Soon till eternity

 

Ryan! " shouted, with a tone of excitement, a fair ,tall and slender girl from one end of a school corridor, flipping  her  dark brown curly hair of shoulder length rushed towards  a tall,muscular teenager totally absorbed in,CONCEPTS OF PHYSICS, by HC VERMA, "Did you see this news?", she enquired.He showed no sense of excitement  and didn't turn his gaze from his book, realizing no ears to her,she snatched his book,"Abbi not now!", Ryan disgruntled! "We have our test next week ","Oh common! You are a pro at it ", she showed no interest in returning his book back,instead forced a copy of an Indian Express in his hands Ryan after goggling through the newspaper's first page,read loudly,"NDA gearing  up to admit,first batch of girl cadets, allows the  Supreme Court", " Yes,Flying officer Abigail D'Souza ,reporting sir"! She said standing upright in a saluting position. "Are you kidding me ,defence and you?", laughed Ryan, " Go and study for your JEE exam,and settle for a decent package". "Let the defence be for tough ones like me" Abigail with a sharp expression squealed, "You are an idiot!" ;but in a moment her expression faded , with a voice devoid of any excitement, she said, "You are my best friend,you have to be my pillar of strength, you can't say this "The  low pitch of her voice was enough to awaken the caring spirits of Ryan,within a moment he said ," Oh! I meant you are very strong ,but you will not look too good in dirt and sweat with an artificial laughter in his tone" . "What do you mean ?" with an interrogative look on her face ,she looked directly in his eyes , "I mean ,I am dying laughing in my head imagining you performing drills like a flamingo"  "a flamingo?", she shrieked. "Anyways , a flamingo is better looking than a body scratching orangutan",laughing wholeheartedly .Both of them looked at each other laughing for few minutes  "Okay then!",he further added,"I will be hoisting a jungle party on my tree house ,you and your flamingo friends are cordially invited". "But my friend is an orangutan",she exclaimed with a laugh. Both of them laughed for a minute or two ,before coming to their senses. Breaking the silence,Ryan uttered, "On a serious note now, You are a genius Abigail ,you can do anything ,are you sure of defence as a career?" ,"Yes , with my entire brain and a strength,I have only passion to serve  my motherland with my sweat and  blood,she added with a  heavy tone of confidence. Ryan couldn't understand this newly developed love for defence in his best friend's heart, he thought to himself that it would just be a thing for a day or two and she will be back to normal ,stressing over  her JEE mocks  and  never ending chemistry equations. Days passed ,they took their exams of eleventh grade, entered in twelfth ,but nothing seemed to effect Abigail's decision of joining Indian Airforce, instead she became more firm as the time elapsed, she could be seen daily following a proper running schedules , pushups ,crunches. Daily regimes made her appear more muscular now. Ryan had been a defence aspirant since childhood but he knew well, the darker side of it ,as he lost his dad to a war ,he never hesitated  to have a same fate but couldn't imagine the same for his one and only best buddy. He tried every possible way to convince Abigail, but everytime she seemed to have an upper hand in an argument and Ryan was left with no words in his support.

