After an undefined passage of time, a young pair who were not a couple were sitting on a mountain top. From their perch, they could see the beach of that dreadful night’s events and the same tireless sea. The man’s cheeks were hollow and his long kurta hung loose on his body as if he had lost a lot of weight very quickly. He had a straggly beard. The woman was fair and her salwar kameez fitted her well. She had a long nose.
“Look at the sea,” muttered the man. “It never gives up trying to meet its lover.”
“Turn this way,” said the woman, pointing in the other direction, due west. “Isn’t the sunset beautiful?”
The red ball of fire was sinking behind a further mountain, setting aglow the trees along the skyline. The man stared at the glorious sight and appeared unmoved.
The woman continued, “A nawab’s family want to see me.”
The man looked puzzled. “So?” he said.
“See me, you buddhoo,” she said. “They want me to marry their son. Imagine that – an orphan girl like me marrying into royalty. I will be a princess. Isn’t that what happens in a fairy tale?”
The man’s look of despondency lifted a bit and he looked at her with more interest. “Congrats,” he said. “But is it your fairy tale?”
“I don’t know,” she said slowly, considering. “But it will be worth finding out, don’t you think?”
He nodded. Gloom settled over him like an old cloak too comfortable to cast away and the conversation sputtered to a halt.
“How long does it take for a broken heart to heal?” he asked after several minutes.
The woman looked into his face and she suddenly appeared wise beyond her years.
“I have some knowledge of these matters,” she said. “The sadness will always be there. But your heart will mend and happiness can find a home in it sooner than you imagine.”