The Mysterious Gifter

 

(If you are meeting the Keeper for the first time, here is the story where he appears first! Read About The Keeper Here!)

What a day… Alekhya thought in exhaustion. She was relieved that her birthday was over.

Alekhya had wanted to skip office today. Infact she would have preferred to stay in her bed the whole day and waste her birthday away.

The fortieth. How did life fly by!?

Not only had she turned forty years old, she was single too. As if the forties weren’t depressing enough.

She dropped her head into her palms. How did it come to this?

She had had grand plans. Pursuing a career in journalism, finding her soulmate and falling in love with him and finding her happy-forever moment.

The universe had other plans.

Today she worked as a content writer for a healthcare MNC. She did fall in love in college but got dumped in a year. Then she fell in love with a colleague. Worst mistake of her life. When he left the job for better prospects, she was left heartbroken. Even more painful had been the incident where she had professed her love for him and he had rejected her, although politely.

Seven years had passed since that fateful day and she had never dared to look at another guy. Her fragile self-esteem had taken a solid hit that day and she had vowed to never fall in love again.

Not that her luck had assisted her in this area. Hypo-thyroidism had ushered in her 35^th birthday with weight-gain, health issues and diet restrictions. She could no longer enjoy her favorite dishes.

At forty, she had more or less given up on love. Yet she felt the pangs every now and then. Especially when she saw some romantic movie or read a love story.

Which is why the bouquet and the gift baffled her.

When she had walked into her office, she had walked in with the blissful knowledge that no one in the office knew that it was her birthday. That is how she wanted it to be. She had never been fond of birthday celebrations and liked to keep a low profile.

When she reached her cabin, there was a small bouquet of button roses, along with a wrapped gift. She had hastily hid them in her drawer and when she got some free time, she opened the gift.

It was an ornately carved hand-mirror with a wooden handle. There was a sticky note covering the pane of the mirror. On that note it was written – ‘Peel this note to see the prettiest woman on earth.’ She had peeled it and had smiled at her reflection.

The bouquet had come with a small note too. ‘Wishing you a birthday that is as radiant and bright as you are.’

Who would have sent this? Who knew her birthday? Someone from the HR? The gloom of her birthday had temporarily made way for thrill and joy as she kept raking her brain, thinking about the mysterious person who had gifted her.

But now, alone at home, despair set in. She sighed. On my fortieth birthday, I am at home in pajamas, eating oats porridge and binging on a fantasy series meant for young adults… how did my life reach this point??

Not wanting to spend any more energy on negative thoughts, she decided to call it a day. Happy birthday to me…she whispered to herself as she lay down on her bed. To her relief, sleep caught up with her immediately.

She instantly recognized that she was dreaming, because she no longer felt heavy. When she looked down on herself, she found a thinner frame on her. Not exactly a size-zero, but much thinner than what she was in reality. She was wearing a pretty dress with a long coat over it. She looked around and gasped.

‘Paris!’ she whispered in amazement. She had never been there but something told her that she was right now in Paris. Fashionably dressed people walked by in a street that had amazing boutiques on either end.

“I am much thinner; I am wearing a dress that fits me perfectly; I am in Paris! How did this happen?” She muttered to herself.

“Well, you made it happen with your wishful thinking!”

Alekhya turned around and saw an old man sitting on a chair outside a boutique where she was standing. He smiled at her gently.

“What do you mean I made it happen?” Alekhya asked.

“You must have wished it very deeply. Your mind is just manifesting your innermost desire.”

“Do I know you?”

The old man chuckled. “I am the Keeper of Lost Dreams And Hopes. I usually arrive at a person’s life when he or she has lost all hope.”

“But I didn’t lose…” Alekhya stopped mid-sentence. Just before she had gone to sleep, she had had a horrible realization that someone had wanted to gift her on her birthday but was probably ashamed of her. The moment that thought came, she had severely reprimanded herself. But somehow the impression stayed back.

“You did lose hope, didn’t you?” The Keeper asked gently. “You will find answers if you enter here.” He said, gesturing to the boutique.

Only too eager to find the identity of her mysterious gifter, she entered through the door of the boutique. Before she could realize, everything around her started spinning and she found herself in her office.

It was empty. One look at the watch showed the timing as 8 a.m. The staff didn’t come before 9. Something told her it was the day of her birthday. She stood beside her desk and waited eagerly.

Few minutes later, Sharath opened the door of her cabin. He looked around and ensured that there was no one there. Then he kept the parcel and the bouquet on her table and quickly drifted away to his own.

Alekhya stood there in utter confusion. “I do remember having shared my birthday with him. But why would he give this to me?” She wondered out aloud.

“Because you have been kind to him.” The old man’s voice resonated around her as the world started spinning yet again and a series of moments flashed before her.

---@@@---

“Tough luck, Alekhya. I have heard that he is difficult to be with.” Her colleague said once the HR had assigned Sharath to work under Alekhya.

“Be kind, Vidi! You do know he is autistic.” Alekhya had immediately defended him. “We just need to respect his boundaries and understand what works and what doesn’t work for him!”

She realized only now that he had been lounging nearby and had heard every word of their conversation.

---@@@---

“You don’t have to sit with me. Enjoy your lunch-break with your colleagues.” Sharath said when Alekhya joined him at the table where he was eating alone.

“But I want to have lunch with you. You need not talk. We will just eat in silence.” Alekhya calmly said. She was engrossed in eating and thus missed the softening of his expression as he looked at her.

---@@@---

“Why are you not coming to the resort? You are fond of botany, right? There are many species of plants and trees there. You will have a wonderful time.” Alekhya said, trying to convince Sharath to attend their annual office picnic.

“I do not do well with crowds. I cannot travel in the bus with so many people in it. It will make me extremely uneasy.” He said in his usual expression-less tone.

“That’s it? Then consider it taken care of. I will take my car. It will be just you and me. I will even put on Carl Sagan’s podcasts and we will have a great time.”

He smiled then. Just a slight smile, but the effect on his face was remarkable.

---@@@---

“I never realized it meant so much to him.” Alekhya said as the world stopped spinning around her and she found herself outside the boutique with the Keeper.

“You should not underestimate the power of kindness.” The Keeper said. “It has moved the world far too many times. It has changed lives, scripted histories and challenged the fate of entire nations. All it takes to change a day, or to set things in motion, is just a single act of kindness.”

“He thinks I am beautiful.” Alekhya said, her voice breaking. It had been such a long time since anyone had made her feel beautiful.

“You do have a beautiful soul, and it reflects through your aura.” The Keeper said, his voice now echoing even as the scene started fading away. “Remember, there is no one more beautiful than a person with a kind soul!”

The alarm woke her up. She snoozed it and put her arms over her face, still reeling under the effects of the dream that she had. Already it was fading from her memory, but she remembered an old man who said she had a beautiful soul. And why did Paris just come to her mind?

She woke up with a gasp. The dream had showed that it was Sharath who had gifted her.

Even though it was a dream, she believed it with all her heart. He was the only one who knew her birthday. It had to be him. There was this weird assurance that it was indeed him.

May be someday she would look back and attribute this to a very strange dream that she had had, but today felt different. She felt a calm acceptance of herself.

Today she felt beautiful.

At the office, during lunch hour, she found Sharath sitting alone at his regular spot. She sat opposite to him. He smiled at her. No words were exchanged. As usual, they ate in silence.

Yet it was a silence filled with togetherness, solace and promises of many such soulful moments in the future as two lost souls soaked in the bliss of being in their own private and comforting world.