Morgon

' MORGAN'

Today was a different day as Morgan was heading to see his best friend Richard after ten years. He liked the quietude road and blowing zephyr as they helped him reminisce the life he had spent with Richard. It was the time when their virile voices would echo in the college corridors and beauties of all species would turn around to witness their manly existence.Those were the days when they would flaunt their wit, and smartness of mind and body had wrapped them like a bandage around a fractured arm. Those days were the days of success and liveliness. They were popular. They had reputation of good and bad. They were simply different to different people. The teachers thought of them as intelligent but naughty. The gate keeper had understood them evil and just evil. For their classmates they were cooperative and the rest of the sophomore had known them as menace.

As he turned to the right on the road, he viewed three high school students idling their time away on a bench. This reminded him of Richard’s problems, his poverty, and the bench on which they had spent hours talking and discussing their lives. They would always spare plenty of time to sit on the bench at the street just opposite to their college. At the incipient stage of their friendship, the issues related to school, studies and teachers had been the topics of their discussion. Then as it had strengthened, father, mother and finance became the matter of their debates.
Richard was a poor lad and financial difficulties were inevitable part of his life. Morgan
was rich but poorer than Richard as he had never been loved by his family, for his parents were short of time as it was a matter of a vogue those days.
Their friendship strengthened for some years and then it started to debilitate when Morgan had fallen in love with Lucy--- a raving beauty which melted Morgan’s manly existence. She was an effervescent girl who had witnessed many debonair men tagging along with her to different places, but none could win her heart. Now it was Morgan who had an attraction she had been longing for since she reached puberty. He had all she had wanted: Rich and handsome ,caring and deprived (of love).
It was Sunday .Morgan met Richard with glistening eyes and a voice which had exuberance of youth and love. He looked delectable and whispered in Richard’s ears, “I am in love.” Richard asked swiftly,| “Who is the one who has stolen you from me.” Morgan declared, No one can steal me from you or you from me as we are one. We are us. Well she is not unknown to you. It is Lucy who is my Helen of Troy, dear.”

The honking of the horn desist him to move. Recalling the address, he dashed across the road and reached the signpost near the house. Beside the signpost, his eyes glanced at a couple fighting over trivial matter and soon they moved away to different directions.
This called out the memories from the past again and a scene of his separation revived in his mind. Lucy and he were fighting because he suspected her to be adulterous. She tried to elucidate her position, but he was marooned by the evidences like an elicit photograph of her with one of the charming lads, two witnesses of friends who saw them dating, and Richard’s observation of her alluring style. They broke up and Lucy was an indelible memory to him. Richard nursed him out when he had myriad of wounds as the outcome of a broken love. One day in his buoyant mood Morgan lugubriously expressing his grief said, “I want to leave this country. I cannot stay here with the memories of my love for Lucy and I do not want her in my life again. I want to run away from all this. I want to run from her, my family, and perhaps you. I am sick and tired of everything. I need isolation and independence”. Richard remained silent and serenity on his face allowed him to leave everything and explore the world.

The caption “Red Carpet” brought him back from the past and gathering all the past memories, he pressed the button to ring the bell. The door opened with a jerk and a plum lady appeared with a question in her mind. She asked, “Who do you want to see gentleman.” “I am Morgan. Does Richard live here?”, replied Morgan. She went inside and came back inviting him inside the house.

He was seated in the living room. His roving eyes were searching for a glimpse of his friend. He heard a tapping of steps on the stairs. He was prepared to hug his friend .It had been years. He wanted to hug him, chat with him, and thrash out all what was piled up in his mind for years. In a minute, he confronted the figure he had not expected, the sight he had always wanted, the warmness he had longed for, the love he had lost. It was his love and his friend’s widow Lucy. Richard had died two days before his arrival and a day later when he had given Morgan his address.

Lucy handed him a letter with the only utterance and then silence. She said, “Your friend was kind enough to marry me when we broke up.”

She was different than years ago. Her face had withered and eyes had lost their shine. The vitality in her voice was buried somewhere in her teenage days. She was a woman who had lost her husband two days ago. She was a widower. Above all she was lifeless like a withered leaf in Autumn.

The room was evincing two dead bodies and silence. They did not move. They did not utter anything. Stillness and silence prevailed .Morgan felt his chest tightening and just moved away to the door. His exodus was abrupt but slow with heavy steps.

Out at the street, he mustered some strength to open the letter. He read and laughed and then cried and addressed loudly to himself, “Morgan, you are a credulous fool. You believe people easily. You never loved her because you did not trust her. Your friend tested you and you failed. You failed in love. You failed to deserve her. Morgan, he asked for forgiveness. Would you forgive him? Would you forgive yourself? Would you forgive her? He asked for forgiveness but for what”.

He lay on the street and never rose again. Richard died and Morgan died too. Lucy lived but lifeless like a shriveled leaf.