The SMS (Short Message Story)

“Good night, dear.” He keyed in the sms, and then to add some interest into it, he typed “Honey, sweety, sweetheart, love, darling, pillu, pillya, sonya, sonlya goDu… how would you like be addressed?”. He searched her number in address book and pressed Send. (Not that he had to consult the address book for her number. He could have told it even in deep sleep.)

He laid awake in bed, contemplating reply. This has always been the case. She never failed to reply to his message. The only one person who always saw, read and replied to his messages promptly. A tiny of many reasons why he liked her so much.

“What will be the reply, ‘All of them’, ‘Any of them’, ‘All of them, but not from you..;)’ or ‘Simply theName’?” He continued thinking. He was afraid of the last one and doubted if she will write something suggestive like the one prior to that. But then, will she even write either of the first two? He always enjoyed the moments of guessing her replies.

“Piiiipppp”, the mobile rang for message. He hurriedly read it. He was correct. It was the last of what he thought and the least of what he wanted.

Always believing in ‘hope for the best and prepare for he worst’, he had already thought of the reply. He simply replied to the message, “Ok, theName, you will not hear otherwise now on.”. Though it was very difficult for him to void those addressing, he wanted to abide by her wish. He simply couldn’t go against her wishes ever.

He laid back again, almost sure that there won’t be a reply, but at heart wishing something like ‘I was joking re, YOU can call me anything you like’. But his mind knew, noting as that was likely.

“Piiiipppp”. Surprised, he picked up the phone and read the message. “Omg.. Wel,imeant hw cn I decide right wt ppl shd call me.. As in my pet name.. Fr me theName is wt I like..” Even at this moment, he could not ignore the lack of punctuation.

Saddened, he thought of shouting in message, “Those are not pet names. I was not going to call u by any of those particularly. Those are just the expressions which I tend to use at various levels of feelings… And don’t put me in the category of ‘ppl’. Am I just ‘one of the people’ for you? Don’t I hold a better place than just ‘ppl’ for you?” But then he thought better of it. No point in saying all this.

With a sigh, he put the phone back near pillow and laid back awake. The interest that he wanted to put in the message had turned into a cause of his sleepless night…