THE LAST MESSAGE

Raj was smitten by her. He did not want to be poetic, but he knew for a fact that she was the most beautiful girl he had known. Her name was Alicia, a fellow student in his program. Her curly hair, her freckled and smiling face and her beautiful eyes hidden behind her glasses; a smile would inadvertently pass Raj’s lips when he thought about her. But being the introvert he was, he never had the courage to ask her out. They were good friends, hanging out quite often and having long chats at parties or restaurants. However he wanted to tell her so much more. But he waited for the right moment.

It was their graduation day. Soon, his batch would get divided up into the many aspirations they had. Raj had plans of going back to India, back to his roots and family. They will keep meeting each other, they said, knowing quite well that might never happen. Raj realized that this might be the last chance he had to talk to Alicia face-to-face. If it were his last message to her, he wanted it to be of his feelings towards her. A fear cropped up in his head, "what if she does not like you?" "Well that is what we will find out then", he decided.

At the graduation party, he tried a lot to come clear with Alicia. Each effort being more difficult than the last. He needed to meet her alone, he panicked with people around. His shyness was getting the better of him. That night, when Alicia dropped him off at his apartment, he finally asked her out for a movie the next night.

“A movie as friends, right?” she asked.

Raj was taken aback. With some courage mustered up, he asked, “Was I that obvious?”

She smiled, “Maybe.”


His student days seem like a distant past, although it had been just 5 years. Raj has made good progress in his life. As the regional manager of a big IT firm in Mumbai, he was living the Indian dream. However one thing still eluded him.

He would still sometimes dream about that fateful night 5 years ago. He wanted to tell Alicia so much more, but some fear kept him from talking. He did ask her out for a movie, but the next day Alicia never called. He waited to hear all day. He hesitated from calling her up, a little bit of hurt ego does go a long way in wrong decisions. The next week he flew off to India. Not a mail from her, he thought, we could have remained friends.

His thoughts came back to him, as he stood wrenching the letter in his hands. He was facing the vast ocean at Marine drive, his refuge in times of sadness. The letter had arrived a few days ago. It was from the States, although it had been going around the world courtesy the decadent postal systems. It had his name written on top in a handwriting which seemed vaguely familiar. The sender just put the source address as being somewhere in California.

As he started to open the letter, a thought came to his mind. The handwriting was not just familiar. He was convinced for a moment that it was Alicia’s. When he last talked to a common friend he was told that she was still working in California. A wry smile came up on his face. "Did she finally realize that what I felt was not derogatory? Did she want to apologize and make up for lost time?" All the emotions he had stuffed into the back of his head came to him in a rush.

A moment later this was replaced with a hurt anger. If she did want to talk to him, why not give him a call or send an e-mail. "Why send a letter? Why send a message through such unreliable a source? And what does she want from me now?" After such a long time he was finally getting over her. He was already dating another girl and life seemed to be finally getting better.

As he stood wrenching the letter, he still hadn’t opened it. His mind was still undecided on whether to let Alicia back into his life again. Although there was still a chance that the letter was not from Alicia, he preferred not to consider this possibility. For sure the rationality of men is lost with love.

When he finally did decide, tears were rolling down his chin. He took a bottle he found on the street and stuffed the letter in it. And with a little hesitation he threw the bottle towards the water."So long Alicia", he thought,"I hope we could someday forgive each other."


The last thing he did remember was the sound of the waves beating down on his limp body. The bottle with the letter was still drifting away from him. He could hear fishermen shout at him, but he ignored everything and tried to swim towards the bottle. "If it were Alicia’s last message", he decided,"it is surely something to die for"