The darkness in married life

The first sight it was,

We fell in love.

The last talk we had,

The day after wedding.

I do not want to blame her. Neither I am ready to accept that the fault is mine. The reason is unknown but it is clear that our marriage is breaking apart. More than five years it has been since the last time we have talked to each other. We are a married couple living as strangers in the same house. When we were deeply in love, we said to each other that the world would end the day we get separated but it didn’t. We are separated from each other by differences measuring thousands of miles but nothing halted. Neither did the sun stop radiating heat during the day nor did the moon refuse to offer its warmth at night. Nothing paused to enable us to resolve conflicts and be a happy couple once again. Our marriage is deemed to be a highly successful one by our friends and family members but only we know that the truth is hiding behind  veils of happiness. Every day, every minute and every second, the situation is getting worse. The darkness that has eclipsed our lives is becoming stronger and stronger. There seems to be no way out of these moments of pain and sorrow.

Things can never worsen, I thought but I was wrong. The darkest of the darkness is yet to arrive, inflict pain and drown me in the sea of sorrow. But, it isn’t to be confused with the end of hope and life. It is the darkest hour of the night just before dawn.

It was a day, as every other day. A day that hasn’t seen us talk to each other, even for a couple of seconds. A day that couldn’t understand what drifted us apart. And a day that never seemed to have an end. But the day was a bit different.

I returned home from office in the evening. The house appeared different. It didn’t seem to invite me the way it used to. The warmth and love that is usually present was missing. There was a paper in one corner of the room with a pen over it preventing it from flying away, lest I miss reading it. With fear, doubts and aguish in my heart, I moved as slowly as I could towards it. I wanted to delay hearing the bad news. How I wished that my movement towards the piece of paper takes a lifetime so that I never have to move into a new phase of life, even more darker. But I knew that it isn't possible. The paper was in my hand. A clean white paper except for the words ‘Dear Aarya’ at the top left corner and her signature at the bottom right. I didn’t knew what it meant but I cried and wailed till I collapsed.

Life seemed hopeless, even more than what it was earlier. During the preceding days, atleast her presence gave me hopes for a better tomorrow. But now, I feel that there can be no end to my sorrow. I locked myself in a room for days and months and cried my heart out.

One fine morning, the doorbell rang. I didn’t have the energy to move up to the main door and so I ignored the arrival of the guest. But the doorbell wouldn’t stop ringing. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes… I finally gave up and moved towards the door and opened it. There she was, Regina. Her eyes smiled and mine shed tears. But we both were happy. We stood that way staring at each other for a long time. I didn’t ask her any questions. The answers wouldn’t matter. All that I needed was her and she is back now.

The darkest moments of my life have ended. It was the dawn of a new life.