The illusion.

She was sitting in the far corner of cafeteria, all alone. The hot fries she had ordered were now cold as dead. Sara was lost deeply in her thoughts, she didn't even realize that she missed her 3 hours long lecture sitting there thinking about what to do, what would happen next.??

It’s been six months since she got engaged to the love of her life, student life was about to end, in a couple of weeks they would be having their final papers and after that a Masters degree in hand and then she was all set to tie the knot. She always adored Mike of his exceptional capabilities of solving her problems; to her he was her solution to every problem. But this time it was far more complex perhaps even Mike may fail to solve it for her and she didn't want to see him fail but she saw no other way of getting rid of the problem she was facing…… engrossed in these thoughts she was totally unaware of the what was going on in the surroundings.

Lecture was over, she was startled by his voice; “Hey Blackie! What is up with your mood? Didn't take any class today, you fine??”

Blackie, he used to call her because of her jet black hair and deep black eyes that gave her a stunning look due to her near white complexion which was not too white, not too tan. She looked straight into his eyes, not sure whether to tell him or not but then again his come-to-bed sort of voice used to unchain her heart, her defenses used to fail and she showed no resistance while he walked straight through the gates of her high walled, fortressed heart via her eyes, perhaps that was why, Sara Anderson, a girl with as-a-matter-of-fact tone fell for Mike.

“Where on the earth were you?” she asked in a bossy tone, “you should have stayed with me,” she went on, “you know there is always something wrong with me.”

She saw his killing smile and that infuriated her even more, “I am not cracking jokes here, and neither am I in a mood” she said in a chilled voice with anger hidden beneath. Mike switched to serious mode, the smile was gone.

“You know that very well, it’s only and only you who solves my problems and only you I share with, you knew there was something wrong with me and yet you walked away, left me here, class was not important than me.”

Although she talked for a while but she felt breathless in an effort to suppress her anger, she did not want the person she loved most to be hurt by her anger, although she knew that he won’t be. Mike on the other hand loved to be scolded by her, to him, this made him feel that she considered him, her very own and perhaps that was the reason he smiled earlier. Now he switched back to serious mode, he sensed the intensity of the problem, looked deeply into her eyes searching her heart and mind for what was bothering them. She felt his gaze penetrating through her eyes going deep down her heart, she let it happen for a while but then something struck her and she looked away at the window breaking the contact, it was raining outside and rain was splashing at the window pane, sky seemed gloomy. She saw a couple of boys and girls dancing and enjoying the rain, laughing while the sky drained down its tears. “Hey, look here” he said in an affectionate tone, “what is the matter with you? Tell me, I need to know.” She continued to look outside, now she was looking at some boys playing football, it’s been raining after quite a long time in the midst of this blazing summer and everyone seemed to be enjoying it to the full, everyone but Sara.

“I can’t …..” there was a pause and she about to burst into tears, “….tell you.”

This was odd, she has never been like that towards him, and he now realized that something was definitely not in place with her.

“Sara! You know I love you, I know what you are, I've seen your best and your worst, I've seen you trying hard, seen your kindness and strength, I don’t love you just because I want you or you are something worth achieving, it has nothing to do with me…. Sara? Are you listening?”

She was still looking outside the window, rain splashing on the window blurred out the vision through the glass, but she could still see blurry traces. One of the boys seemed to have committed a foul, the captain of opposite team was convinced that he did commit the foul but the boy refused, the argument was heating up, and when it was confirmed that he had done so, the boy kicked the ball in anguish. Sara saw it flew straight towards her like a cannon ball. In split second the ball smashed through the window, the sound of glass smashing into pieces echoed in the whole place, she saw the pale face of the boy who stood there frozen realizing the consequences, rest of them ran away and then after a while he also followed.

Sara turned she saw Mike standing right next to her, “you look pretty much awesome in that doctors’ overcoat, Mike” she chuckled. But when she looked at the face she felt as if she looked into Medusa’s eye and turned stone. She looked around, this was no cafeteria, this was no university, she was lying on her bed in hospital, and the man standing was no Mike. Her heart missed several beats, she looked again at the face, it was an elderly looking face with lines of weariness, looking down upon her with affection and fear mixed in the eyes….. “Who are you? Where is Mike? Where am I? Can somebody call Mikey? Mike,” she shouted, “Mike, where are you?”

Calm down Sara, please” said the doctor.

“No, I don’t want to, until I see Mike, I need to tell him what is wrong with me, he needs to know, please call him I need to tell him something…. Who are you? Where is he? Please for GOD’s sake call him” she begged the doctor.

“Mike is dead, do you hear me, HE IS DEAD AND I AM YOUR FATHER, HE IS NO LONGER WITH US, AND HE IS NO LONGER WITH YOU” the man shouted.

“No” she gasped, “No, this cannot be, he cannot do this…”

“Yes, he can, that was bound to happen.” Again, but this time in soft tone, said the man, “Remember that accident 3 months ago, you fell off the bridge into the river, Mike died saving you.”

“NO, NO, NO, NO…. I killed him, I…..” everything went dark.

She could only hear voices that meant nothing to her.

“Doctor, doctor, over here, hurry up give her the shot, we’re losing her again. 3, 2, 1… charge.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Anderson, she’ll be all fine in a couple of months, just keep reminding her the incident so that she may not lose her memory permanently, I know it’s painful but you’re a doctor, you should understand how important it is for you to keep you daughter alive. Good luck.”