Staying Connected

Arun stretched himself and looked around. Except for the sound of the revolving fan, everything looked silent. For more than ten days he had a vague feeling of someone following him wherever he went. Arun felt nervous.?

The words he saw in his dream trailed long before his mind’s eye.

“It wont b long, b4 i get u by ma side & jst hold u, tease u, squeeze u. Tel u whtz been on my mind.”??

His mobile phone beeped this SMS message not in real, but in his dreams. He could remember those words well even then and they fluttered through his thoughts again and again.?

After that day’s trip, when his friends asked him for a treat for his marriage engagement, he had to take them for dinner at the best restaurant in the town. When he reached his home, it was past midnight and there was no one on the empty streets.?

While he removed the latch of the compound gate, a whiff of cold air passed through his face. The sweet smell of jasmine flowers in the midnight breeze brought a smile to his face. Arun pressed the calling bell and waited for his mother to come and open the door.?

When Arun’s mother opened the door, Arun felt someone moving behind him noiselessly but he ignored it and stepped inside.?

While Arun slowly moved into a deep sleep, a powerful whiff of perfumed air once again moved past the walls of the house. The strong wind moved the leaves and let them rustle together.?

A powerful whiff of perfumed air swept past him with admiration. His sharp facial features always demanded attention from girls who swarmed around during peak hours. His cheeks, jaw line which are perfectly masculine never failed to stir the emotion of a girl with a glance from his brilliant eyes.?

Irrespective of age his presence always invited scores of glances to justify how strikingly he lit the place with warmth and love. His gaze simply locked the other person and sent a warning that he was not an easy person to meddle with.?

Though Arun slowly dripped into a deep sleep, his subconscious mind could alertly feel whatever that happening around him. His wrinkle-free bed slowly crumpled and an invisible hand slowly drifted toward his forehead. His body lay there still, except for the rhythmic movement of his chest with the air he inhaled and exhaled every time.??

Arun never had the habit of covering his head with a blanket while sleeping. His facial features made him look handsome even in the sleep. Arun never rolled on his bed to get the sleep. The moment his head touches the pillow, he will immediately go to sleep. As his job mostly involved physical work, when he went to bed, he always felt tired and needed complete rest.?

“It wont b long, b4 i get u by ma side & jst hold u, tease u, squeeze u. Tel u whtz been on my mind.”??

Somewhere deep in his subconscious mind, these words were repeated again and again. Unlike the messages he received from his fiancée, these words floated in the air and someone kept on repeating those words again and again into his ears.??

A screaming sound from the garden shook him up. His face smeared with perspiration made his heart palpitate faster. He heard the sound of someone jumping down from the roof and felt relieved when he found out that it may be a cat. His eyelids heavy with sleep forced him to stay in bed and he once again drifted into deep sleep.

The same thing continued next also. From 2 am till the early dawn, he could hear the wailing sound of the cat. He peeped out of the window and saw a female cat roaming here and there. For more than a week, he constantly heard the wailing sound of their neighbor’s cat.?

Somewhere at the corner of the garden, he saw two or three Tom cats. Arun stood there silently watching them. The female cat continued to walk with her wailing sound and all the Tom cats followed her.?

Arun remembered reading that this would continue until a male cat succeeded in attracting the female cat. Arun was so surprised at the behavior of the female cat. The male cat never showed his desire to mate, but the female cat kept on reminding by her wailing that she was ready to mate with him.?

Arun remembered how his father did not prefer to have a female cat at home. Though Tom's cat would not stay most of the time at home, still he preferred to have a male cat as a pet at home.

It was once again a late-night return home. Arun opened the front gate and pressed the calling bell. Something in the garden caught his attention. He could see two cats in courtship. Arun remembered it may take a few minutes to some hours for the courtship to complete. The female cat was kneeling and standing still. The male cat grabbed the female by the scruff's neck and mounted her.?

When the mating action finished, the female cat cried aloud and tried to slap the male. Arun stood there watching the cats till they ran away from the place. Arun could not hide his rising feelings within him.?

“It wont b long, b4 i get u by ma side & jst hold u, tease u, squeeze u. Tel u whtz been on my mind.”??

Once again he remembered the message that flashed in his dream. He could not tell who was trying to contact him through dreams.?

Though he never believed in such happenings, he had an intuition that told him it was a message from a true heart that desperately needed him and wanted to get connected with him.

?