The Eternal Love Story (Part 2)

Read on to know what happened to Ron and Lily’s fairy tale love story, on the fateful day of 9/11.

Looking into the pleasantly delirious NYC skyline, Lily thought about her future, about the life that she was going to share with Ron. She realized that she hadn’t called her parents, yet. She knew they won’t be too enthralled as they thought Lily could have done better, but nevertheless, they would be happy. Lily was structured (sometimes, boring) and did things in a particular way, was never spontaneous. Ron would always encourage her to be impulsive. Today, it was going to change. 

“What am I doing here scheduling meetings with writers? I should be with Ron. A very long drive, perhaps!”-she thought out loud.

She strolled outside the office with an unusual speed. Her office was on the 89^th floor of the WTC tower. Impatiently, she waited for the lift and it would take at least 30 minutes for her to meet with her “pumpkin”, as she lovingly called him. Was this the happiest day of her life? Maybe, she wasn’t sure. But she was sure that it would be a day she would always remember.

“Hey, guys! there is an emergency at one of the WTC towers. There’s a fire. Let’s hurry!”-yelled the captain of the NYC Fire Dept. over the loud din of the siren. Ron’s heart skipped a beat and all he could think of was Lily. He hoped it was a small fire, restricted to the lower floors. For the first time ever, he closed his eyes in solace for a second and thought of Lily’s flawless cheeks rubbing against his. He tried to call her when they were on the way. The network was jammed.

It took him 35 minutes to reach the WTC site. He couldn’t locate one of the towers. His heart sank. He thought he was dreaming. A dream-where he proposed to Lily; where he was happy; where there was hope and there were endless possibilities; but there was a 105 storey tower missing from the face of NYC! It was the South tower. He stood numb; motionless.

Suddenly, he realized Lily’s office was In the North Tower. Amidst all the commotion, he ran up the stairs to evacuate people from the building that stood aloof, and importantly, to save his future bride. And then THUD!

 In a moment, it was all gone. Everything crumbled down to ashes.

Lily heard about the attacks on the radio broadcast of the cab that she had taken. She knew that her gallant boyfriend would be there rescuing people. She rushed to the site-only to find debris; the debris of her entire life with Ron. A single tear rolled down her eye.

With that rolled a peace of parchment in the smoke that read-

Dearest Lily,

For saying Yes-“Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours. ”

Love for a lifetime-Pumpkin.

It was the last card, that she never got.

PS-

(Readers, please let me know if you liked it. If you did-please just take out the time to write like in the comments. It will help me do better. And as this is my 1st love story, it will encourage (or discourage) me from writing more.