The Cat’s Cradle Beyond the Panorama June 12, 2020

The Cat’s Cradle

love stories

They say, “Love is blind.” Yet, maybe love in itself is what makes us blind. 

Two humans; two souls; two hearts; one heartbeat- or so they thought. In spite of their differences, they fell- they fell into a deep, deep trap called love. Sure, they did feel like they were the Alice’s in their own Wonderland, although even Alice had to retrace back to reality, didn’t she?

What they had shared, the bond that had grown fonder with every passing moment, of joy and sorrow, it was inseparable, despicable, ionic. As though they were the tangled climbers, rooted from the extreme ends of the circumference of the tree of life. Who had finally convoluted on a rather lower branch of that mighty sapling. Absolute, mutual dependence. 

Their only con? She herself. She was self-conceited, so suppressed by the witch that answered to the name, Ego. With every fight between them being turned around on him, she only quenched her parching thirst for validation.  You could call her two things- maybe she was strong and powerful or maybe she was simply and truly, a sinister. Barring this factor out, they were the most beautiful and dynamic duo known to mankind. 

Every time they met, those butterflies flew higher, the shivers were on a marathon down her spine, her feet froze. It was as though they never grew tired of each other. She saw the entirety of her future reflect in those deep, hazel brown eyes that she knew she loved so well.  She saw herself graduating with him. She saw herself walking down the aisle with him in his best suit. She even envisioned with such crystal clarity, her fingers intertwined with his, sitting on a porch, a cup of piping hot chocolate and coffee in their hands, while watching the days grow older just as they did.

The time had dawned, the most unwelcoming nightmare that she had assured her insecurities, would never come true in reality. Lightning struck- the dark, grey clouds roared relentlessly. She picked up the telephone on its 10th ring, as her friendly witch, Ego, dictated. “We should go our separate ways.” Muffled voices. The bang of dropping the telephone. The cacophony of her heart’s despair as Ego ceased to seek refuge in her body and leave without farewell. There was a sudden, empty, lonesome void only revealing its depth. Her tears only got heavier. With every teardrop that rolled down her cheek, she felt the pain of him walking out. She knew she was the one at fault and she knew he was never going to come back. He was never going to be hers again, no matter what, no matter how, no matter why. She felt her future sink.

She shuts her sore eyes, and finds herself looking into his again.

She finds herself graduating all alone. The wedding gown slowly turning pitch black as he walks down the aisle, this time in a direction otherwise. One that leads away from him. The hot chocolate and coffee ran cold. He had left their Wonderland.

She knew that if only, every time they disagreed, she had just listened and not shunned. Just understood and not had that much pride. Then today would have never dawned. Ego won that relationship. He moved on. She did not. He was a creeper. She, a climber. What they had was fabulously realistic yet ferociously unreal. 

They were like a game of cat’s cradle. Souls intertwined. As though they were many beautiful combinations of strings but not one knot. Although, there comes a time when if the string is straightened out abruptly, it forms innumerable knots.

As someone wise once said- “We are more in love with the idea of loving than love in itself.” 


<strong>Archisa Biswas</strong>
Archisa Biswas

Archisa writes short stories and her thoughts on the world around her.

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