A Starry Night

It was a starry night. Larry laid on his back on a flat rock at his backyard. He was looking up at the stars. The sounds of the city was faraway. Chirping of the crickets and beetles were all around him. The night was full of insects calling on their mating mates. Yet, all seemed silent of all city noises.

His gaze was on the stars. He was having a feeling that Jane, his wife was laying beside him. It was a week now that Jane had passed away. Corona virus had claimed her life. She used to lie down on this flat rock with him to watch the stars. She had been the person that pointed out their stars amidst billions of other stars. She loved the stars, she said they were for signs. Jane had said that the stars of two lovers were always connected together in the sky.

Larry was looking at their connected stars. He was wondering, ‘Do stars of dead people remain connected in the sky?’ his thought was drifting away. He forgot his surrounding, he was taken to three weeks earlier.

He was listening to the news on the radio, a Covid 19 patient was caught in a shopping mall. Jane had gone to the shopping mall. Everyone who had contact with the patient was caught on the camera. And Jane was one of them! She had been on the same gallery with the patient. One of the shopping mall workers had called the security, she saw the man coughing uncontrollably. They were all taken away to an isolation centre by the Authority. They were to be isolated for two weeks, in order to ensure they had not contacted the virus.

Jane had unfortunately contacted the virus. She tested positive. She could not see her husband, which was the most painful part. She had wanted to tell him, how sorry she was.

Larry's world came crashing down on hearing the news. Someone had called him with his wife's number. He thought she was the person calling. He had taken the call to say sorry, but instead, he had the news. It was like a death sentence was placed on his wife. Only if she had not gone to that shopping mall that day! Only if the man had not come to the shopping mall!

Jane was traumatised. They talked on and on, she kept apologising and crying. Larry was crying too, saying: am sorry, all over again and again. They made up on the phone, but that was not enough for Larry to make amend. Despite the health workers assurance that all was not lost, every phone calls from Jane was like saying goodbye.

Jane passed away despite all the assurances and treatments. She had gone with the baby unborn! She had taken all of their lives away with her. She had fought a good fight. Earlier that day, they had fought. Larry had wanted to buy a new jogging shoe. Jane reasoned that he could manage the old jogging shoe. She wanted them to manage their little resources, there would soon be lockdown on all social gathering, market included. Larry had been offended, they had exchanged angry words. Jane had left the house alone to the shopping mall. And that had been the end.

If they had not fight, they would have gone to the mall together. A star shot across the night sky. It passed between their stars. Larry took out his handkerchief to blow his nose. Tears were coming down his face. He could never forget his stupidity that day. Jane was saying the right thing, however way she had said it. She was right, they needed to manage their resources.

‘Why was I even angry with her?’ His behaviour now seemed very foolish. He knew he had been taken Jane for granted. He knew he should have apologised to her before she left the house. All these were gone now. He could not turn back the hands of time. ‘Little things always matter!’

They met for the first time a year ago. Their meeting seemed very predestined. Jane had come to his place of work to work. They had met that very day and began talking as if they had known each other for ages. It was love at first sight. They met, they clicked together, and they became intimate.

Jane had always been soft spoken. She was gentle, kind, loving and considerate. She was always on the side of peace. Larry kept postponing his visit to Jane's parents. Despite Jane's assurance, he was afraid of been rejected.

Eventually, they had gone there one evening in April. He discovered that Jane was exactly like her mother. Her father, on the other hand was not a terrible man, he was nice to a fault. What a complete family? Larry had wondered. He was so comfortable with Jane's father. They discussed many things, except Jane. The man had kept the most important thing to the last.

As soon as the women came back from the kitchen to join them, Jane's father asked, ‘What is your plan for my daughter?’ ‘I – I,’ what am I going to say? , ‘I want to marry her, sir -’ The man had looked at his daughter straight in the eyes, ‘He said he wanted to marry you, are you sure of this?’

‘Yes sir, am sure,’ Jane had answered that day, ‘I love him'. And that ended it.

He had taken her to his own family of four. His mother was all over her, like a mother fowl. Her charm had enchanted them. Few months later they had got married. It was a simple wedding. Jane remarked thereafter that it was the best day of her life. It was a day he would never forget too.

Since then, Jane had always been Jane. Happy ever after, though there were moments of fights. ‘Larry, you are such a lucky man,’ his friends used to tell him, ‘Jane is a woman of substance'. Jane was his jewel of inestimable value. Jane was his everything. Jane had led him to God.

Jane had thought him many things. Yet, something always made him do the wrong thing to his Jane. He had been bullying her all this while. He had not reciprocated her kind and loving gestures. He had really wronged her, and he had lost his chance to apologise.

She had left their working place immediately after the wedding. Of course, one of them had to leave. That had been the company policy. Jane had left this world and left him behind in it. She had always taken the risk for him!

Another star shot across the sky, its burning tail reminded him again of yet, another day. There were many days to remember for the rest of his life. He fixed his eyes on their stars as if his very life depended on them.