By Talib Gibran
The beach is a strange place; the weirdest of all is the sense of security people feel despite the apparently displaying threats of waves or piecing eyeballs of others.
People still go, strip stark naked or in bikinis and boxers, and then lie on the sand…with their eyes closed.
In contrast to the streets though, even at night, you don’t see such images even by chance.
I still cannot understand why people prefer getting naked on the beach to even in their own compounds.
Anna and I sat for minutes without a word; we just stayed still while occasionally rubbing shoulders to either generate heat or snatch each other out of dreamland.
The rubbing got even more frequent as the beach got colder until the sun completely disappeared, with bright stars illuminating the skies.
Connected both in spirit and body, we just somehow knew that our backs needed to stretch, so we stretched.
Together, in slow rhythmical motion, we lay back on the sand and shifted our attention to the magical stars.
Yes it’s dark, but it’s the beach, we needed it.
We slowly got our hands closer that I could feel her slightly hairy left hand rubbing against my hairier right hand.
It went straight to my nerves.
I placed my palm right into hers with sand particles scattered around, while I consciously redraw her single palmar crease.
Anna: “Are you reading my palm?”
Me: “Maybe”
Anna: “What does it say?”
It’s hard not to laugh when chatting or talking to Anna. She could turn the most boring day of my life into an unending excitement.
She wouldn’t tire; she would keep up and always creative in starting topics that would last a day.
But the occasional laughs and teasing in our conversations suddenly disappeared.
And when people stop laughing, it means things are getting serious.
She turned her head towards me, with the left side of her face buried in the sand, and watched me run my fingers to every corner of her palm.
Me: “I don’t know anything about palm reading, Anna. But you have a single line; that should be easier to read than the normal three lines. Let’s first look for your heart line”
Anna: “Then start looking. What is heart line again?”
Me: “Okay, the heart line is the line that runs below the base of your fingers and ends at either your middle or index finger
. This line will tell you about your emotional stability, romantic life, state of happiness, and the health of your heart”
Anna: “This should be interesting. Go on”
Me: “According to Allison Norton, if you have a long, straight heart line that ends under your index finger, you’re a rational thinker with a generally content love life.
If you have a short, straight heart line, you value your sense of independence when it comes to relationships and show your love through actions rather than words.
If your heart line ends under your middle finger, you are a romantic and fall in love easily.
If you have a long, curved heart line that arches up toward your middle finger, you are passionate and freely express yourself and your romantic desires.
A short curved line, however, means you are more private about your romantic endeavors.
A straight, parallel heart line means you are level headed and realistic about relationships.
A broken heart line or a heart line that has other small lines crossing through it may indicate heartbreak or emotional trauma”
Anna: “All that is from Allison Norton? Now am really scared”
Me: “Haha, well you don’t have to be scared.
Remember I can’t read them correctly, so I will definitely tell you what we both want to hear”
Anna: “Okay what type of heart line do I have?”
Me: “It’s short and curved”
Anna: “Meaning?”
Me: “It means you are more private about your romantic endeavors”
Anna: “Well that is not far from the truth. You’re not bad at this after all”
Me: “Haha, I wish. Okay enough of palmistry”
Anna: “Fine, but keep rubbing my palm. It feels really good”
It’s so difficult to believe that love has stopped existing, especially if you feel what I feel. But I don’t like change. I hate change. I love permanence. If I love you, I want it to last. I don’t want to love one today, another tomorrow and another in the hereafter. Once it’s fleeting, it’s not real. And I want to enjoy the sound of my heart beating for you here in this loveless world. I still want to hear a familiar beating when I awake in the hereafter.
Me: “Tell me something“
Anna: “You should do more rubbing and less talking”
Me: “Hey, concentrate here. Don’t let your mind wander about”
Anna: “Okay sir, ask me then”
Me: “Why did you come into my life so late?”
Anna: “Well I guess it’s because you don’t go to the beach on Fridays. If you had been, I would have somehow met you”
Me: “You’re so unbearable”
Anna: “Why did you ask?”
Me: “I just cannot believe someone as cool as you eluded me all my life”
Anna: “It’s not like you were specifically looking for me, Talib”
Me: “No, I wasn’t specifically looking for you. I was specifically looking for someone who turned out to be you”
Anna: “How do you know it’s me?”
Me: “Sometimes you just know”
Anna: “And this is such time?”
Me: “It has to be. If what I feel isn’t real, and that my heart is beating for the wrong person, then my heart is the biggest deceiver”
She looked at me, almost as if she was going to just roll over me but she was unreadable. She looked and kept looking, visibly trying hard to make me read her face. I almost took everything back.
Anna: “Correction, not just your heart, our hearts would be the biggest deceivers”
Me: “Huh! I thought that didn’t come out right. So your heart too has been beating fast?”
Anna: “Duh… Look, I wanted us back together because I want you, just you. I love how I feel about you, about us. I see myself in you and being with you feels like being with myself”
Me: “What do we do then, Anna?”
Anna: “Let’s follow our hearts and the rest will fall into place”
Me: “That’s a terrible advice. I cannot follow my heart, at this very moment. Otherwise things will get awkwardly messy”
Anna: “Hah, Talib? You just cannot help being naughty, can you?”
Me:”Oh so it’s on your mind too”
Anna: “We’re synched, remember? I feel your heartbeats, I hear them. And that doesn’t just happen”
Me: “No, it doesn’t. That’s why I cannot understand why we haven’t met earlier”
Anna: “What do you think would have happened if we had met years ago?”
Me: “Think? I KNOW what would happen”
Anna: “Tell me then, Mr Time Traveller”
Me: “We would have filled this earth with cute babies”
Anna: “Haha, you’re silly. And who’s going to bear all those kids, no matter how cute they are? Certainly not me, you gonna have to bear some yourself”
Me: “Whatever it takes”
Anna: “I don’t want to go. I want us to stay like this forever”
Me: “How are we gonna have the kids if we stay statured like this forever?”
Anna: “Yeah, you’re right. Still, I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to end this”
Me: “Then don’t, let’s stay here until sunrise”
We both lay now facing each other, eyes glued to each other’s shadowy face. I could stay that way for as long as I was breathing. It was difficult to see the face as you normally would but I had her face plastered all over my heart for a long time. The eyes just look; it’s the heart that actually sees. And I see Anna; I see through her. Her fears and questions, about me and love itself, have been quite naked. But, one thing is for sure, even if the world ends today, or I die today—which is more likely—I would die smiling, knowing that I’ve actually loved someone who loves me back. And the love, unlike the ones we have now, has stood the test of time.
