Saturday Short Story: Natasha By Nadia B

Natasha

By nadia b

She took a deep breath and entered Samara's home. And she stood in the foyer, not sure how she would get through this evening. It had been so long since she had been with people; it seemed like a lifetime. Looking out, at the party in the gardens ahead, she really just wanted to turn back and run.

 She wore a flowing white linen dress with rows of steel and lapis necklaces around her neck. The gorgeous honey complexion of her face was accentuated by mascara and nude lipstick and the auburn streaks in her hair reflected the afternoon sun. If only she knew how beautiful she looked...

She walked hesitatingly through the house, stopping along the way to look at a painting, and a vase of fresh purple hydrangeas. It gave her a moment before she reached the garden and was engulfed by people; people she had not met for so many years and many people she had never met before.

The undulating garden that lay before her was enchanting. It was the sort of garden she had dreamt of when imagining summer reveries and her children’s imagined weddings. The tables were bedecked with white and dusky pink flowers, the sight a soothing balm to her anxious eyes

As she made her way down the slope of the garden, she heard someone call her name. She turned and saw Samara standing a slight distance away. Natasha felt instant relief. First, that she had spotted her old friend, and wouldn’t have to meander through the lunch party looking for her and second; Samara was standing with just two people so Natasha's first encounter with the world she had left behind would be easier.

Samara was her happy and bubbly self. The years had been kind to her and she was blessed with an adoring husband and two beautiful children. She took Natasha to the group of people who were scattered around, most she didn't know...but one...looked and felt strangely familiar. He was sitting on a rough wooden bench looking down and just before that moment of introduction Natasha felt something she couldn't put her finger on. He looked up at her with his piercing green eyes and there was a moment of instant recognition: that feeling of coming home that pulls sharply at the pit of your stomach. Natasha smiled falteringly and said hello.

Jason looked at the vision in white standing in front of him and placed his drink aside. He needed his mind to be clear as he could sense he was about to drown.

Natasha and Jason began chatting tentatively. They sat across each other, conscious of themselves and aware that they were both feeling the very same thing. It all seemed out of place and somewhat surreal. They were surrounded by people but it felt as if it was just the two of them in a bubble of their own. The six degrees of separation between them gave them common ground to speak about but sitting across one another wasn’t working. Looking at each other was unnerving. At the first opportunity Natasha moved away from the table and Jason followed. They were still near each other but now there was place to manoeuvre. Both inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. Distance was needed to save them both.

Time flew by; it was as if they had known each other for years, the comfort, and the conversations, the laughter and the flirtatious banter.

Suddenly, Natasha was grabbed from behind and a pair of hands covered her eyes. She knew immediately who it was: Aryan, her love from a lifetime ago. By the time he swung her around to face him and she turned back to look at Jason, he was gone.

 She had known Aryan was going to be there and in fact that had given her some comfort when she had accepted this invitation. She had also wondered what it would be like to see him so many years on. He had after all been the great love of her life. This beautiful man whom she had loved deeply and left on a whim. So much had been left unsaid, so many strings left untied.

But now Natasha was unsettled. Wanting to be back with Jason but also drawn to Aryan. For the life of her she didn't know where Jason had disappeared to so abruptly. Aryan was talking, trying to gauge where she was at now in this phase of her life. He knew she was alone. They had been in touch a few times over the last year and many a time he had thought of her with that longing of the past and wondered why she left him so suddenly, why she had vanished from his life.

She moved away saying she needed a glass of wine and began walking down the slope to the garden. A sea of people stretched in front of her, busy in the telling of their stories. Suddenly she saw Jason at the other end of the garden. He was at the deck, his back towards them all, gazing ahead.

She walked up to him. Looking out at the garden she asked him why he had disappeared and he asked her why did she think he had, to which she laughed and changed the conversation but he bought it back to Aryan…asking her, his eyes, troubled and curious.

Natasha turned to face him but she didn’t know where to start: at the beginning or at the end. So she told him a little about their time together and that it had ended abruptly. She explained that she was to blame for the break up. She could sense that Jason wanted to ask her what she felt now and in fact whether this lunch at Samara’s house was meant to be where they would reconcile or get closure. She didn’t know what to say. Before she met Jason those were in fact the very questions she had asked herself. Aryan had been a deep love that had ended badly.

Aryan was shattered. He had watched her leave on the pretext of getting a glass of wine, and he watched her make her way to Jason instead. The thought of her with someone else was like a punch in his stomach. He needed answers to the past. He yearned for a possibility of the future. He was certainly not prepared for this. He steeled himself to walk up to them and break the reverie they seemed to be in.

Jason and Natasha seemed to have overcome the Aryan block. She felt happy and at peace. She had never felt like this with anyone before and she wanted to see where this would lead. Jason was convinced that this was a soul connection and he was not going to let her go. With their backs to the party they gazed at the undulating gardens ahead.

Just as Aryan began walking down the slope towards them, Jason took Natasha’s hand and lead her down the stairs of the deck, away, into the gardens beyond.