At the end of it.

"But, but what remains at the end of it?" She asked.

I started into her eyes, smiled and exhaled slowly, "Nothing!"

"Nothing?" Puzzled, she looked at walls- nonplussed, with an aching emptiness in her eyes. "Nothing?" She asked again with a disbelief, "but something has to remain, something. What about this? The carving, the wall?"

"Hmm!" I looked around. "It exists as long as we do, otherwise it's doesn't make much of a sense. It'll be gone later, if not sooner." I said playfully.

"And, and what about us? What remains of you, what remains of me? What becomes of 'us' ?" She looked dejected.

"What do you think? What do you want?" I asked.

"I don't know! Memories, may be?" She questioned, herself.

"May be!" I entertained the possibility as I looked across the cave at a cat chasing a spider.

"May be? Come on! You gotta have something more than just a may be!" She exasperated.

"I don't know" Said I, turning my gaze away from the cat and looked into her eyes. "I honestly don't."

"You scare me, Sourabh." She confessed with wet eyes.

"Amongst all the uncertainties in the life, amongst all the dreadful possibilities and all the could've and would've beens- I, who sits next to you, as solid and alive as one could be, am scaring you? Why?" I chuckled.

"Shut up, you! Alright. You, Mr. as-liive-and-solid-as-I-could-be, are the constant in my ever-changing equation. Don't you ever 'I-don't-know' me. Never." Even the cat could sense her anger.

"Alright, I won't! But for the record I must add that anger doesn't alter the truth." I replied in a calm and matter-of-factly voice.

"What truth?" She looked as confused as ever.

"Not truth. 'The' truth. Everything must die, nothing is constant, and the rest if it. Come on, you know that." I replied.

"Oh! For the god's sake Sourabh!! Could you please be romantic and not a fanatic for at least once in a while? For once?" She complained. The cat stared at me.

"Yes I can! But I am not really a moon, june and the icecream castle kind of a guy. You know me better that, don't you?" I replied with a slight dignity.

"Yeah, I do and just for the record, I hate knowing it" She looked away.

"And yet" I said, "You are here- we are here!"

"Yeah, whatever!!" She sighed, " Quite a story, isn't it?"

"Yes, a story, indeed!" I smiled.

- Sourabh Raghavendra