The Declarations of an Orange

Chapter 5

The Tale of a forlorn Peach

'How did she die, Orantus?' Litch asked emotionally, 'I've heard that you jumped off a truck to save her. Many believe that she died when she fell off but I have also heard that you saved her. Orantus, are you okay?'

'I couldn't save her, Litch. I am not as brave as you think. I let her die.'

'Tell me what happened? What separated you from her?'

'War!'

'War?'

Litch raised her eyebrows and she looked frightened. I sensed a strange agony in her tiny eyes.

I dream of a sparrow

Flying above the mountains and skies

but just in a bigger cage.

Something happened to Litch, she thought someone was calling her, or maybe she didn't know what was happening to her, and she ran away. She didn't look back. She didn't look anywhere as her mind closed her eyes to the world.

I wanted to go somewhere. Anywhere. A place where I could sit and think nothing, see nothing and feel nothing but then I get scared. If I reach there, as I am not sure it is possible, will I be the same fruit or I'll be changed. If I feel nothing, will there be any point of my breaths or I will just be a wandering soul in the bigger cosmos.

I look at the stars, and I see the starlight reaching my eyes, and I think, distance is a funny thing and so is time, the star that I am seeing, shone a million years ago at an unimaginable distance, and yet it found a way to reach me, but it's a dead star now. I am looking at the ghost-stars.

Only the moon is real, only the moonlight is cold.

I was hungry and yearning

And I wish to eat the moon.

Alas, clouds ate it first.

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I saw a flock of birds
at dawn,
but they were just stars,
now diminished.

Peachow whispered in my ears, and it stirred me deeply. She was being poetic and I was pretty bad at it. I inspected her wounds which were now healed, and she was happy about it. There was something more to her smiles, and I sensed it. The memories of night romance were filling our lips with smiles.

'So if we decide to live together, what would you like to call us?'

'An orange and a peach, together.-' I looked at her with surprise, 'Don't get annoyed when other fruits will laugh at you...I mean us. There aren't many cross couples. There aren't even couples anymore. No one is loving anyone. We are just spending our lives like a Ted.'

'What's a Ted?'

'Ted's a toy, a fluffy one, shaped like a cute bear! Human girls, the tiny ones, like that a lot.'

'Sayra didn't have any Ted.'

'Who is Sayra?'

'Daughter of my master!'

'Who is your Master? You knew his name-'

'Harun'

It's strange that an abstract thing, such as 'name' can contain a big cotton cloud of memories, and when you are reminded of it, or when you retrospect in your lonesomeness, it bursts. The big cloud bursts and it rains above your head, and every drop that falls on you takes you to the memories attached to that name. You begin to feel it all over again, what you felt for the first time or the second or the third. It is beautiful and yet haunting, delusional and yet so substantial. It happens in your mind but it feels so real, that you can't deny its ghostly presence.

Name. Peachow. My Peachow.

The moment this name reverberates in the depths of my heart, I fall into the deep wells of memories, those silver alluring beads of moments, gather around in a string of time, wrapped tightly around my neck, but not killing me, only giving me an illusion of death, and yet I feel unapologetically happy for something that causes only pain. And more pain.

Pain, a funny word, they invented to describe what I feel when I miss the love of my life, my reason to breathe, my sweet darling Peachow, and her gorgeous little face, but I know it's not pain. It's deeper than that, it's deeper than anything I know.

'Harun' Peachow spoke softly, 'and her wife, Hamida, and their lovely daughter Sayra. Sayra was fond of me, Orantus. She used to play a game!' She sounded so excited and full of life. I didn't interrupt. I listened to her and every word she said. She told me everything. She didn't just narrate a story, she took me on a walk and she held my hand. She magically transported me to another world, she gave me enough details that I could feel the same air which she felt, could taste the same water which she tasted. I saw what happened to her, just by listening to her words. Just like you are reading, these words, these scrambled words, arranged here and there to form a narrative, a story, so that you could laugh, so that you could cry, but can you feel what I feel? Can you see what I have seen? Can you place yourself in my shoes, and see the world, just for once, and tell me where do you see Kindness? Where do you see Love? All I saw in this world was envy, hunger for power, jealousy, lust and unabashed lust disguised as love. That's what I have seen, and I don't wish to see it anymore. I am sorry for breaking the rule of Fiction. A character can never talk to the reader. Forgive me if you can. Forget that it ever happened. Can you do that for me?

