1 Picture 1 Story Week #81

I remember that it was also the month of April. I was roaming in Anantnag, and I saw that the branches of cherry trees were laden with flowers, and despite the icy cold in the air, the beauty of spring had arrived.

 
Here and there on the velvety grass under the straw, snowflakes were seen blooming like white flowers. By the next month these flowers will be absorbed in the same grass, and the color of the grass will become deep green, and green almonds on the branches of almond trees will sparkle like topaz gems, and the fog will disappear from the faces of the mountains, and on the footpath across the bridge of this lake, shepherds will again be nibbling at the thick wool of the sheep grown in winters and summers and singing songs.

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But it was still the month of April. The leaves had not yet sprouted on the trees. There was still a fog of snow on the mountains. The footpath had not yet resounded with the sound of sheep. The lamps had not yet been lit on the lake. The green water of the lake was hiding within its bosom millions of forms that would unfold on its surface like an innocent smile on the arrival of spring.

The branches of almond trees along the bridge had begun to glow with flowers. In April, when almond flowers wake up and become the face of spring, they float their boats in the lake water.

I had been waiting for it for a long time, leaning on the railing of the bridge. That evening, I was standing near the houseboat on the shore of Lake Wular, watching the colors of the evening, which spread from one end of the sky to the other and changed from crimson to grey and then from grey to black.

The footpath also fell asleep under the cover of the row of almond trees, and then in the silence of the night, the first star shone like a traveler's song. I felt the coolness of the air getting stronger, and my nostrils were stung by its icy lashes.

And then the moon came out. And then she came. Walking with fast steps, rather than running on the slope of the footpath, she stopped very close to me.

She said softly, "Hi!"

My breathing was fast. She touched my shoulder with her fingers and then put her head there, and the thick forest of her dark black hair spread deep inside my soul.

I said, "I have been waiting for you for a long time."

She said laughing, "It is night now; it is a very nice night."

She put her hand on my other shoulder, and it was as if a branch full of almond flowers bent down and fell asleep on my shoulder.

She remained silent for a long time. I remained silent for a long time. Then she laughed to herself and said, "I have come with great difficulty, and I told my father that today I have to sleep at my friend's house, because all of us friends will stay awake all night and sing songs to celebrate the first almond blossoms."

"But so late?" I said complaining.

She said, "I was preparing to come there for a long time. But I had to clean the paddy, and this set of clothes, which I had washed yesterday, was not dry today. I dried it on the fire, and Mother had gone to collect wood from the forest. She had not returned yet, and until she does not return, how can I bring corn cobs and dried apricots for you? Look, I have brought all this for you."

I smiled at her and smiled lightly.

She also smiled, "Oh, you are really angry. Look at me; I have come. Today is the night of the full moon. Come open the door on the shore and take a walk on the lake."

She looked into my eyes, and I looked at her eyes, in which the moon was shining at that time, and this moon was telling me, "Go open the boat and take a ride."

Today is the joyous festival of yellow almond flowers. Today she has fooled everyone for you, because today is the night of the full moon, and the white dry flowers of almonds are spread all around like cheeks of snow.

I saw all this by looking into her eyes, and then suddenly a nightingale started singing on a tree somewhere, and the lamps in the boats started twinkling. Slowly the smoldering smoke and the smell of dinner, and the intoxication of the night of the full moon. My anger was washed away.

I took her hand in mine and said, "Come, let's go to the lake."

The bridge passed, the footpath passed, and the row of almond trees ended. Now we were walking along the lake on this moonlit night.

My boat was tied to an apricot tree, which grew right on the shore of the lake. I slowly opened the boat, and she sat in it. I took the paddle in my hand and rowed the boat to the center of the lake. Here the boat stopped on its own. It was neither moving here nor there. I picked up the paddle and kept it in the boat.

She opened her bag and took out a few fruits from it and gave it to me. She also started eating it herself.

We ate dry apricots. "They are soft and very sweet," I said.

She broke a seed with her teeth and took out the apricot seed and gave it to me.

"Eat it."

The seed was as sweet as an almond.

She said, This is the tree in our courtyard. We have only one apricot tree here. But its apricots are so big, bright, and sweet that I cannot describe them.

After eating the apricots, she took out a corn cob. It had such a sweet aroma. Golden roasted corn cobs and crisp grains, like clear transparent pearls, glowing and very sweet in taste.

"Very sweet," I said.

I ate the corn from one spot. Leave a few rows of grains, then she ate from the same spot and left a few rows of grains for me. We both kept eating.

I looked at her and said, "Today, on the night of the full moon, it seems as if everything has been completed. It was not complete till yesterday; today it is complete."

She put the corn in my mouth; it was a complete warm touch of her lips that was still on this corn.

I said. Can I kiss you?

She said, "The boat will sink."

"Then what should we do?" I asked.

She gave me a smile and said, "Let it sink."

Now a number of years have passed, but I still cannot forget that full moon night. That full moon night is still shining in my mind as if it were only last night.

I had never loved anyone before, and neither had she. That magic was something else, which brought us together on that full moon night; she never went back home that night.

She ran away with me that night, and we kept roaming around like children lost in love on the banks of rivers and streams under the shade of walnut trees, oblivious of the world for the next few days. Then I bought a small house on the banks of this lake, and now both of us have been living here since then.

I invite @senehasa, @josepha and @solaymann to take part in this contest by @suboohi