Memoirs: Let's make a collage of articles.

Memoirs: Let's make a collage of articles.

MY SOULMATE
(by Portia Burton)

Lucky me,I've got many friends and well wishers,some of them are much closer and I call them as my 'heartmates'.
But there is one and only person whom I can call my 'soulmate' and that person is my friend Sandra. Yes,she really answers the definition of 'soulmate'.She has been with me for the last sixteen years and I would like to be with her even when both of us turn sixty!....
I still remember our first meeting......
That day there was a great commotion in our building. Mr.John Wilburn had thrashed his wife in a drunken rage as usual but she had finally called the Police and they had taken him away. That poor lady was crying in the corridor when me and mom returned from the market. Seeing her sorry sight we stopped in our track. She was sobbing uncontrollably and her little daughter just sat there with a vacant look. But the moment she saw me, she rushed to me and held my hand so tightly that I almost winced.
Mrs.Wilburn shouted at her through clentched teeth,"Sandra,come back here!Leave that girl be!"
But in response to those orders that girl Sandra clung so tightly to me that I could hear her heart beating,'bumpada,bumpada,bumpada....'!I was more confused but embraced her and looked askance at mom. Then mom took Sandra's hand and nodding silently to Mrs.wilburn she took Sandra alongwith me to our house.
On entering our house Sandra's face immediately lit up and we started playing like we had known each other since ages!
And that is how it is even till today!Yes,I have now realised that me and Sandra are soulmates-one soul living in two bodies! this fact was established by that immediate connection we had the moment we met for the first time. And as  this connection has developed over time, I experience a love so deep, strong and complex, that I sometimes doubt whether I have or will ever love anybody else so intensely like I love Sandra. She herself is unable to fathom the depth of this love and this had led her to start interpreting our love in a totally weird way and thank god she soon realised her folly and also the purity of my love for her.
     Sandra understands and connects with me in every way and on every level, which brings a sense of peace and happiness when she is around. And she is the only person who can humble me with her 'no nonsense' and 'in your face' practical  attitude.Only she can control my fantasy and pull me back to the harsh ground of reality.
        we are but girls and are bound to have some discords and tiffs. Sometimes we just stomp our feet and walk away from each other with a vow of not seeing each other ever.Oh, but just a few moments later I start missing her and hate the fact that I love her so much and feel tortured in not able to express it. And just then I see her coming to me and we run to each other and embrace and sob and giggle and exchange soft punches!
    Sandra has been almost an adopted daughter of my parents, but she is much more than a sister for me. She is but two months older than me and yet she sometimes treats me as a baby! she pampers me and roughs up too!
              I am known to be 'weepy eyes'! tears come so easily to my eyes! But sandra abruptly orders me to stop all that the moment I get started.Once I asked her about this veto of hers and her reply was,"Not that I think you are over emotional or weak,but because I feel your pain, and your tears may soon be mine!"
      She was never interested in formal education but has groomed her  talent for cartoon drawing herself and her own graphic art and now works for a software co.She now looks after her mother as well as my sick mom. She is so caring and sometimes very volatile too! She believes in 'instant payback,then and there' and so lands many a times in fights and quarrels !!
 She is the only person-apart from my mom- who knows how my brain works and sometimes, just reading my poem once, she adorns it with an apt illustration!
     I can't be mad at her even if she really messes things for me or for herself. Between us there is no awkwardness, no worries, no waiting, just  total togetherness, total understanding. That doesn't mean that there  are no issues to be ironed out  between us. But we know intuitively that we can resolve such issues without losing our love and respect for each other.
  Some sick minded girls see our love in a totally weird light, but we just feel pity for them and move on our way.
      Sandra may not be the person I can spend the rest of life with, but she is the person I can't spend the rest of my life without!.......
-PORTIA BURTON.