Valentine's Day - Visitor's Story

by Barnali Saha
(Nashville, TN, USA)

I perceive the world in your eyes
And sense beauty in your words
We are just bodies apart
One soul links our heart.


"I can see the waterfall."

"How is it?"

"Beautiful, milky white, forceful. It is pouring like a huge stream of pure white milk from atop and the rock behind is brownish-black. The waterfall is rushing over edge and crashing down into a greenish blue deep whirling pool below and then flowing endlessly in ripples."

"I can hear its sound. It seems angry. It is vigorous."

"But it is beautiful. It looks like an amalgamation of all my dreams flowing through one sudden break in my heart."

"You sound poetic. Tell me how the sky is now?"

"Well it is blue with flocculent white clouds"

"What shade of blue is it?"

"It is light blue"



Love is that one strange feeling of togetherness that had once crept into the heart of two human beings who were destined to be together. While crossing one busy highway many years back, a woman caught sight of a seemingly strange human being -- tall, lean with a bony face covered with beard and still eyes like a fish. She rushed to him and grasped his right hand. The man said something to her but she didn’t understand it. He said it again and she translated the slender movements of his lips and smiled.

On another day a woman was holding a telephone - an indispensable instrument in daily life. Somebody had called her and she knew it must be important, she was expecting some news; the little boy who worked at the grocery store came to inform her about the call that was waiting for her. She rushed downstairs and picked the telephone. Drops of tears sparkled in the corners of her deep, black eyes. Then she saw a shadow behind her and turned around and smiled. It was a reflection she had seen before. The furtive code was deciphered.

With every movement of the world, with every rotation, the darkness and the silence increased. Like the still wintry nights, the world seemed to echo silence and don darkness. The moon in that jet-black sky began losing her dim aura and on one night, a dense swathe of billowy clouds covered the lunar luminescence and it shone no more. Impinging silence began pervading the moonless sky and it seemed that the time had come to a sudden stop. In the motionlessness darkness two tranquil faces engraved with a patina of fine lines and tiny wrinkles resonated with the passionate tune of the nightingale -- the bird was invisible, but a pair or eager ears listened to its soulful tunes. Like the nightingale and its song regale in their passion, two hearts also inundated themselves in pure love.

Hope like the morning sun rose and the moonless sky dazzled with color. Birds began to sing and their song echoed in the remotest corners of the world. Happiness filled the universe and two souls stood hand in hand before a roaring sea.

"The beautiful sea it is mingling with the sky in the horizon. The waves are frothing the sands, the sands are yellow in color and it gleams in the sunlight," said the old woman.

"I can feel the sea in me. It is roaring and I can hear the waves breaking into the rocks and the sea gulls flying above me. I can sense all of them," said the man.

A group of young boys and girls were watching an elderly couple in a movie theater. They were very old -- one said the lady must be over sixty and the man, who was wearing dark glasses, should be over seventy. They were sharing a large cup of popcorn and the old woman was feeding the man occasionally while explaining to him some scenes of the film they were watching, the man was looking at the woman instead of watching the movie. The youngsters found such public displays of affections from such a matured couple extremely unpleasant and funny; thus, they began talking about them in voices that turned a number of furtive glances to the affectionate pair. People laughed and cracked vile jokes but the talked about duo were composed.

One said, "They are shameless, maybe they are used to getting attention like this."

"Old is gold, and they are celebrating their golden age," said another.

Soon the movie got over, and all the audiences except the group of youngsters began leaving the theater. The group was waiting for an adventurous tryst with the affectionate old couple whom they saw inside.

The crowd began thinning, people were rushing out and in that crowd they caught sight of the old couple. The man was wearing a pair of fancy sunglasses and the woman was looking at him. He seemed to be groping his way. The youngsters realized something and decided to leave when they heard a woman calling out to them.

"You were eager to talk to us, why you are leaving now," said the woman while she stared at the faces of a couple of teenagers.

They seemed to have lost the words and began to fumble. The woman couldn't decipher what they said and turned to her husband who explained to her their loss of words. They waited for the little crowd to speak but they suddenly became numb.

The old couple left the movie theater and walked out into the street. It was Valentine's Day and the whole city was decked with love and lovers.

"I see red balloons and beautiful stuffed teddy bears inside a greeting card shop, it is a day of love and they call it Valentine's Day," said the woman smiling.

"Really" said the man.

"I see a bunch of red roses in a corner flower shop, will you buy me the roses?" the woman asked.

"Yeah sure, after all, you are the love of my life, aren’t you?" he asked.

"Yes" said the woman blushing.

They reached the flower shop and the man pulled out a bunch of soft petals that touched his hand and said "I want the red roses."

The flower shop owner was angry at the destruction of a number of a number of sunflowers on the Valentine's Day eve and decided to confront the destroyer. He looked up and saw an old man with a pair of sunglasses clasping the petals and smiling. A woman was standing beside him waiting for a chance to speak.

"Please pardon him, we are sorry. He wanted the red roses for me but since he cannot see, he mistook the sunflowers as the red roses."

There were other customers in the shop but the owner couldn’t resist a few drops of silent tears that filled the corners of his eyes as he looked amazed at two old faces.

"It is okay Madam. Here are the red roses tell me which bunch you want," said he while he pointed to a bunch of ruby red roses.

The woman stared smilingly at his face with a smile and the man was confused. She couldn’t read the words in the dim light of the street.

The shop owner was confused, so were the other customers who were now looking at the old couple. The old man now smiled and his still eyes seemed to glow behind his dark glasses.

"Pardon my wife," said he. "She is deaf and she cannot hear what you say unless she reads your lips. It's dark out here so she couldn’t decipher what you said"

The man then explained to her what the flower shop owner said and she picked up the brightest bouquet of red roses.

The couple left the shop and walked towards their home, as they reached the lane leading to their house, the man suddenly turned to his wife and said, "Happy Valentine's Day my love."

The moon light was falling on his face and she read his lips and kissed the twelve roses that he gave her as her first Valentine's Day gift.

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Valentine's Day by Barnali Saha Banerjee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
© Barnali Banerjee., all rights reserved.