The Death of a Language (A Short Story)

So this is it. My long wait is going to end within a few moments. I’m going to meet him after two months and fifteen days. My mother hasn’t stopped me from going outside today. It’s my Birthday after all. But, of course, she doesn’t know I’ll be here, in this restaurant, meeting with someone she doesn’t like. When she found out we are having a relationship, she closed all the doors. They seemed impenetrable. So, we couldn’t meet, talk or contact. It was a catastrophe for me. The world seemed falling apart. At the very beginning, I was over-devastated. Then I became over-heartsick. And then I became over-desperate to know anything about him. I trust him. I know he will always wait for me. When time will come, he’ll fight for me. But yet, in those moments, I thought there were no other words remain for this story to continue.

Then suddenly, one day, I was able to grab my mother’s cell-phone for five minutes. I memorized his number. I would never forget it. I texted: “I LOVE YOU”. I did not need to think about it. My fingers typed at the speed of light as if they have their own consciousness. It’s only a three-word sentence. But it meant a lot. It meant everything: my resistance against all those filthy and evil comments that my mother made about him, my sleepless struggle to find a way to contact with him and of course my excitement of sending him love. It was also confirmation that I still loved him. I knew these were the things that he needed to know. And those words were enough to let him know everything that I wanted him to know.

My message was simple. But his wasn’t. He replied within half a second: “1432. IMsdU. RUOk? HwsUrStdy?” I checked if I miss-typed his number. I double checked. I triple checked. The number was his. The number was fine. Did someone else reply? No ways. Nobody touches his stuff. So, why did he send me an SMS that I couldn’t understand? I went nuts. I needed his love. I texted back: “Couldn’t understand your SMS baby. I Love you so much.” This time no sudden reply came. I waited half a minute. One minute passed. Then two minutes. His reply came. It was a wonderful one. A message I had longed for a week, a never-ending-type week since we last saw each other. “I Love You Too. I missed you. Are you ok? How’s your study? …Things are different now, so should be our ways to communicate. Don’t worry my love. Lovers do find ways.” I felt like crying. But I didn’t. There were others in my room. I looked back to the first SMS. ‘Brilliant’ I thought. Another SMS came. “X’ use this letter when it’s not safe to send you SMS. Act normal Kobita. Live like you’ve lived before all these happened. Stay unsuspicious.”

So, he was introducing something new to me. It’s a different form of a language, a kind of code language. I did not bother whether it was a language or not. It was meaningful for us. It was a life-saver for me. I was aware of my mother’s return. I ended our first text conversation sending: “IOzntOK, BtNowIam. TC. Gbye Kobi. 143 X” I felt heartbroken to say him goodbye. But, it was also a relief. I had a mixed feeling of agitation and happiness. It was like the lava that meets water into the deep ocean floor. I knew that is how islands do appear.

Since then I tried my best to act normal. I engaged well in my study. My mother reduced giving me religious lessons that disapprove inter-religious relations. She didn’t know he is an atheist. Double trouble. Now, after all these days, I can realize that some part of my mother’s suspicion has ended. I am just 16. She might have thought that fascination towards love is pretty common for a girl like me who belongs to puberty. And I am no exception. Good for me if she thinks like this. Then I’ll have more chances to meet him.
*** *** ***
Kobita is like my muse. I never thought a teenage girl would make the most profound and important impact in my life. Through discovering her existence, I have got firsthand experience of a person whose mental age surpassed her physical age. I guess I am lucky. And this realization inspired me to look further. We never proposed, only loved and took great care of each other. I knew the consequences. I am aware of my place and time. And what had happened was nothing unusual. Kobita’s mother is a typical social being, what she has been doing is well-expected too. She has been keeping Kobita away from my compass. I was not heartbroken. I was just a bit worried because this is something completely new to her. She is more passionate than I am. And I am more patient than she is. But, both of us are equally steadfast about our relationship.

Kobita graduated in our ways of communication very fast. So, the number of ‘143X-IMsUX-IM4UX’ type one-sided short SMS increased. Sometimes her texts were of more than two sentences. Those came when something good or bad happened to her and she wanted to share. But I could not do anything. Because there was an ‘X’ at the end. It’s painful. But we knew ‘no pain, no gain’. Even the cosmos came into existence with the greatest explosion, the big bang. Kobita thinks I am a philosopher. She considers me her mentor. But I know she has inspired me to become her inspirer. Our Souls have their own ways of interaction and intercourse. This demands language and freedom. And we are deprived of it.

So, today is a special day. It’s her Birthday. I go to the restaurant. We smile to see each other. We shack hands. Nothing cinematic happens outside. But I can feel that she is bursting inside like me. I don’t forget to wish her. Then I say, “You look beautiful.” She smiles, and replies, “…into your eyes”. We start talking like the ways we had talked before. Nothing about ‘pain’ or ‘gain’, instead make reflections about discoveries that we’ve made and things that we’ve learned about life. We talk about our studies, what to read and do next. Suddenly, I tell her that I have a gift for her. She blushes. I gave her my smartphone to let her see something. She nods down her head, looks onto the display and starts scrolling down a thread of SMS. It is the complete SMS thread of the conversations we made from the day when we had to split up. I came to know about this app that saves SMS to a person’s email account automatically. She scrolls and scrolls. I grab her hand and tell her that I knew how difficult it was for her to delete every single SMS.

We have our lunch. “Now …Kobi, tell me where do you want to take me? I’m all yours today.” I smile. The waiter comes. He gives me a file. I open it. There is no bill, instead of that, there is a letter written in a familiar language. It says, “I read all the text SMS. My nephew helped me to have an automatic back up of SMS which was untraceable for Kobita. At first, seeing those I got furious inside, but I knew if I caught her red handed, she would find another way. … As you texted once…lovers do find ways. So I keep reading without shouting. Kobi, I failed to recognize you in my own language. I needed to learn the language you two are using. It wasn’t tough. I’m happy that now I understand what you two are up to. From now on, you don’t need to text that way anymore. I’ve known that you two are co-constructing each other. What a wonderful endeavor! So, fly together. I know you won’t do anything unusually stupid. Best wishes for the future. 143 2 2.” At the bottom, I find ‘Kobita’s mother’. I look towards the waiter. He whispers into my ears, “She reserved this table, paid the bill and just left”. I give him tips. Kobita asks, “Anything wrong Kobi?” “Nope” I answer. “Ok,” she says. She comes close to me and gives me a mysterious look. “Now, where should we go?” She asks. I look into her dazzling eyes and I reply, “…Into the sky”.