Talking Couple in Snow Globe

Talking Couple in Snow Globe

The roads were covered with the sheets of white. It was snowing in Alaska and its intensity was getting more serious with every passing minute. A blizzard was expected to hit the area very soon. But my heart was already suffering a severe storm.

I dashed back to my house after the most disappointing outing of my life. I dusted my furry coat to remove the flakes and hung it on the peg behind the door.

I rushed for the mirror. I scratched my cheeks to scrape away the frozen tears. Freezing point of tears is lower than that of water but the temperature was so chilly that it’d even easily freeze the blood. When your girlfriend, whom you love more than your life, denies your proposal for marriage, all the warmth in the body seems to die out.

I stepped towards the bookshelf which was dominated by Star Trek novels. I was in no mood to read science fiction. I reached out for the snow globe on the top rack of the shelf. I always handled it gently, it was no ordinary object, for me at least. The blizzard outside had started to show its intentions, nasty.

There was a house in the globe and beside it a couple was standing hand in hand and lost deep into each other’s eyes. Both of them were clad in wedding attire.

I shook it. It started snowing in the globe and the couple came to life.

I placed it on my flannel-sheet-covered working table and sat down on the chair. An artificial mistletoe beside the couple moved itself in acknowledgement. A tiny orangutan on their left waved its hand and showed its teeth out. I had added it in the globe as a tribute to my first pet, Joy, also an orangutan. I doubted whether it’d come to life as well or not. But it always did.

“Hey, buddy. Did she say yes?” Johnny asked, jumping gleefully. I called him Johnny because he looked like my elder brother of the same name. I called his wife Joan, because Johnny called her by that name. Their sound traveled through the tiny hole I had pierced on top of the globe.

“Oh! It seems something has gone wrong,” Joan said, her tiny face looked worried more than mine.

“She denied,” I said and hunched over the table to see them closely.

“Did she give you an explanation?” Joan asked.

“Yes. I told her that I can’t stay here for my lifetime doing a job in a bakery. I intend to open a small restaurant back in India. I asked her to shift there after marriage. She said she can’t come with me. We had an argument and she opted out.”

“But why? She’s also an Indian,” Johnny was flummoxed.

“She doesn’t want to return. I don’t know what’s the deal with her. She’s just not getting convinced.”

“Oh! That’s so sad,” Johnny exhaled. He looked deflated, I was amazed by the attachment this couple had shown to me.

“We are so sorry for you, Jack. You made us your love-gurus and we couldn’t get you through your love story successfully,” Joan said softly.

“I’m really sorry to have let you down,” I said.

“No. No. You haven’t,” Johnny said, “A guru’s job is not only guiding to success, but also to teach how to rise up from the deep valley of failure.”

“And yes, we will bring you back up from this morale-breaking frustration. Whatever happens, happens for good. God might just have someone better for you.”

“Yeah. That’s right. Even I proposed eight girls and then married Joan. And I’m so lucky to have her,” Johnny consoled me risking revealing his past.

“What? You didn’t tell me that before our marriage?” Joan turned angry. With her hands on her waist she gazed deep into Johnny’s eyes. This gaze was different than the one in their statue mode.

“I didn’t tell you because it’s not important, honey,” Johnny said softly, “I love you and I’m so lucky to have you. That’s it. Nothing else matters, not even past, not even future. I just love you,” he said in a passionate tone. It took me by surprise how fervent they were about loving each other.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. I don’t know where they came from, but they were there. They hugged and the orangutan beside jumped in joy.

They turned back to me.

“So listen, Jack. If you have been good to others, God will do well to you.” Johnny’s words were firm.

“But what if she is the girl I want to marry? I can’t even think of loving someone else. She’s my life, she’s everything for me,” I insisted.

“Well, Jack. We know you truly love her. If you think she’s the one, then she’ll come back,” Joan said.

“There’s a famous quote,” Johnny said, “Your lover is like a bird. Set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. And if it doesn’t, it was never yours.”

The door knocked.

“Who’d be there in such a blizzard?” I mused.

Joan whispered something in Johnny’s ears.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. Open the door,” Johnny said.

I opened the door and Karen, my girlfriend threw herself into my arms and embraced me. I grabbed her without a second thought.

“I’m so sorry. I really misunderstood your dreams and thoughts. After we parted this morning, I realized how much I love you. I can’t live a moment without you,” she said and tightened her grip. “I’ll marry you, Jack. I don’t want anything else.” She started sobbing.

Everything was solved. She had gone back to her house after the blizzard paused. I was dining on the table, the globe placed beside the plate.

“So now tell me. What did you whisper in his ears?” I asked Joan.

“I told him that…the bird…has come back.”

And we all smiled with an emotional joy within us whirling up to eyes and then flowing out through it.