The Gift

Rajiv drove through the occasional mist, climbing the winding roads up the high ranges. Priya did not say anything. They both knew it was their last journey together, the last time he would be taking her to her workplace.

Rajiv remembered all the moments they had shared from the moment he first met her. How happy they were together! The great Indian wedding cliché had spoiled their relationship. Priya belonged to a different religion, and their parents had denied their insatiable love and desire to be together. His rage and grief were reflected on the speedometer of the car.

“Please, go slow,” Priya said at last.

When Rajiv glanced sideways, he saw her rummaging in her bag.
“Can you please pull over?” she asked.

Priya looked sick. He stopped the car beneath a Gulmohar tree, which stood magnanimously by the roadside, shedding flowers all over the place and bathing the ground in blood red. Rajiv looked at her.

“Why did you want me to stop?”

Priya took out a bottle of imported perfume from her bag, her favourite brand.
“You may take this. Please don’t forget me, I beg.”

Rajiv could see her eyes welling up. He did not know what to say. His heart felt as though it were drowning in icy water.

“No,” he said, “I can’t take this, Priya. This fragrance will remind me of you every day. I can’t endure that pain every day, with you gone forever from my life.”

Her eyes began to spill tears even before he had finished his words. That was the first time he had ever seen her crying since they met. He could not hold back his own tears any longer, which found their way down silently. He took her hand in his.

“Please don’t cry, darling.”

His words were broken. He held her hand tight as though he had never wanted to let her go. He kissed the back of her palm. His tears kissed hers before his lips could. The drizzle and the fog that adhered to the windscreen curtained them from the rest of the world.

A few hours later, Rajiv was back at the same place, alone, after dropping Priya off at her workplace and leaving her forever. He held the perfume bottle clenched in his hand, her fragrance all around him, the best gift she had ever given him.

Sometimes the hardest goodbyes are the ones that teach us the deepest lessons of love and loss.

The End.