The proper way to end things

I wrote this a long time ago and it would have found its way into the trash but something made me keep it and well, something else is making me post it here (if it isn’t up to the mark, blame a younger version of me though I have to say, my thoughts about the matter discussed here hasn’t changed much!).

Everyone has people, some important, some not very, who have faded away from their lives, without a word being exchanged about it. Sometimes it is hard to remember what exactly your last conversation with that person was like. Other times, you probably wonder what you could possibly talk about with them if you saw them again. Especially in the case of people who once knew everything about you, who have reduced to nothing at all now, who have no idea of who you have become today, who would not be able to recognise your growth and only think of you as a stranger you once had memories with. Facing such people can turn from awkward to agonising in just a few seconds. Moving on from people may have been a piece of cake but if there could be an agreement to end things in a proper way, something that suits both parties equally, I think it could turn out to be wonderful in that you can know for sure that there are no expectations from anyone to restart the relationship.

I received a call in the morning. A very familiar name appeared on my phone and I had half a mind to fake some emergency to get out of the conversation. But I picked it up anyway and forced out a ‘Hello!’ (definitely not Adele style) and I heard the voice of someone who, a few years ago, I used to not go a day without speaking to.

“What do you want?” were actually the words on my mind, though.

“Hi! I just wanted to say that you and I are officially strangers now. You were a lot of things to me at one point in my life and I was probably all that to you too. But we have drifted apart and changed so much. I just wanted to thank you for all the sweet memories and some of the bitter ones. We shared a part of our lives with each other but somewhere along the way, it ended. It could have been an intentional thing or have happened due to reasons that weren’t in our control…”

“What exactly are you getting at?” I asked, the new me, as was pointed out by this person I once knew to be not so preachy, not patient enough to listen to the monologue.

“I’m saying goodbye.” I heard from the other end.

“So, the next time I see you, what do you expect me to be like? Fake happy? Smiling but distant? Or just to turn away and ignore you?” I asked.

“Let’s be strangers in the complete sense. We can be people we have never ever known or say, even met before!” came the reply.

“No awkwardness then? That’s a deal.” I said, overjoyed at the proposal of ending a relationship not with silence, but with an acceptance of going back to being two anonymous people, back to before we crossed each others’ paths, almost erasing the memory of a person.

“Deal. And I hope we never have to meet again, that destiny will be kind enough to spare us from another encounter.”

“In that hope, stranger, I join you too. Goodbye!” I said, ending the conversation.

And with a jolt, I woke up from the dream that was too good to be true. But what awoke me was a call I received on my phone with the same familiar name on it. And I picked it up!