"Hey, Sarah, have you ever seen any play in the theatre?", Jaimie asked her.
"Not yet. But I have always wanted to see one.", she replied.
"Well, I've got two tickets, but I think I can't be able to make it tonight. If you want it...", he offers her but he changes his mind, "Umm, wait. Maybe you won't like it. Let it be."
"I will.", she tried to snatch the tickets off his hand, "I have heard about it... Overacting and some old school props", she chuckled.
"You won't regret", he gave her the tickets, "but please, don't cry", he winked.
She took the tickets and said, "Hope they won't kick us out for laughing too much and annoying the people around", she giggled.
[Sarah is one of those few who had once loved someone with all her heart, but unfortunately, her relationship didn't work out, and now, she's all out of love. Or to say, against the love.]
On theatre day,
Sarah arrived late with her friend, and as they entered, they could hear their own footsteps as they sneaked into the theatre. They could see the annoyed looks on the audience and seemingly, from the actors on the stage as well. It was the climax scene of Romeo and Juliet.
And as they took their seat, Romeo starts crying in front of Juliet's body. "That's intense", Sarah whispers to her friend and they both giggle.
Suddenly, a man interrupted the play.
"Stop this nonsense", he shouted.
She could hear people around them muttering, "Who's that man.", "Get him out of here", "Who the hell is he?", and other utterances.
Sarah asked her friend, "Where is the security?"
[Witnessing the artists on the stage who were taking the situation quiet normally and the voice modulation of the man interrupting, gradually made everyone believe now that it was the part of the show. Or to say, a theatre play was being portrayed inside the play]
The man started looking the audience on all three sides, turn by turn, with his grumbling expressions , dressed as a drunkard on his clumsy suit,
"This is our definition of love...
We have grown up with this myth. Love is sacrifice, Love is to die for the one you love......
He raised his voice, "What will family say, what will society say? Will they consider? Will they accept?"
He paused and again continued his grumbling,
"We all want to love like Romeo and Juliet, so pure.
We readily risk it all for just a glance of our loved ones and get ready to do anything just to bring a smile in their face...
.... but also, don't we give up so easily and kneel to circumstances, sometimes? he questioned everyone around him.
There was a pin drop silence, with some questioning to themselves, some thinking that it was bitter truth which might have been experienced by most of them at some point of their lives.
The artist continued, " If you can't do anything about it, it's easy-
take drugs, hurt yourself or even, Kill them, kill yourself.
Is this the love we talk about? "
[Tears started falling from Sarah's eyes rolling to her cheeks.]
The man paused and sat down in a chair silently for about a minute looking down and giving the audience some time to reflect themselves.
There continued the silence around the theatre all that time.
He concluded being seated, "It's true, Romeo and Juliet are truly an example of the deepest love ever, but they couldn't make it together being alive. But that doesn't mean, every love story has sad ending like that.
Maybe they belonged to the cruel era....
Time has changed.
They were forced to kill themselves just to make their love eternal, but you can stand out..."
"Don't let them go..."
Everyone stood up and clapped. The clap sounded louder breaking out from a silent atmosphere. The curtain fell down.
Sarah shed the tear of guilt in her eyes, for she felt that maybe she quit little too early.
[Someone she loved was just about to start his career, but still, when she bravely introduced him to her parents, they didn't find him the right person. Eventually, she chose to give up on her relationship by then. But she couldn't quiet move on, nor could she return to the guy who was happily married now ]
Sarah was too moved by his act and the message he had put through. She desperately wanted to meet him in person and appreciate him. So, she sneaked with her friend to the back stage and looked around for him but couldn't find him. Her friend saw him from the window that he was going towards the car park. They followed him.
The man reached near the car and his 5-year-old daughter ran towards him and hugged him.
He asked his wife, "Why don't you bring her in sometimes?"
"You know it, Arthur. I don't really get it.", she replied.
"I know.", he said as he enters the car.
Sarah called him, "Hello Sir!"
"Yes, please", he turned to her.
"Sir, you're really good. I just loved your performance.", she complimented him.
"Can you say more about that to my wife, please?", he laughed.
Sarah looked at him, his good-looking happy family, his car. Overall, he looked to be a happy person.
The artist could see some questions in her eyes. He could feel that she needed some counselling at that moment, someone to listen to her or perhaps, someone to have more pain than her.
He tried to read her mind, "Well, I just hope, the act didn't bother you. Any resemblance is totally co-incidental, okay?", he chuckled.
"Oh no. Nothing like that.", she scoffs, "I was just wondering what inspires you. You have a good family, you look happy and I could see so much pain within you in the stage."
He looked at his wife with a look-at-that gesture.
"There's a small story which inspired me.", he continued, "you have time to hear?"
"Yeah. Sure.", she answered curiously.
"It was long before, when society was more conservative than you'd imagine now. One of my friends loved this girl. So much. She was bookish, a novel-worm to say. He really struggled to match up her interests (he smiles). Romeo Juliet- she used to give him example of.
They both loved each other, a lot. Then came a time, her parents had fixed her marriage with someone they chose. They chose someone with good career while he was just struggling, and the caste thing."
[His last words hit Sarah so bad.]
"And what happened", she asked.
"She killed herself. She couldn't upset her parents and her lover. So, she just took it all with her.", he shed a tear. Even his wife was teary.
"And your friend?", She interrogated.
"He wasn't Romeo. He thought about his mother and couldn't go along with her.",
he adds, "She should have talked to him at least. Communication is what mattered. Quitting never leaves you any chances of succeeding, you know. Things would have been different if she was still there.
And about my friend, it's already been 7 years now that she has gone, he still gets a bouquet of roses she loved, in every love event they shared together, her birthday, their anniversary and so on."
Sarah suddenly started feeling much better. She asked, "But....Is he happy now? I mean how's he doing now without her?"
"You know sometimes it's possible to love someone by even letting them go" he answers, "I mean, you can always be happy with anyone you want to at any time.
Don't mistake moving on with totally forgetting someone. You're still haunted by moments with them, you have to keep facing them intensionally, unintentionally, but trust me, it won't matter, anymore."
Sarah wipes her tears and leaves with a grateful smile.
.....
Inside the car,
his wife looked at him and got surprised to see him smiling as if he wasn't teary at all few seconds before. "Let's go", he says.
While driving back home, his wife asked," Arthur, you never told me about your friend before."
"Oh that. You know I just made that up.", he laughed.
"You made that up? Seriously?", she asked him surprised.
"Oh yes. I felt like she needed to hear something like that. You know what, the best way to console someone is to tell them about someone who has more pain than they are facing.", he replied.
"My goodness. You're so good with that. I think I am in for your next show", she said.
"You'd better, my love.", he laughed again," Mommy will bring you in my next show. Yeah", he smiled at his daughter and give her a high five.
The next day was good sunny day, a perfect day for laundry. His wife got his clothes for washing and as she emptied the pocket before washing them. She found a piece of paper which was a bill.
A bill of a bouquet of roses.