Me & her: Neighborhood Firings

There was a deafening silence in the locality; I could just hear her breathe which was growing heavier with time. I had been telling her to calm down or else they might hear us and take us away. But it wasn’t possible, not when the bullets zoom past your ear with such great frequency that before you thank the almighty another bullet zips past you.

I had to literally put my hand around her mouth; her screams were getting louder with time, may be the pain was getting unbearable. One of the stray bullets had kissed her leg and zoomed past her; I was just able to manage a bandage to stop her bleeding but the pain was getting out of hand. I was telling her to look into my eyes, and to remember the time we met and the vows we made to be together for eternity. I just wanted her to think about anything but the firings which had continued for the past three hours. On one side were the police while on the other side were the bandits, and in middle was our neighbourhood. Bandits were holding our building complex as bait for getting their free pass, away from the shackles of law. Bandits were gathering the hostages and we were doing our best to hide from them.

Suddenly, the firing stopped and we heard a door creak which brought the sound of footsteps with it. The footsteps got louder as he approached the place we were hiding; we could see his boots from a distant, they weren’t police shoes. We knew we couldn’t panic now, but before we could think of anything, there was a gun shot.

We came out from under the bed, raising our hands up as a sign of innocence which was reciprocated with a hand from the other side. As we mustered our way out, we couldn’t stop seeing the dead bandit, lying in a pool of blood. I held my wife close to my chest, telling her it’s all okay, we are safe now. But she wasn’t ready to believe.

Me: It has ended. There is no need to worry anymore. You can open your eyes now.

She: (Keeping her eyes closed) Please get me away from this. Please.

Me: Don’t worry, we are almost out. Just hold me tight.

She: Promise me, you won’t let anything happen to me. Promise me!

Me: I promise, till my very last breath.

As soon as we made it out, we could see the ambulances lining up at front. There were strides of news reporters standing with their respective camera men, telling the world about the new breaking news. Before we could speak anything, we just collapsed on the ground.

At the hospital

Me: How is your leg?

She: It’s doing fine. Pain has reduced considerably, but I think I will know when I start walking.

Me: There is time for that. First let’s get you out from the hospital, so you want to go home?

She: But our home needs a lot of repair; there are too many holes in the wall, plus we need to buy a new crockery set. They broke our precious wedding ones.

Me: I am pretty sure we need to buy a hell lot other than that!

She: Don’t worry, I just love shopping. It would be a cake walk.

Me: It surely would be. I don’t know what I will do without you. I don’t even think I will even survive.

She: So it takes an injured wife for getting all these words out from you!

Me: I thought you already knew.

She: I do know, and I also know how lucky I am to have you share my life with. I love you sweetheart.

Me: I love you, darling. You are not the only person lucky, we both are. Now you need to take rest. We will leave in the morning.

She: Don’t go anywhere. Stay with me, please.

Me: As you say my highness!

She: Good.

With a beautiful smile and tears swelling up in her eyes, she slept holding my hand. And I just kept looking at her; lost in thought about how beautiful she looked when she slept.