Endless Affairs

"You are insane", her friend Suma piqued as Shwetha unlocked her studio apartment allotted to her for 3 months. "she is in LOVE", Preethi joined in with a giggle.

Shwetha smiled mischievously. "thanks for that thought", she winked.

She walked into her apartment and as she shut the door behind her, saw her mobile beeping and picked it up to answer it. The voice on the other end asked "Hi Shwetha, how are you, how is work ?"Shwetha answered, "Hi, so far so good, first job, first project implementation, little nervous, but all going great. How are you ?". 

The call ended after a few minutes. She yawned and stretched herself on the bed and closed her eyes lost in thought. She wasn't sleeping. She was seeing it again.

Her thoughts went back to Preethi's words. She asked herself "Was it an infatuation?". She was not sure. Strangely the confusion in her mind felt good. The emotions seemed mutual. The rarity of this rendezvous intrigued her. She didn't have to say anything aloud. The unspoken words were understood. They smiled, they laughed, they cried in their own way. Wherever she was, all she had to do was close her eyes and she could feel that magic.

A bang on the door perturbed her thoughts. She forcefully pulled herself out of the bed and opened the door. "Let's go out for dinner", her friends dragged her.

The next day, Shwetha did not budge out of her place for the most part of the day and was drowned in work. As she gathered her belongings to leave for the day, her friend whispered "Have fun, say my Hi to your… !"

Shwetha didn't wait to hear her fully, she laughed and walked out. A coquettish smile played on her lips, easing the day's stress on her countenance and she remembered her friend's comment of the previous evening "She is in love". She felt surreal as she became cognizant of the profound impact of that one encounter. 

How did it all start? It wasn't laborious to recollect. She had come on project work for 3 months from India to this beautiful place called Lynchburg in Virginia. One could do ample things in this city over the weekends, like trekking in the Blue Ridge mountains and picnics by the James River. Project work and occasional evening stroll kept her occupied during the weekdays. 

She had set out on her lone venture one evening, while her friends settled down to watch a movie. That was when she chanced upon it, her eyes sparkled at the sight. She found a place to sit and then marveled at the beauty.

It slowly became an everyday ritual. She very so often found herself perched diligently on the carved stone bench with her eyes transfixed on that visual that lay ahead of her. The serene lake, the white swans, the greenery, the sun's rays peeking through the trees as if to say "Hi", the birds, the momentary ripples in the otherwise calm waters. "Wow !", she had exclaimed the first time she had seen it.

With passing days, this was like an escapade for her, when she was extremely happy or unusually glum. Some days, the sedative calmness in the surrounding, soothed the raging fire in her. There were days when the vibrant colors around, blended with her cheerful mood. Every state of mind had an answer in that place. Whether it was a fleeting retreat or an hour of indulgence, she permitted herself to be engulfed by the spectacle.

That evening as she sat there on that bench, as she recalled her first encounter, was when realization dawned on her. Yes, she was in love, in love with sceneries, landscapes, gushing rivers, raging oceans, calm seas, the all-encompassing nature. 

Not that she had not seen such picturesque locales earlier. She had seen an opulence of them, was in awe, only she had not ceased for so long to connect and feel. For either the hustle of everyday routine kept her busy or the lack of discretion to heed to the signals kept her at bay.

The experience was addictive, the saga continued and she found herself wanting to be surrounded by that fervor, at every opportunity she got. 

But then every love story has an antagonist. Her fiend had come. She read in silence at the email on her computer one morning. "Shwetha did you get the email? we have to leave in 2 weeks", her friend wasn't teasing her this time.

Shwetha had seen it coming, her project was nearing completion. In short, her time to bid adieu was soon approaching. Meetings, status updates, last-minute changes, the weeks flew by.

When her time to leave that place had come, she went back for that last look - the scene etched in her memory forever. Would the waters, the swans, the trees, the birds, the rays miss her as she would, she knew not. Her eyes were moist. In an instant she saw something, she saw it. She saw the droplets of rain make ripples in the lake, the birds fluttered and ran for shelter, the trees swayed to the winds, the swans shivered in the cold, the clouds concealed the sun. She had an answer. She basked at that moment a little longer and walked away with a happy heart.

She knew as she drove past the city that day, she will fall in love again and again. She loved the euphoria and she didn't have to wait for long. Needless to say, her love affairs with the creation continued and she curated her memories as souvenirs.

Shwetha reminisced her past adventures, one morning lying on her bed staring at the painting that met her eye. Her reveries were broken when she heard her 5-year-old son who seemed to have woken up earlier than usual, call out to her with excitement, "Ma, come.. see look". She went out and needed no more explanation. The orange skies told her that she was again falling for the rising sun. So Long…