"Did it hurt?" She asked him with a shaky voice. The kind of voice that tells you that the person has been crying for hours. Well, but for him to come to the conclusion that she had been crying for hours, he did not need to hear her speak. Her puffy eyes said it all. They were really swollen. Her eyes looked at him through what were just slits.
"Why have you being crying so much? And don't you dare lie to me and tell me that you haven't been crying. C'mon tell me." He spoke to her gently, with kindness and love in his eyes.
"What do you mean by asking why I have been crying! You know as well as I do why I have been crying, or with all these years have you forgotten the things and reasons that make me cry? After all these years have you really forgotten and have no clue as to what makes me cry, what hurts me?"
"No, I haven't forgotten anything my love." He said and smiled, taking her hands in his.
"Your hands are really cold. Your hands never used to be cold. They always used to stay warm. She said this with a questioning look in her eyes.Remember...I always used to ask you to hold my hands whenever we came home from our little outing in the market or our walks or just after our (window)shopping expeditions on cold winter evenings?"
"Yes. I remember. How can I not." He replied gleefully and the next instant his eyes lost their shine and looked down at her feet. "You know you really must wear those woolen socks we got for you. You know you catch a cold easily if you move around too much with bare feet."
She looked at him look at her feet and said "I hate my feet. They are so ugly. So...so...without any shape."
He laughed out loud and said, "Well...I think they are beautiful."
"You would think I am beautiful even when I would lose all my hair and teeth and my skin is all wrinkled up. Why do people become so stupid in love?" She said this slowly, softly, deliberately, already knowing the answer.
"Well I wouldn't exactly used the word 'stupid'. He replied immediately, as soon as she finished her sentence. She laughed out aloud happily, seeing that she had thought right. Her laugh made him smile, realizing he had fallen for it again, but was happy that he had fallen for it because things like these really made her smile.
There was a comfortable silence after the laughter gradually died down. None of them spoke. Then she looked at his hands, which were holding her's and asked sadly, "Why are your hands so cold?" She traced a delicate line along his palms and kissed his hand. He did not feel her touch and her lips felt as if they had just kissed ice.
"I really don't know". He replied, barely audible.
She tried to hold his hand a little tighter as if trying to warm them, hoping the coldness would thaw away. It did not.
A sudden chill she felt at the back of her neck woke her up. She opened her eyes. Her chest felt heavy. She sat up on the edge of her bed. She looked at her bare feet. She stood up and walked towards the window. She stood there for a minute, staring at the black, starless sky and whispered, "I hope it did not hurt. Not too much at least."
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