near the lake, in the Old Fort.

The water in the lake was shining in the golden sunlight of the winter and the ambiance was alive with the presence of the people who were enjoying boating. They found a comfortable spot on a slope behind rose plants near the lake.

Suddenly, a school of ducks appeared from nowhere and began to move around them in circles. The girl, momentarily, forgot the boy and began to play with the ducks. She was calling the ducks to her but when a duck reached near her, she got frightened and jumped back.

Finally, the boy could not stand the act anymore and he said, “Leave them alone!”

The girl looked at him and said, “You look more handsome when you are angry!”

The boy took her left hand in his right hand and began to caress it. The girl got romantic and she lay on the soft grass. The boy plucked a flower and began to tickle her face with the flower. The girl was extremely excited and she was almost red.

When someone passed in front or behind them, they postponed their romantic act for a while but immediately reverted to it after the disappearance of the person. They were happy together but there was a definite fear lest someone known should see them there together.

“Let’s go inside the Fort. We have not been there for about two weeks,” said the boy suddenly. The girl understood why he had suggested that. She stood up.

Inside the Fort, they occupied their lovers’ spot, their backs resting against an old wall. There was a rectangular lawn before them and the grass was like soft velvet, shining in the sunlight.

At some distance there was a railway line. A train was passing by. The girl began to count the coaches of the train but she did not succeed, for the train was running at very fast speed.

Resting his head in her lap, the boy said, “You did not say why you got late today!”

The girl gently kissed his lips and said, “Nothing special…actually…”

“Actually what?”

“I had gone to the clinic.”

“Why? Is somebody at home is sick?” said the boy eagerly and anxiously.

“No, they are all well. I had to get my medicine,” said the girl.

“You! What has happened to you?” the boy was worried.

“Nothing.”

“I have never heard a disease called ‘nothing’” said the boy.

“As if you don’t know?” said the girl, caressing his hair.

“Please don’t beat about the bush. Speak out,” said the boy.

“Really?” the girl smiled.

“I am worried, please tell me,” said the boy.

“Nothing has happened to me. You know, my boss asked me why I was absent from my duty,” said the girl, “he will ask me tomorrow. I will show him the prescription slip given by the doctor and he will calm down.”

The girl showed him the prescription and said, “I told them I had stomach ache and they wrote some medicines.”

The boy smiled and kissed her passionately on her lips and then said, “So you are sick, aren’t you?” The girl blushed.

Suddenly, the combined sound of laughter pulled their attention. Some young lovers were carving their names on those ancient walls. The wall was full of the phrases like ‘I love you, Monu’, ‘I miss you…’, ‘we are made for each other…R & B…’ etc.

The girl remembered that once the boy had carved a poem on the bark of a tree with her hair pin. She had liked that at that time and she smiled when she remembered it. She tried to remember the lines of the poem but she couldn’t. She wanted to tell the boy to recite that poem. She looked in his eyes, with all her love in her eyes. The boy was lost in his romantic thought, playing with her fingers. Suddenly, she remembered a line of the poem and she began to recite it in her melodious voice.

The boy had closed his eyes, with his head in her lap but when he heard the line of his poem, he opened his eyes. The sun rays were falling straight on his face and as a result his face had gone red. The girl wanted to kiss him all over his face but a few foreign tourists came that way. They had their cameras with them.

After some time, a vendor came there. He was selling pop corns. The old man, with packets of pop corn in his basket, was looking in their direction. The boy indicated with his finger and called him. The old man got happy. The boy bought two packets of pop corns.

Enjoying the pop corns, the boy and the girl began to walk in the direction of the Zoo in that park. There was a wall, reaching up to the chest of the boy. Suddenly, the jumped and climbed on to the wall. The girl tried to emulate him but she failed. The boy extended his hand and pulled her up. The boy embraced her tightly and they spent quite some time sitting on that wall. After that they jumped off the wall on the other side.

Suddenly, the girls called his attention and said, “Look there!”

They saw a newly married couple, hand in hand, walking in front of them. The girl was in her red wedding sari and the boy was in a three piece suit. There were henna patterns on her palms. She looked quite beautiful.

The girl continued, “Look, they got married. The girlfriend has become his wife. How happy they are!”

Obviously, the girl was trying to indicate, vicariously, that the boy should also propose to her and they should get married.

The boy and the girl had been meeting this couple for more than two years at different lovers’ spots. Now they were married.

The girl got lost in daydreaming. She is a bride and in her red wedding sari she is thrilled. Her friends are applying henna on her hands. Her family members are very happy. Her reverie was broken by the boy, “Now, their love will disappear in a few days. Love does not last after marriage. After a few months, you will never see them walking like this, hand in hand.”

“What are you talking?” said the girl, “His wife is his former girlfriend and, I think, their love will grow with the progression of time. They will share everything now and their life together will be better.”

“No, you are wrong because when a girlfriend becomes a wife, all equations of love change. Marriage is the END of love. You can’t be in love with a person or a thing that is in your possession. There ought to be some distance, some wait, some hesitation for love to flourish,” said the boy in the manner of a philosopher.

The girl was extremely surprised because she had never heard the boy speak like this. She removed her head from his shoulder, and she did not know what prompted her to do so. She felt as if something had cracked inside her. Her bright young face became gloomy. She found it difficult to stay there. She could not maintain her balance and fell down, hurting her left knee.

The boy quickly bent down and began to massage her knee. He gave her his shoulder’s support and she got up. After a few steps she felt all right and she left the support.

“Let me drop you at your home,” said the boy, realizing it that she felt pain in her leg.

“No, I will take the bus from the airport,” said the girl.

Sitting in a window seat in the bus, the girl waved her hand, tears ready to ooze out. The boy waved his hand too but he did not know that this was the last time he was waving her…