She Knew All Along

It was a cold gloomy afternoon in July, the rain was pouring down as if nature was washing all its sins on earth. I was alone in the house, sitting on the couch and playing with my dog with her favorite rope, while my cats were jus’ sitting watching the rain.

My eyes, kept going to the blank screen of my phone and this was the 50^th time, I picked up the phone to check if she is seeing my texts. Same two grey ticks, my texts are delivered, but for a week now, she is neither checking ‘em nor answering. “It is so unlike her,” I thought to myself, “She must be mad because of something I did?” my mind kept wondering. I kept remembering her and our conversations again and again. Her voice was like in my mind all the time. No matter how much I tried to shake it, and ignore the fact that she like everyone else is jus’ pretending to be busy and ghosting me, I couldn’t shake the panic.

It made me so angry, “Well this time when she is going to text, I am not replying,” as the thought crossed my mind, I also wondered, “What if, she doesn’t talk to me again?”

I paused, I don’t know for how long, but the thought of never talking to her made me feel so numb. I was jolted back to reality by my dog pulling the rope from my hand. I shook my head and grunted, “I am jus’ thinking too much,” I shrugged my shoulder shaking off this weird feeling of anxiousness.

The doorbell rang before my mind wander into another thought, “Three o’clock in the afternoon, who would it be.” As I walked closer to the door, the more anxious I felt and suddenly the temperature felt like dropped to a freezing point, touching the doorknob felt like my skin was touching the ice. Frowning at the weird situation, I jerk opened the stuck door, to be surprised, she was standing right in front of me.

But instead of greeting her, the first words that came out of my mouth, “What in the hell??”

“Is it so bad seeing me in person,” she replied being her usual witty self.

“Not bad if you could’ve told me that you’re coming”

“What’s the fun in that?” She said with that smile, “Now are you going to invite me in, am freezing here”

I poked my head out to notice the sudden change in weather, “Come in, I guess??” and left the door wide open for her to get in.

“Cool. Thank you.”

“How did you know where I live?”

“Psychic, remember!!” she pointed her forehead and said with that sarcastic tone.

“Umm… it’s surely a surprise,” I said, while in my head I was saying it can’t get any weirder than this. Who drops by someone’s house unannounced after almost three months of texting each other.

“I wanted to see you in person,” she replied as if she was reading my thoughts, however, it’s not that unusual, because she does that from time to time, and am jus’ getting used to it.

“How long are you going to be in town?”

“Jus’ today, leaving early dawn tomorrow,” she paused and looked down at her shoes, “I jus’ wanted to see you and say goodbye before I leave.”

I nodded, suddenly the tone of the conversation had gotten serious as if some unsaid tension was hanging between us. My dog came to her wiggling her tail and sat down with a whimper. She bent over to say something to her, and I didn’t want to interfere with the ladies speaking, so I left ‘em. For a while, she kept talking like they know each other from all along. Apart from my dog’s occasional whimpers, I couldn’t hear anything.

Soon she came into the room and sat on the couch, “So, what do you have in mind?”  

“You are the one here giving the surprise, am sure you have a plan”

“How about a cake?”

“What?”

“Let’s make a cake,”

“Why?”

“It’s your birthday next Thursday, and I won’t be here. So I want to share a cake with you.” She was smiling but there was something in her eyes, like she was hiding, “Also, I want to know, for a Chef how good you are.”

“Oh! Never call a man out on his profession.”

“Then show me, whatcha got.”

We went to the kitchen, as I did all the hard work and madam the princess sat on the chair talkin’ like a nonstop radio, I wondered if I missed our conversations. We brought the food to the living room, played a movie while I kept pausing and sharing trivia. “You hardly touched your food,” I noticed.

“Sorry, I am not feeling very well.”

“You wanna go take a nap?” I asked

“Ya, maybe.”

“Did I jus’ suggested a girl to sleep it off in my bedroom,” I kept running the thought of my dad being home soon, and a girl whom I jus’ met online only three months ago in my room, that would be an interesting conversation. But what said was said so like a polite gentleman I offered, “You can go to my room, sleep it off.” I paused for her reaction but she didn’t say anything, “I will be here on the couch.”

She nodded, and I walked her off to the room, as I was closing the door she said in a mellow voice, “Hey, if I have to leave without waking you up, I jus’ want to say Goodbye.”

“Don’t worry, I am going to see you when you wake up.”

“Jus’ hear me out. I want you to be strong and keep helping people. But above all help yourself. Always be the best version of who you are, and don’t be scared to let people in. Let the right people in,” she paused for a moment and said, “Even your darkness has light.”

“Stop talking crazy, like you are talking to me for the last time,” I said assertively interrupting her. My dog wiggled in the room with her whimper and sat on the floor.

I smiled and said, “We’ll talk when you wake up.”

“What if I don’t,” she said. I shook my head, I am used to her talking nonsense all the time.

As I close the door and took my steps away from it, something wasn’t sitting well, every bone in my body was telling me to open that door and talk to her. So, I did, I rushed, almost ran and, swung the door wide open. Only to see my dog still sitting where I left her without moving an inch, but she wasn’t there. I checked every corner of the room, at first I thought she was teasing me. But she wasn’t anywhere.

“Did I imagine the whole thing? Was I dreaming” I asked myself. I rushed down the hall to pick up my phone. Texting her wasn’t working, so I jus’ called her number, the phone kept ringing and stopped.

I dialled her again and again and again. After Nth time, a man picked up. I was anxious but I had to stay calm and tell a stranger why I am calling. To my surprise as soon as I introduced myself, the man said, “Yes, she told me about you, am sorry we are speaking in such an unfortunate circumstance. I am her colleague”

It would be morning six there, who is the man and why does he has her phone, “Did she left her phone at home.” I asked, and it could make sense, why she wasn’t replying to all my texts. “Where did she go, did I dream?” I was trying to make sense in the most unexplainable situation.

“Am sorry, she passed away last night. We are taking her body for cremation,” the man said in a grave tone.

I couldn’t say a word and my whole weight crumbled down on the floor, as I sat there soaking in the entirety of this experience running through my mind, my dog walked to me, sat beside me with the same whimper. She knew all along.