A long time ago a boy lived in a small town on countryside, and loved a simple country side girl. They had been friends since childhood, but then the conservative society had made them switch too secretive way of communications. This was the era where text messages were sent and received in form a crumpled paper balls, and they used to do so. One day, boy decided that it was time to take next step, and graduate from being just friends to lovers, and he wrote a love letter to her, crumpled up and dropped it when no one was looking, and she picked it up as skill fully as he had dropped.
That night boy was a little to curious, he could not control his excitement, wanted to see her reaction when she read his letter, that way he would be ready to face the answer when she actually delivers it to him, whatever it was going to be, yes or no, it was going to be tough. So he crept to just below her room's window, where she had mentioned she used to read his notes. And he could look at her through her window, mesmerized. Her silky smooth skin, with black flowing hair sliding off her shoulder, her true beauty in her full splendour was visible, and she had that piece of paper, a piece of his heart in her hand. She is reading it.
"Nooooooooo" she screams, and lights go off! And he can hear her crying! Heartbroken the boy returns home, and unable to sleep that night, he cannot understand her rejection of him. Everything in this village reminds him of her, and her rejection rings in his ears, he decides to leave the village. Still, he does not want his parents to suffer; he does not want them to know that he is in reality running away.
He ponders on his option, and while he is doing so, he avoids old pals and places. On one such unknown route he meets an older Gentleman who is not from the village, and gains his confidence by helping him unstuck a wheel of his horse carriage. In a pub down the route boy learns that the Gentleman is from the army. Boy starts asking him lot of questions and gentleman starts answering, thinking like any village lad this boy also has many dreams and is curious of outside world.
Boy: "So does a bullet hurt much?"
Gentleman: "It hurts a lot," now quite drunk "but nothing hurt's more than a broken heart."
Boy had got his answer, next morning he packs his bags, tells parents, who feel proud of him, after all they have had a rich army background. It is army, which shall take him places, take him away from this village, from her.
First day into army, and he is put in to hardship, but nothing deters him, he just makes a name for himself "The Unbreakable" nothing and nothing hurts him, no amount of punishment, no amount of exercise, no amount of hardship ever changes the expression on his face. All this is attributed to his military bloodline. A true blue army blood! Like the blue coats they respected.
One year into army and he has become one of the strongest recruits, and now has been posted in a remote tough terrain border area of the empire, but this guy is relentless, he does not even crave woman! Not even once in a blue moon! Rumours start spreading, of him being gay. Instances of him looking away from women ( for he still sees her in every woman who comes across him) are discussed among colleagues without having any background knowledge. No one tries to ask him, "Why?"
Until one night; an officer above his rank, calls him into his bunker, alone and suggests bending to his wishes. Boy ponders for few minutes, contemplating on whether to deny this man love or to say yes and try loving men for once, for he would never be able to love another woman, and he gives in. He follows his superior's instructions, and loses his virginity to him. This continues till he is posted there, every night, every night learning something new, something different, but never feeling any emotions. And one day, war breaks out!
The boy's group is sent to the war front, where they are greeted by new commanding officer and two more regiments. On war front, women are seldom available, and many straight men turned gay, and no exclusivity remained. And in this scenario a tough gay man was hard to find, but here was one! His reputation preceded him! Boy had no choice but to give in, he could not say no, he still could not see face of a woman and had no feelings for men, but he gave in, for sake of being accepted in the twisted society he now was in.
He was heroic! There was no other ruthless, tactful and brutally strong soldier in army, his heroics in battle brought him medals, promotions, out of turn promotions and name and fame to his parents. And his nights never went alone in those bunkers, sleeping with his men, now he had become an expert in that too! He could easily write Kama Sutra for gays, but he still did not have any feelings for them.
In one of the battle he gets injured saving life of one of his men, he is brought to hospital, where a peculiar thing happens. This guy screams at touch of a female nurse and curses them, warning them to never touch him again. He vows to never get injured, never ever.
After a decade since he joined army, after the end of war, the boy had grown to be the Colonel in army, and was given a 6 month long holiday, for he had been in war and performed really well for continuous 4 years and that to without a break in past 10 years. This guy never wanted to go back to his village, the memory of his rejection was still fresher than the last guy he killed in a battle.
Coming back to his village, the boy is hit by the nostalgia, and if nothing else he did miss his parents and his home, and he still misses her. As he reaches home, he hugs his parents and decides to rest for a while. he learns that his sister is married to his best friend in war times, letter must have got lost somewhere at that time.
In evening, his sister along with his best friend and now brother in law, and his tormentor of the decade, the girl walk in to meet him. He looks at her longingly, but moves away to his room. Sensing something to be out of place, his best pal follows him in, and gives him 10 year old letter back.
Boy looks at it, and
Boy: "Yes! I wrote that letter, what about it?"
Pal: "Yes, I know, she wrote the answer for you!"
Boy: "I know it is 'No'! Why is she here, to humiliate me more?"
Pal: "I should not have read it, but i did, when you left for the army, it does not say 'No'! She said 'Yes' to you!"
The girl walks in!
Girl: "Why did you leave, without hearing my answer? Why did you make me wait so long?"
Boy: "What are you talking about? I heard her scream her answer out, the same night I gave her the letter!"
Girl: "Yes! I did scream that night, because there was a pervert standing outside my window, and I felt my modesty had been compromised."
Boy: "Noooooooo!" Screams! Last 10 years of his life, flashing through his eyes.
After that the famed Colonel retired from army, got married and left the country to start a new life in country of dreams, across the ocean.
Reverting back to present, a 70 year old man ask's his eldest grandchild, who is going through a similar situation in his life, while he is surrounded by his family, holding his wife's hand: "So the morale of the story is?"
And before the grandchild to whom it is directed could answer, a 5th grader steps in and says: "God punished grandpa for being pervert!"
And everyone laughs, as grandpa laughed!
Morale: Do not assume response by reaction of people alone, get context of the reaction verified too!
