Bad Dream

By Dr. Yash Minaxi Joshi

"I don't understand anything anymore. Is this a dream or are you seriously talking about us?" she asked.

Like always, I nodded, smiled, gently caressed her hair and let out a sigh.

"What is it with you? Do you or do you not love me?" she asked, probably for the sixth time in that one hour, the one time that we had fixed to meet everyday.

"I do love you; it's just that I don't trust myself to keep you happy enough and that I fear that someday I am going to break your heart, just like everyone has broken mine and leave you to be stranded, not alone but lonely." I let out my worst fear and waited for her to tell me to calm down.

Instead she got up and started walking away and all I could do was utter a single cry of her name when I suddenly felt my body being shaken and I found myself suddenly awake just to see my mom trying to wake me up.

"Another bad dream?" mom asked.

"Yes. Nothing to worry about." I said.

Little did she know that it wasn't just a bad dream but a bitter truth of my life which I relived every night in my nightmares. It was a memory I desperately wanted to forget. A memory of when she left the world 10 seconds after she left me on that terrace wall.

By Dr. Yash Minaxi Joshi