She glanced at the pair of swans lovingly pecking at each other. It was over seven months since they parted, but she remembered vividly. She had written a letter to him following a petty fight one evening:

To,
Not so dear Monster,
This is to inform you that your actions have hurt me… as usual… and you blew your lid for no good reason… as usual… and I’m really tired of it all! You always take me for granted and I can’t take it anymore. And this time, I’m inconvincible.
Not yours anymore,
Naina.

Her ‘monster’ felt a rush of guilt as he read that letter. He loved her, but was short-tempered and impatient. Silly girl, she had sprinkled her perfume on that paper too! He couldn’t stop smiling. He knew her anger was a bubble that would last no more than a couple of days at most. But this time it was his fault. She had been at the receiving end, as always, of the tension at his workplace. He went hunting for an apology card at a gift shop, when he came across this beautiful piece showing two swans getting cozy with each other. He had instantly liked it and got it packed for her, with a note etched at the bottom:

Dearest Naina,
You’ll always be in my heart and my mind
Hand in hand we’ll walk through life.
Yours forever,
Monster

He wasn’t much of a poet, but she could see the depth of his feelings through those tacky lines. Her anger had instantly vanished and she had cuddled up to him that evening.

But as things were to be, they broke up after a course of time. The split wasn’t very amicable. It ended bitterly, with each of them returning the other’s possessions, which they had once exchanged in a surge of undying love. It was a huge collection: valentine cards, sorry cards, miss you cards, all of them! The baseball cap he had let her keep after having won the inter-collegiate tournament, all those tiny scraps of paper that they wrote to each other during lectures, the covers of books bearing his name, his childhood snap in an underwear, his school photographs, and so many other things!

She almost went hysterical post break up. Didn’t know how to get over with it, and what to do with all that stuff that reminded of him. Knowing that the only way to get rid of her past was to do away with all that stuff, she returned back all his snaps, his baseball cap, his books. It pained her when she burnt all those chits, book covers, letters and cards on her terrace one evening. She saw all her love, her efforts, the time invested, her memories go up with the flames. Not a single drop of tear as she stared blankly at them, completely disillusioned.

She threw those ceramic swans to the ground, but the piece fell on the carpet, breaking one’s beak. She rushed, as though they had life and were hurt, caressed them, and glued the beak back to where it was. She no more had the heart to destroy it. For endless number of days she used to glance at them and reminisce those days long gone by. So many times she had the urge to throw it away too, but she wasn’t strong enough.

After the traumatic waves subsided she realized that things were just things. They didn’t have the power to hurt. Only control they had over her was what she gave them. Their sight troubled her, the footnote haunted her, but she had decided that she would live with it. Destroying them would be running away from the pain, and she wanted to forget him by facing it all, not by being an escapist.

The girl who never thought she would heal again, recovered. She fell in love again! By this time she had even befriended those swans. She had a date that night. Dressed in her cheerful best, she winked at the couple, and shut the door as she left.