Days passed and exams neared, they hardly had time to talk anything ,but studies.They spent countless hours practicing problems, memorizing equations, solving derivations, following proper exercise schedule .
Finally the d-day arrived, both of them were ready to challenge the competitiveness of the exam.The exam left them satisfied,  both of them were sure of clearing the written part and eagerly awaited their results,meanwhile had their school farewell, promised forever to everyone, took their board exams and bid a teary good bye to their school mates and teachers with abundants  of wishes and blessings for their future
Both of them cleared written part,and other subsequent steps of SSB , and finally got their most awaited letters with a writing" RECOMMENDED" ,
Abigail ,in Indian AirForce and Ryan in Indian Army. Four years passed ,as if in a jiffy ,they had countless learnings,experiences,memories new relations and most importantly the newly awarded responsibilities to cherish throughout their lives
Ryan received his first posting as lieutenant, in Eastern India ,an Indo-China border, and Abigail ,a flying officer in  Air maintenance wing of Indian Airforce .
Both of them were known in their circles for courage ,grit and valour
Everyday ,both of them were busy writing, a new heroic chapters in their stories. Newcomers in Ryan's regiment were told his heroic deeds of combat with the enemy ,how he once attacked the terrorist head on, how his sharp wit had  once helped to save thousands from the blast, how he saved innocents held hostage by terrorist group ,how he once was successful in destroying hundreds of enemy bunkers single handedly ,how he had survived major fatal injuries but still didn't give up ,how he was always there for his team mates,there were countless stories of his deeds in his circle. He was made Captain in war time for showing extraordinary grit and courage.
  Abigail was no less, She was addressed as a fierce Lioness by her juniors ,she had flown in the most difficult terrains ,with highly  unpleasant weather conditions and had completed all her missions successfully, She had rescued people in floods ,transported hundreds of them to safe places; in the time of tragic earthquakes ,she single handedly saved hundreds of lives by rescuing people from very minute and remote parts. She had transported several injured from war grounds to hospitals. She was successful in supplying food materials and ammunition to the soldiers during war times,she was capable of flying solo in war grounds, hundreds of such stories lingered around Squadron leader Abigail D'Souza.
Only thing that both of them lacked in their lives despite living each day less ordinary was ,they both craved for family meets ,their reunion .It had been about  five years ,but everytime time it was like if Abigail could make it ,Ryan couldn't, if Ryan was there Abigail wasn't . Ryan missed her brother's wedding, Abigail his sister's ,both of them couldn't be there for a mutual friend's wedding .Once Abigail was there on a Diwali , Ryan couldn't come the same year ,but the distance didn't decrease the fondness in their hearts,their bond, their friendship was strong enough to tackle this obstruction of  distance .There were times when they wanted to share their highs and lows ,they had long telephonic conversations, though very rare, but everytime it was like ,"We will meet soon".Abigail often said jokingly, "Major ,I am waiting for your 'soon' to be 'soon' but nowadays, I am on a date with these colossal mountains, these feathery clouds" he  used to reply in a same tone ,"Ya! Meet you soon, but busy , befriending new mates to send to hell nowadays" .Then they would laugh it off casually .There were days they used to casually talk about tensions growing at borders, each other's whereabouts and missions in code language.
Everything was seemingly fine for both of them, until when, on fine winter morning , Ryan was addressed by his junior, "Sir, the news coming up the North, the IAF fighter jet supplying ammunition and food stuff has crashed, due to a missile attack by the enemy, flight lieutenant Sameer Sabarwal survived injuries due to the timely ejection owing to a sharp wit of squadron leader Abigail D'Souza, but she was .....
" Was? Was what dad?" said seven year old Jiya ,who was anxious by now ,her dark black eyes glistening with a small  tear drop ,which she was trying to prevent  with her full force from rolling down her cheek .She then held Ryan' s right hand tightly which was previously caressing her dark brown curly hair of shoulder length.She then looked towards him ,who had closed his eyes tightly and had placed his left hand on his chest as if experiencing a deep pain of something heavy placed on his chest Jia shook his hand and asked again "Was? Was what dad?"Ryan who felt the sudden jerk , in a moment was transported to present, breathed deeply and with a quavering voice, muttered , " and then, Martyr Abigail D'Souza, lived forever, stretching all her soons till eternity".
Jiya looked at her father with that inquisitive face ,as if she had hundreds of questions to ask to satisfy her curiosity, but felt too overwhelmed by emotions, that she found it too difficult to utter a word for a moment, but continued staring at her emotion- stricken father. Ryan too was looking directly towards the inquisitive face of Jiya ,for the first time he noticed something  unsual in her eyes which was far  beyond her age. He saw a mixed emotions of pride, belief ,courage and confidence .He couldn't make out what was going on in his little girl's mind,didn't let his gaze move a bit, from her innocent face . The door behind them creaked, breaking the silence of the moment, and a lady in her late thirties with the kindest face and the warmest smile , entered the room .On seeing her entering ,Jiya jumped off her bed, towards her and laid herself in lady's arms and hugged her tightly ,whispering slowly under her breath ,and slightly sobbing " Mumma" . Before her mother could understand her daughter's sudden reaction or utter a word ,Jiya jumped on the floor and stood upright in an attention position, raised her hand to her forehead ,in a saluting form and shouted,"  Flying officer,Jiya mathur reporting sir !"

-next door girl