"Usko Samajh nahin aati tum kya ho. Are you darkness or are you light?".
He was the youngest in the family. He tended to observe and absorb. An asteroid trying to catch up with shooting stars; trying to strike an equilibrium in the orbital system of love. A sponge some might call him, but even a sponge has a saturation point and he'd long since passed it. He'd heard all these words and - true to his nature - had stored them in his treasure chest, thinking he'd understood them, thinking being the operative word. Life was yet to teach him though. She was yet to use her most effective tool, the hands of the clock, to slap some sense into him; hitting him harder each time. It was good for him though. It was only when a saturated sponge cried its burden that it created space to absorb more; to learn. "she is the most supreme of teachers" he thought to himself. And her brilliance lay primarily in her persistence. She doesn't get angry. Time doesn't get impatient. She doesn't stop nor does she get derailed. She maintains calm, continues at her own set pace, and persists. And that is why sooner or later - and sooner for their sake - she reigns in all the rebels and eventually expels all the stubborn ones.
She reminds him of his high school. "Perseverance commands success".
That was his high school motto. For the longest time he thought they were three completely unrelated words. You'd think he were stupid, but given the militaristic nature of Aitchision, it wasn't surprising that he heard the words in his head as if a stern general were shouting them one by one. Perseverance! Commands! Success! That would've certainly have been more in line with the Aitchisonian way. Nonetheless, she'd taught him to understand these words, to appreciate them, and so to appreciate her ways. These words aptly described her defining trait. She'd persisted and forced her students to submit. Truly, Perseverance commands her success and lack thereof our failure.
Back to the start. "You're everything".
Love, like time, teaches too. It makes you understand cliches like you've never understood them before. Cliches weren't too different from other sayings he'd stored word for word in his treasure chest without having fully understood. They were just ones he'd hear more often. And today love gave him an impressive lesson on "you're everything". Today, the young boy had lived these words. And now, he asked himself a simple question:
Was she darkness or was she light? And immediately his heart answered:
-To be continued
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