Together Forever?! : Finding Love & Salvation

Introduction

This is my third story in the series – Together Forever?! Love, Betrayal, Hate and everything in between! - A collection of real-life stories

This story is one of sacrifice and love and salvation. Some might find it intriguing and some might sympathize, some might question the behavior and some might think it completely stupid… Whatever your final opinion is, save it for the end, because this is how it goes…

Finding Love And Salvation

This is a story about a boy - Theodore and a girl – Sophie. Sophie was the prettiest girl in the neighborhood and too many boys harbored a secret wish of taking her out on a date, but none actually did that. The reason was the umpteen guys she had turned down before. People were beginning to think of her as a little proud and egoistic. Theodore was one among the few who had garnered enough of courage to go speak to Sophie. To everyone’s surprise, it didn’t turn out all that bad. It was quite good actually! From there began their amazing friendship. While Theodore’s intentions were to eventually propose Sophie and settle down in life with her; for Sophie, Theodore was always only a good friend with whom she could share all her secrets and talk about anything and everything under the sun.

After three whole years of knowing each other and having an absolutely honest friendship, Theodore decided to propose Sophie on his birthday. He was completely sure that she would say a YES. It was more like; he couldn’t see any possible reason why she would turn him down. In his mind and heart, they were just so perfect for each other. He assumed she saw that too!

Dressed in a new outfit, holding a bouquet of red roses, Theodore happily headed at the place in the park where they usually met. Sophie, on the other hand, had some great news to tell Theodore that evening. She was brimming with happiness too, unaware of the plans that Theodore had in mind. When they met, he went down on one knee and proposed Sophie. At that moment of truth, Sophie went all quiet. There were a million thoughts running through Theodore’s mind at that moment. Sophie didn’t speak anything; the thought of losing a dear friend and the fear of hurting his feelings were killing her, one nerve at a time! “Say something… anything!” he told her. After a few moments, she spoke the dreaded words, “I’m sorry, but there’s someone else!” Those words felt like a spear piercing through his heart. It was almost unbelievable. “How could she not have said anything in all this while? How did she manage to keep it all under wraps for this long? Was she lying?” The permutations and combinations of thoughts running through his mind were endless. Sophie tried her best to console her heartbroken best friend.

Her best friend, who had a crush on her since they were in school, who always shared in her every happiness and sorrow, who was always there for her when she needed someone to talk to… Yes! Her best friend, who had irrevocably been in love with her for the past few years, stood there before her asking her to be his wife and she had refused. There was practically nothing that she could say or do that would soothe his aching heart. Theodore really loved her. And all he wanted was for her to be happy. He asked her who was the lucky guy. That same day, in the morning, Jake – a guy from the same neighborhood had proposed Sophie and she had said YES. It so turned out that Sophie always liked Jake and had forever wished that he would ask her out sometime, a wish which until that day hadn’t come true. That was the reason Sophie was all excited when she came to meet Theodore in the park. This episode marked the end of a beautiful friendship and a possible relationship. Few months down the line, Sophie got married to Jake.

A few years later, Theodore was still trying to get on with his life. He just wasn’t the person he used to be – vibrant and full-of-life. Everything about him had changed. It seemed like he had lost the purpose to living his life. But he always had only one wish – for Sophie to be happy, then and always! In the time that followed, Sophie had three children, one girl, and two boys. There wasn’t any contact between Theodore and Sophie. Being in the same neighborhood, they would cross path sometimes and glance at each other from the corner of their eyes, but never speak. The twist is, even though they were not on speaking terms, Sophie, through some mutual friends, always made it a point to check on how Theodore was doing while Theodore would do the same about Sophie. It was pretty evident – they still cared for each other, just… not in the same line of thought!

In the years before Sophie’s children were born, Theodore seemed miserable but still trying his best to live life. Things changed after Sophie had her first child. By then, Theodore had slipped into a state of intense depression. He would stay indoors all day and never talk to anyone. He quit his job and gave up his career. The pain in his heart was killing him emotionally. And then… one day at night, he left home and just ventured out. Mike, Theodore’s brother, extremely worried at that hour of the night, informed a few others and went on a search to find his missing brother. They looked everywhere, but couldn’t find him. Disappointed, they came back home. Early morning, Theodore returned home and walked straight upstairs to his room, ignoring the whole bunch of people sitting in his house. Relieved that his brother had returned, Mike thanked everyone for their help and asked them to leave. Theodore had entered his room and locked it from inside. Mike thought it was best to leave him alone for a while. Later in the afternoon, when it had been almost 6 hours that Theodore had returned home, Mike went to check on him. He knocked at Theodore’s room door and waited. There was no response. He banged and yelled and screamed… still… no response. Something didn't seem right to him. Mike ran out into the backyard and took a ladder. He climbed up to Theodore’s room window and peeped in.

THAT was one horrific moment.

What Mike saw at that point in time is some heavy sorrow a brother has to live with for the rest of his life. Theodore had committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan. He was dead.

He had lost the love of his life but he did find salvation in her happiness. It was what he wished for her with an honest heart… just that he didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to handle it.

When Sophie got to know about the incident, she wept. Those were years of laughter she wanted to share with him, tons of tales she wanted to tell him, number of stories about her children that she thought Theodore would have loved to hear… she wept for a non-existent possibility of finding her best friend back someday... she wept for a tomorrow that wouldn’t have him in it.

While Sophie did find the love of her life, I’m not sure if she found salvation, or whether she ever will.

Epilogue:

They say time heals all wounds. I’m not so sure how that works, but I’d like to trust it’s true.

Years rolled by. Sophie’s children grew up; they’re all married and have lovely children of their own. Except for one of her son - Ted; who had a classic story. Something that I can term as - "history repeats itself" and "what goes around comes around". He fell in love with a girl from the same neighborhood. They dated for a couple of years but destiny had its own plans. The girl turned him down last minute and ended up getting married to another guy. Ted eventually did get married to some other girl, but he could never completely get over his first love. He turned into an alcoholic and that led to major issues in his marriage. Five years later, his marriage ended in a divorce.

Sophie's husband, Jake, died a year before Ted's marriage ended. Sophie is around 70 years now and suffers from severe arthritis. She finds it difficult to even move about in her home. As I write this story, she lies there in her bed, praying for an early end.