'So the boy saved her?' I asked Peachow, 'Right?'

'I am not sure, Orantus.' Two tiny drops of tears, appeared in her eyes and when she blinked, they fell on the earth, 'I am not sure. I don't know what happened to her. I couldn't do anything for her.'

'I am sorry!'

I hesitatingly hugged her. She was sobbing quietly. It was very gruesome what she saw. I could have never seen it, the violence, the hatred, the killings that she witnessed. It affected her. I could see that she wasn't the same Peach she once used to be.

Love and war, both affect us drastically, and in ways, we can't imagine. Looking at them is like looking at a thin horizon, the vastness of sea is the war and azureness of sky is love, and we stand afoot, introspecting and looking deeply at the horizon as the horizon, from what I understand is choice, the decision, that we must have to make, to choose one of two. Sea or sky? Love or war?

Many choose to drown in the sea and a very few choose to fly in the sky.

We both were ready to choose the sky, but the world around us has already chosen the sea. The air began to suffocate us. Although the wounds were healed, my dear Peach fell sick, anyway! She wouldn't sleep in the night, as the images that she saw didn't let her, the horrors of war terrorizing her every moment, tormenting her soul in every possible way.

In the dark of the night I would count her breaths, as they slowly fall on my skin, and every time she takes a breath, I blink towards the moon.

I pray. I pray to the moon to cast his divine moonlight on my Peachow's eyes and steal all the memories that she has, make her forget everything that she saw, but it never listens to me.

It just stares blankly,

hiding behind the dusky clouds,

dancing quietly on the far-flung sky.

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"Mumma please...!"

"We will buy you fresher fruits, Tina. Don't touch them."

"I have never seen an Orange and Peach together. Let me keep them, please!"

"Where did you pick them?"

"I saw them under that tree-" She pointed at the big Banyan tree, "They look so good together."

"I can't believe you are nine years old. You should be mature, Tina!"

"I just want to keep them. How's that disturbing my maturity?"

"Alright Alright!" The father interrupted them, "We are already getting late. All of you, get in the car and Devika-" He looked at her wife, "If little Tina wants to keep them, let her!"

"What if they are poisonous?" She raised her suspicion, "For all we know is that we found these fruits lying by themselves in a forest! The peach looks rotten!"

"I am not going to eat them, Mumma!" Tina shouted and entered the car. They were going on a Picnic and stopped the car because Devika wasn't feeling well. She wanted to vomit and that gave Tina, a girl of nine, a chance to get out of the car and do a little walking. At first, she thought she saw shining stones, but when she came close, she found two fruits lying there, innocently. She brought them back with her.

"Peachow, are you alright?"

"Yes, I guess! Do you have any idea where are we going?"

"No!" I exclaimed, "This girl seems mad!"

"She isn't going to eat us!"

"How do you know?"

"I understand human language, Orantus!"

"Okay, can you tell me what are they talking about?"

"They are talking about the mountains!"

"Mountains? Are we going to the mountains?"

"I guess so!"

"Do you like the mountains? I have never seen them?"

"I saw them once when I was small! You will love them, Orantus!"

"I'm glad that I am going with you, Peachow!"

"Orantus, listen...I have a name for us." Her eyes looked bright, "You are an Orange and I am a Peach. Together we can be-" I am not sure but I think she blushed, "Orach!"

"That's a pretty name!"

"Orantus, can I say something to you?"

I looked at my Peachow, and then I looked at the girl who was staring at both of us as if she was listening every word we say, so I felt shy.

"Yes, Peachow!"

"Can you come closer?" She asked, politely.

"Let-Me-Try"

I said. I tried to push myself towards her, but the girl's grip was very tight. I tried again, with all my strength and I almost touched her, my Peachow and she said what she wanted to say!

"I love you Orantus!"

"Oh!"

I didn't know to react. I didn't how to do anything. I just sat there, numb and shaken, and waited for the storm of emotions to sweep me away. The storm passed and I survived. With a rejoiced heart I nodded, and I thought I looked idiot so I said those words too.

"I love you a lot, Peachow!"

We both were happy, that we were finally going on a trip together. It was a vague thought but I felt that Tina could understand our language too. She was smiling uncontrollably at us, and in her eyes, I saw a strange innocence and love and kindness.

Maybe, Peachow saw that too.

(To be continued)

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