At twenty-one who would have known that leukaemia would ravage Antara’s being, reducing her to a bag of bones.  It was hard to fathom that the bubbly, effervescent Antara, always brimming with joie de vivre; was now counting her last days.

But not without a plan at hand.

Antara’s bucket list was ready on her sixteen birthday and she had planned to tick the list off in the next ten years. Little did she know then that she would less likely not live, to see her twenty-sixth birthday. 

In the last few years, before leukaemia became her constant companion, she had managed to knock off most from her coveted bucket list. Rafting  twenty-six kilometres with her friends at Rishikesh, a scholarship at London School of Economics and a scuba diving adventure at Spain. Two more to go, still, from the list. But time was whizzing by.

As she sat by the beach in her hometown that evening, inhaling the crisp, salty air; the ochre sunset seemed to be conjuring up various messages into the indigo sky, prodding Antara’s soul alike. 

“The second last one; I’ll take that trip to Auroville with my girlfriends next weekend. We got to do it now. I’ll carry my ammunition (read: medicines) and Dr. Sood will be on call, if there is an emergency. Nancy and Neha have been pestering me all this while and it’s high time I take up that offer,” contemplated Antara.

She was suddenly jolted out of her reverie, by the whiff of the familiar Armani Black Code. It was Rahil. And before she knew it; he was holding her in a warm, loving embrace; planting soft, gentle kisses on her slender neck.

Antara quivered with delight. But her heart sank from within, knowing this love had no future, just like her short-lived life.

Rahil cupped Antara’s hands. He gathered some soft, golden sand and dropped it in gently into her palms. He quizzically rummaged through his pocket, pulling out two shiny bands, and placed them on Antara’s sand cupped palms. 

“Be mine Antara,” he said, tenderly cupping Antara’s palms in his.

Tears rolled down Antara’s cheeks.

“But how Rahil? I’m going forever.” 

“Not for me Antara. You are going nowhere for me. You will be mine forever and for keeps,” said Rahil kissing her tears away with his gentle lips. 

Antara and Rahil’s kindergarten love had been eternally sealed. Antara would forever cherish their Last Song before the Dusk.