The open hall is looking like a garden of blooming flowers. Various colours of balloons are adorning the pillars of the hall. Each balloon has 'Farewell' written on it. One side of the hall has stalls of cold drinks and water. Beside it, heaps of candies of different flavours are lying on a white-coloured plastic table. Every now and then, some one or the other is picking some candies and leaving from there while popping one into their mouths.

"Hindi!" Pari speaks up while sitting at the front of one of the four groups. Her concentration is on another person who is using sign language to make her understand the name of the movie. Shweta, who is sitting behind Pari is looking around. Her eyes are roaming over every corner of the hall until they halt where the candies are.

She looks at Pari who is busy remembering the name of the movie and leaves her space. Upon reaching beside the table of candies, Shweta coughs to get the attention of the person who is standing in front of her. But instead of turning back, the person gets busy tearing a packet of Pulse.

"Why did you call me? To see you eating candies?" Shweta says while snatching the half open packet of Pulse. The luscious green candy is peeping out from the packet.

"Give it to me!" Raj turns around and tries to take the packet but before he can, the packet gets emptied and the candy makes its way inside Shweta's mouth.

"Mmm..." Shweta moans as the sour and spicy pleasure of the candy melts in her mouth.

Raj rolls his eyes seeing the drama and starts speaking, "I've called you for something important."

"Hm hm." Shweta moves her palm up and down indicating him to continue while eating the candy.

"I'm proposing Pari today." Raj says as his eyes linger on a smiling Pari in the crowd.

Cough... Cough... A fit of cough attacks Shweta. She quickly goes to the stall beside and grabs a bottle of mineral water.

"Are you serious? Today? But why all of a sudden?" Shweta walks back to her spot with furrowed brows.

"What is so sudden about this? You know I like her." Raj says.

"Ha! Everyone knows that. You make it so obvious. But what about her? What if she rejects you and your friendship..."

"She likes me." Raj says with a confident face.

"Woah! Woah! Calm down. How are you so sure? She didn't even tell me anything." Shweta asks narrowing her eyes.

I just read her thoughts about me.

"Hello. Earth to Mr. Romeo." Shweta hits Raj's head without using any extra force with the empty plastic bottle that she has been holding.

"I just... Know. Today after farewell, I am proposing her. Can you please bring her to the terrace?" Raj says with a child-like smile.

"Yea. Okay. I'm going now." Saying it, Shweta goes back towards the group who are still playing and gossiping.

"Thank You Shweta!" Ecstatic, Raj screams from behind.

***

A warm air is breezing with the sun shining brightly in the sky. Some white clouds with golden lining are floating with glee. Birds are chirping every now and then from the tall trees that are guarding the school premises. Two birds are busy enjoying their afternoon romance sitting under some green leaves which are dangling from one of the branches of a tree. Some other branches of that tree are hanging over the railing of the terrace shedding one corner of the terrace. A slender hand approaches the birds from the same corner of the terrace and caresses their heads with love.

"It's so good to see love." A deep voice of a woman swirls in the quiet afternoon atmosphere of the terrace.

The ground of the white terrace is adorned with the shadow of the woman. Out of the blue, another shadow comes into the vicinity and stands behind the previous one. The new shadow bends a bit forward as a sign of respect. As it moves a bit behind after bowing down, the outline of the new shadow's pony tail along with its short height get clearly visible.

"You did well at that time. So tell me, any new development?" The deep voice asks, retracting back her hand which was caressing the birds' heads but she doesn't show any signs of turning around.

"He is proposing her today." A young female voice replies.

"Hmm... I knew this was coming. She is still so sensitive. That night I tried but..." A heavy sigh leaves as the woman continues, "anyway, we can't wait anymore. She needs to return back to who she is. Things are getting out of control and she is needed here, with us. I'll be there as well when he proposes. I need to see something else as well."

"Okay. The work will be done. But... can we, I mean, can't we solve this peacefully?" The young voice asks with a hesitance in her voice.

"I wish we can, but she... she is not listening at all. I will still try but... all depends on the twins." There's a twinge of sadness in the deep voice of the woman.

"Okay. Hope it gets over with peace." The shadow of the young voice bows down once again. But instead of standing back, the shadow of the human being turns into a bird's shadow who flies away fluttering her wings, leaving behind a white feather on the ground.

The birds who were busy in their own world till now, are looking at the unearthly changes with wide eyes and upon realising that they have seen something which they are not supposed to, they scurry behind two big leaves out of fear.

Seeing their fear, the same slender hand goes towards them and unveils the veil of leaves exposing the trembling birds.

"Don't be scared my friends. She is just like you, a bird. The only difference is, she is the harbinger of peace while you both are children of love." As soon as the soothing voice of the woman reaches the birds' ears, their scared demeanour changes into a state of calmness. They look straight into the eyes of the woman whose blue eyes are like a pool of ocean to them and her soft pink lips, like cherry blossoms. Soon the birds cozy up with each other forgetting all their fear of a few minutes back.

Wearing a familiar smile on her face, the woman turns around and warm rays of the sun graces Maya's smiling face. She looks up straight at the sun.

"It's time."

Maya brings forward her left hand and digs the white painted nail of her thumb into the top most portion of her ring finger. The nail goes deeper into her flesh but there's no sign of blood anywhere. She pulls back the nail out leaving a deep cut on the finger. Soon white light starts glowing surrounding the cut and a drop of white glittering liquid falls on the ground.

The white drop sparkles under the bright light of the sun. Within a few minutes, the drop starts spreading from its centre to all the sides. Maya brings the little finger of her right hand towards her right eye and takes out a drop of water from her ocean like eyes. She places the drop on her left palm with utmost care and gives a small peck on that palm. Soon a glowing light of pink colour illuminates the drop and travels towards the white liquid circle which is lying on the ground like a jelly. The pink light is followed by white, blue, green, yellow, red and purple. Together they settle down on that white jelly-like circle making it look like a canvas getting painted by colours of nature.

All this while Maya's face keeps glowing with the same beautiful smile of hers. The water droplet is still glowing on her palm. She fists the palm as light as possible.

"Sigh! Without you, it is not complete and with you, it's all so messed up." Maya opens the palm with reluctance. The glowing water droplet is now getting dull as if a black ink has engulfed the glittering whiteness of the water. It's looking like a water droplet filled with dirt and dust.

After taking another long sigh, Maya puts her palm upside-down, right above the colourful circle and the black droplet of water falls on the colours. It has taken five minutes approximately, after which the colourful canvas turns into a painting of monochrome. The painting is now looking like a shadowy image of an old woman who is weaving something using the weaving wheel with her hair tied into a low bun.

"You're ready. The sun is waiting for you." Hearing Maya's words, the white circle lifts itself up from the ground and goes straight into the sky with a whoosh!

"The day has finally come." Maya says while looking at the circle who gets hidden behind a white cloud as if the moon is playing hide and seek with the clouds.

Words in this chapter: 1521
Total words: 6858