Once he finished, he looked at her intensely and moved closer to her, held her hands very softly and made her sit. He sat next to her, his hands didn’t leave hers and neither did his eyes moved away from her face. He started in a very grave tone, “I am responsible for all this, I have been watching you since last one month because I just couldn’t stay away from you, God! What have I done to you!!! You have just ceased to be the real you.” Amy tried to defy him by stating that he was imagining things but he kept his finger on her lips and continued.
“Amy, it was my mother who asked me to leave you and go away. She loved you too dearly and didn’t want you to have the same fate like hers. She felt that I will turn into my father and it will cause irreparable damage to your heart and mind. But now I feel my mother was wrong in both the cases, firstly I did not grow up one bit like my father and the damage she was saving you from was all in vain. I can see I have caused severe damage but they are not irreparable. I have not come to ask you to come back because I know you had never gone, I could always feel you around, you were my inspiration, you were my motivation. You are the reason I have ‘Artist’s Corner,’ yes Amy our own Art School!!! That day I had come to discuss about my institute and needed some expert advice on how to organize the financial side of it because my father does not want it to be an abode of hippies but intends to turn into a full-fledged commercial institute. I had no such plans but I turned up for the meeting just for his sake, he had sent me to one of his best which is true but little does he know about his shark. This shark is actually a mermaid. I will not force you to do anything you don’t want but trust me Amy this is not you, this life is not what you want, you are meant for greater things, listen to me for once, just close your eyes and see, picturize your whole life and then see with a free mind, the first thing that comes to your sight is what it is you are meant to be.”
Amy was mesmerized by his words, and in a trance like state, she closed her eyes, first her mind was crowded with files, meetings, faces, formal suits and dresses, white boards, presentations, noise, sound, vivid images, her mind whirled like a roller coaster and then everything went blank. There she saw that book vendor with the same bestseller with her name on top. She moved ahead to hold the book and this time it was in her hand.
She opened her eyes and she was holding on to Heath’s hands very tight. She flashed her dazzling smile for the first time in so many years and said, “The name of my book would be ‘See with your eyes closed.’”
Heath was right, Amy was not a banker but a writer, an artist. Her world was not behind closed walls but she was meant to soar high with her pen and she did, she did make her dream come true. ‘Artist’s Corner,’ is a full- fledged Art School now. Amy is either writing a novel or penning the poems, or just attending workshop to motivate aspiring artists.
Last but not the least, they have a baby girl named Catherine, and yes this story does have a happy ending. They did live happily ever after.