Lumanti (Memory)

Hello Again

When he said this, Lumanti laughed out loud, letting out her melodic laughter that he fell in love in with then and now. He just stared at her lovingly, just wanting to grasp these moments with her.

"So, I just called you Bee guy, huh?", she said controlling her laughter.

"Yeah sort of. This became sort of your way to say hi to me whenever we met. I hadn't told you my name at stall, so you just came up with that."

"And you were ok with that?"

"Ya, I liked it when you said that. I told you what my name was but I preferred you calling me that, I don't know why and it is only you who calls me that. My friends call me either Ron, or sometimes just R or Aaron. My middle name starts with B, Baby ends with Bee, I like Bee and person I love came up with it so why wouldn't I be ok with it." He said smiling and as soon as he said those last words, he realized what he did and stopped smiling.

Lumanti couldn't decide how to respond either so instead asked, "What does your middle name stand for?"

Knowing what she is trying to do, he went along with it and told her it is "Bir"

"Oh like royals?"

"Umm no, their surname ends with Shah and also has Bikram in the middle. Mine is more like our family middle name. Every son from my great great grand parents have this middle name but I only put B and not the whole thing."

She nodded and both of them remained silent for a while. "Isn't it ironic that my name means memory and I am the one who does not have memory of important things in my life." She broke the silence between them.

He knew how she loved living in the moment and treasuring memories. He was hurt to hear say that and more hurt that she doesn't remember him. He didn't know what right thing would be to say so he asked, "Will it help if I show you some pictures of us together of the places we went and food we ate."

"Sure," she said with the hope in her heart to see what she used to have as most of the memories of her past are blur. But the voice of her therapist and Ri's warning of taking things slowly swarmed around her head so she said, "I don't know if it is a good idea. It is ok. I am told not to rush into bringing out repressed memories. Um I want to see them but I am not sure about myself" He understood and then he said with concern in his eyes, "Then lets not go there." He pressed his lips together and smiled. She smiled back but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Hey, what if we start over again. Clean slate," he said trying to lighten the mood.

"No, you have advantage over me, you know more about me than what I know about you which is what you told me so far. And I don't know if I should trust all of it." She joked.

"Hmm, right. Then let's make new memories. We can start like we are meeting for first time and you can ask me about me as if we were meeting for first time and as if we didn't have any history together. Clean slate. What do you say?" He said while both of them were walking towards the store front to weigh their products and pay for it. 

"Ya, right, like we are going to be new friends," she said with hint of sarcasm while getting into small line ahead of her.

He was hurt but said, "Ya, we can start with that."  They were already in front of the counter so they paid for their stuff and went out of the store walking towards the parking area.

She had realised that he was not joking any more. She said, "Aaron, do you really think this is a good idea? We starting off as friends and where do you think it will lead us with all that history behind us? We have practically moved on."  They were walking side by side now. There werent any people in the parking lot and only few cars.