The Last Phone Call

It was about 8:32 pm on a very hot June evening in 2019. Hemant was waiting for his favourite TV show, Crime Patrol Satark, to come on Sony TV in about an hour. His wife Shivani and daughter Priya had gone to bed early this night. From his house’s window Hemant was looking outside at the nice sky. He loved living in Bhopal, India for the past 27 years.

He was also looking forward to school starting in July. He was a high school Economics teacher at City Montessorie School in Narendranagar, Bhopal. His parents still lived in Rishikesh. He would talk to them once every few days and visit them every 6 months. They had visited him four months ago. His elder brother Ramesh lived with his family in Chicago, USA. They would talk with each other quite often.

At about 8:54 pm Hemant saw a green light outside the house. He went to the window to see what was there. He looked out and saw a green light far away. Then it faded and vanished. He was puzzled; he thought what is going on.

At about 8:57 pm, the phone rang. It was an international call. Hemant picked up the phone.

“Hello, who is this? I am Hemant.” The person at the other end of the line replied, “Namaste. This is Virendra. I am calling from Brussels.” “Virendra? Sorry, I don’t know anyone named Virendra. Perhaps you got the wrong number,” Hemant replied. “No, wait please. You don’t know me but you know my wife Meenakshi. 33 years ago Meenakshi and you were married. Your marriage was for about 2 years and then you had a divorce. She later remarried me.”

“Yes, I remember. However, I have not talked to her in nearly 30 years,” said Hemant. “To be honest, I don’t want to talk to her ever again.” “Please wait, I beseech you!”, Virendra said. “Meenakshi has cancer for the past year and doctors told us three months ago that she only has about 6 or 7 months of life left. She is not going to survive. She wanted to talk to you one last time. If you agree, she will talk with you for a few minutes. Please talk with her!” Virendra started sobbing a little.

“Ok, I ….. I will talk with her”, Hemant hesitated but then agreed to talk. “Thank you Hemant! Thanks,” said Virendra. “This means a lot to me. Meenakshi, please talk with Hemant.” One minute passed with silence. Meenakshi took the phone from Virendra and said, “Hello Hemant.” She was coughing a lot and could barely speak. “Hi Meenakshi, this is Hemant. Sorry to hear that you are very ill.” “It has been 30 years since I talked with you. Back then I was very angry with you when our divorce happened. I never wanted to talk with you again. Since I was diagnosed with cancer, I have been doing a lot of self reflection. I realized that you were not the only one to blame. I was also at fault. I recall you saying sorry to me back then. I never said sorry to you then.”

“Meenakshi, it has been an extremely long time. I have forgotten most of what happened. It seems Virendra is a good husband and takes good care of you,” said Hemant. Meenakshi sighed and then said, “Yes, he is. You were a good husband as well but back then due to many reasons we had to separate. I think you are happy now with your wife as well.” “I am very happy with my wife Shivani”, exclaimed Hemant. “Well, I can’t talk much because I am not feeling well. I know I will die in the coming few months. I can feel it,” said Meenakshi. Her voice trembled with pain. “I just wanted to say sorry to you. This is my goodbye to you. Give my regards to your family.” “Meenakshi, I am sorry as well. I know Virendra is taking very good care of you. I thank you and him for the call,” said Hemant. “Goodbye Hemant”, said Meenakshi. She cried a little. “Goodbye Meenakshi. Hope you get better,” mentioned Hemant. Then Hemant disconnected the phone.

Hemant knew this was the last phone call from Meenakshi. He could feel that he would never talk with her again. He also felt that whenever she died in the near future Virendra would let him know. He seemed to be a nice man.

Before returning to sleep that night, Hemant went to the mirror and looked at his reflection for 3 or 4 minutes. A tear dropped from his left eye. He felt sort of a burden was off his shoulders. In the last 30 years even though he never talked with Meenakshi he thought of her a few times. He has been very happy with Shivani for the past 28 years. Since Priya’s birth 23 years ago his family has been happier.

As he was closing his eyes to sleep that night he said to himself, “Goodbye Meenakshi.” He would talk about this last phone call to Shivani and Priya the next day. But for now with some sadness he was retiring to sleep that night.