Chapter 7: Desert Snow

Chapter 7: Desert Snow

Abhay’s P.O.V

It was snowing.

The ground was completely white. It had snowed overnight and now the tiny yellow blossoms that looked like miniature sunflowers were buried under three feet of fresh snow, their petals crushed under the heavy weight. It was going to be a long, cold year ahead and the snow has only just begun.

I looked at the waterfall in front of me, untouched by the winter chill. Jharna, that was what we called it. The literal Hindi translation of a waterfall, but it just sounded right to us. It was freezing outside but I knew it would be nice and warm inside the pack house. It would also be noisy. But I liked that noise. It was welcoming. It was home.

Something dropped to the ground then, at my feet. I looked down to see what it was.

It was only a speck in the vast sea of snow but it stood out amongst the white. It was in the shape of a tiny drop but the warmth coming from it melted the snow a little, caused a slight dent as it was absorbed into the snow. Blood.

It was a drop of blood.

The temperature suddenly dropped by at least ten degrees as another drop of blood fell on the ground to join the other droplet. Then another. And another. The drops weren’t coming from the sky and I realized with a start that the blood was actually dripping down my fingertips.

I raised my hands in front of my face to inspect the blood and saw that there was blood everywhere. It was running down my arm as it colored my sleeves. Confusion swarm in my mind as I tried to register why I was bleeding. The only thing I felt was cold, there was no pain.

I looked down at the ground and watched in shock as the ground beneath me turned completely red. It was like I was standing in a river of blood. It flowed freely in the snow, heading towards the slope before taking the plunge downward to meet the waters of the Jharna, turning it a dark pink it color.

I felt something trickle down my forehead and I raised my bloody hands to wipe it away, only to come up with more blood. I felt a sad smile form on my lips. This was it then, this was how it all ends.

My vision blurred, black spots danced in front of my eyes and I knew I didn’t have my time left. I only wished I could hold her once again. Just this one last time before I was gone.

I turned back to look at the vast fields of snow that were now drenched in blood. And there she was, in her white fur and soulful blue eyes. There was blood in her coat but that didn’t diminish her beauty; she would always be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, no matter what form she took.

She was running towards me with all her might but she was too far away. It was of no use. It was already too late.

I raised my hand towards her as if to say goodbye, but my vision blurred further, the dark spots increased…and then I was falling back, into the turbulent waters of Jharna. This was it.

A mournful howl filled the air a split second later…and my vision went blank.

******

I sprang up in bed, covered in cold sweat. My heart was beating like a hummingbird as I gulped in huge gasps of air. For a few moments, I felt disoriented, not knowing where I was or even what time it was.

The clock on the opposite wall showed 4.45 in the morning but my mind was racing with a thousand questions.

What was all that about? I’d never been to a mountain before, especially because of my fear of heights and yet I was dreaming about the mountains. And what was with all that blood and snow? Why was I bleeding? Was someone trying to kill me? And that wolf…

Those eyes! I’d seen them before.

That white wolf in my dreams was so familiar. I knew it was a woman and I also seemed to know that wolf. She, I called it a ‘she’.

How did I even know that the wolf was a female? What was my connecting to it? Whatever it was, it felt like even when my life was ending…the only person I was worried about was her. It felt like I wanted to hold her one last time before I died…

I shook my head. I was a twenty seven year old male in the prime of my life and yet here I was, dreaming about dying and blood and a white wolf with icy blue eyes…wait, icy blue eyes?

I remembered with a start, it was the woman I’d seen today, in that dhaba this afternoon.

For a second I remember thinking of her as a white wolf, before she left the dhaba with her companion. But the absurdity of that thought made no sense to me.

Why would I think of a woman as a wild animal? A dangerous predator at that? And why a wolf of all the billion varieties of animals out there? What was wrong with me?

I’ve been obsessing about that woman the whole damn day and it was getting out of hand! So what if she was a foreigner? It wasn’t like she was the first foreigner I’d ever seen.

But even though I cursed myself for the way I was obsessing about her, I still couldn’t deny the fact that she was indeed an unique woman. There was just something about her that drew me in, something I couldn’t pinpoint.

Sighing, I got out of bed and pulling my balcony door open, stepped into the veranda. The sun hadn’t risen yet and the sky was still dark with only specks of light visible on the horizon. One thing about the desert was that the days were extremely hot and the nights were cool, sometimes cold enough to require a blanket. It all depended upon the sand’s absorption and release of heat. That’s something we learned in school.

I knew I was filling my mind with baseless thoughts to distract myself because I was too shaken up by the dream. Ever since I was little, my mom always told me that ‘subha ke sapne hamesha sach hote hain’; the dreams dreamt in the early morning always came true. So for me to be dreaming about my death at 4.45 in the morning wasn’t something I was too excited about.

I could just call my mom and ask her what my dream even meant, but being a superstitious Indian mother that she was, she would just freak out and want me to come home immediately. I tried not to be as superstitious as my family could be sometimes, but when you’ve been raised in superstition your entire childhood, it’s hard not to pick up a few things.

I was a native of Pune and I was currently based in Bombay as a photographer. I had never been to a hill station before in my entire life, not even for work and I didn’t see any future plans that involved hilly areas. I preferred the sea and that’s where my work often took me. Ashiwini Mehta was the woman who mostly got the hilly assignments in our department and she was almost the same age, if not younger than me. I don’t see her quitting her job or moving away so I don’t ever have to worry that I’ll have to take her place.

The village was slowly coming to life as I stood on my hotel balcony and watched. Some of the lights had been turned on in several houses, shops were being open and men in colorful turbans were lighting their chulahs and putting large saucepans of water on boil so they could start making tea, and groups of women were heading towards the tube wells with their earthen pot to collect water for their daily work.

Everything was buzzing with life around me but my mind was restless, it was filled with thoughts about that snow covered mountain and of a woman that my mind kept thinking of as a wolf.

Maybe I really was going insane or maybe some higher power was trying to send me a message, tell me something that was about to happen.

Yeah, right! With my luck, I’d bet on the former.