The Gift

It was their second wedding anniversary. Myra woke up to her husband's gentle nudging. "Happy Anniversary, Myra", he smiled down at her.

"Same to you, Lyan", she grinned sleepily.

"Come, get up. Come and see my anniversary gift", he pulled her to her feet.

He almost dragged her along the corridor to his lab at the other end of their house. "Lyan, slow down", she laughed breathlessly. But he ploughed on eagerly, not listening to her. They came to a stop at the door to his lab.

"Mrs.Lyan, I present to you", he threw open the door of the lab, "SWONIZON!!!".

Inside the lab, in the midst of all Lyan's strange appratuses stood a large obelisk. It was stragely shimmery and looked as if it was made of molten silver.

Myra caught her breath. "Oh its so beautiful. What is this?".

"This, My girl, is our dream come true!"

"Lyan, you don't say so! Have you done it? Really? Oh Lyan I'm so proud of you!".

Myra's husband was an enthusiastic scientist. Myra knew that he had been fascinated by the concept that many parallel universes exist at one point of time, and that he had been trying to achieve a way to travel through these universes.

"Myra I've done it! The Swonizon can travel through the universes!"

His feverish excitement had caught on to her as well. She pulled on his sleeve and tremblingly whispered, "Lets go for ride!"

"Wait a bit. I've got another gift for you!"

She turned to him in happy anticipation. He dragged her close and planted a resounding kiss on her lips. "Love you", he murmured. "mmmmm" was all she could mutter.

He then walked towards the machine holding her hand. He drew a pattern on the wall of the obelisk. It parted, revealing an opening wide enough to walk through. They walked in and the wall slid back smoothly. Lyan drew some patterns on the wall. Before she knew it, they were moving! Myra had the feeling that she was being pulled forward. She could feel each and every movement of every atom in her body.

After what seemed like two minutes, she felt back to normal. Lyan repeated his patterns and the wall started parting. Before they could fully open, Myra who was so eager to see the new world, stepped out pulling Lyan along. As they started to walk out of the obelisk, Lyan's hand scraped against the walls and at the next instant the walls had closed in on Lyan!

Myra turned in horror and yelled out "Lyan!". But it was of no use. The obelisk gave one final shimmer and zoomed out to a small dot. Absolute terror froze Myra to the spot.

After sometime she looked around, taking in her surroundings.
She was by a large tree which had some statues underneath. She did not know the country. She did not know the language. The only thing she knew was that it is the place she had last seen her Lyan and it is the place where she would wait for his return.

Years have passed. If you pass by that tree, you may see an ageless, dirty looking woman in torn clothes sitting under the tree, looking longingly at each passing vehicle, hoping that one of them will bring her Lyan back.

She sits there, with a torn cloth tied over her lips, holding in the one thing that her Lyan left her...the last kiss.




Author's Note: The incidents in the above story are of course a product of my imagination, but the woman is not. She's a real woman. She can be found in the area near the Nandambakkam bus stop. She will be either sitting inside the bus stop or under the big tree near the bus stop. The cloth tied over her lips is real too. That was the one thing that brought my attention to her. And the strangely haunting look in her eyes...ahh...that's real too.