“She said… ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’”
The boy repeated it softly, still processing.
“That must have felt… big.”
Grandpa nodded.
“It did.”
“That night…” he continued,
“I couldn’t sleep properly.”
The boy smiled. “Finally, something relatable.”
“I kept replaying her voice,” Grandpa said.
“Not what she said… but how she said it.”
“What do you mean?” the boy asked.
“It wasn’t just a sentence,” Grandpa explained.
“It felt like… a promise.”
The boy leaned back slowly.
“So what did you do the next day?” he asked.
Grandpa smiled faintly.
“I went early.”
“Of course you did.”
“Much earlier than usual,” Grandpa added.
“I didn’t want to miss even a moment.”
“And then?” the boy asked.
“I waited.”
The boy sighed. “Again with the waiting…”
Grandpa chuckled.
“But this time… waiting felt different.”
“How?”
“Because I knew she might come.”
The boy nodded.
That might carried weight.
“The sun was still high when I reached,” Grandpa continued.
“People came and went… some drew water… some talked…”
“But I wasn’t really seeing any of it.”
“You were just looking for her,” the boy said.
Grandpa nodded.
“Time moved slowly that day,” he said.
“Every small sound made me turn… every footstep felt like it could be hers…”
“Did you think she wouldn’t come?” the boy asked.
“For a moment… yes,” Grandpa admitted.
“And that moment felt longer than the entire day.”
The boy stayed quiet.
“But then…” Grandpa said.
The boy straightened up again.
“I saw her.”
A small smile formed on his face.
“Walking toward the well… just like before.”
“Alone?” the boy asked.
Grandpa nodded.
“Yes.”
“And this time…”
He paused.
“She didn’t look away.”
The boy exhaled slowly.
“She walked straight toward the well… and then…”
Grandpa smiled slightly.
“…she stood next to me.”
“Next to you?” the boy repeated.
“Closer than before,” Grandpa said.
The silence between them returned—but it wasn’t empty anymore.
“Did you talk again?” the boy asked.
Grandpa nodded.
“Yes.”
“What did she say this time?”
Grandpa’s expression softened.
“She didn’t start with a question.”
“Then?”
“She just said…”
He paused.
“‘You came.’”
The boy smiled.
“That’s… simple.”
Grandpa looked at him.
“Yes,” he said.
“But it meant… she noticed I kept my part too.”
The boy nodded slowly.
“And I said…” Grandpa continued,
“‘You told me to.’”
The boy laughed.
“That’s actually a good reply.”
Grandpa smiled.
“It was honest.”
“What happened after that?” the boy asked.
“We spoke again,” Grandpa said.
“A little more than yesterday…”
“About what?”
“Small things,” he said.
“But this time… it felt easier.”
The boy leaned in.
“Did you ask her name?”
Grandpa shook his head.
“No.”
“Still?!”
Grandpa smiled.
“I already had a name for her.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Mouna…”
Grandpa nodded.
“And something else happened that day,” he added.
The boy instantly focused again.
“What?”
Grandpa looked into the distance.
“For the first time…”
He paused.
“…she laughed because of something I said.”
The boy smiled widely.
“Now that’s progress.”
Grandpa chuckled softly.
“Yes.”
“But that laugh…”
He stopped.
“What about it?” the boy asked.
Grandpa’s smile faded just a little.
“It made me forget something important.”
The boy frowned.
“What?”
Grandpa looked at him.
“That summers… don’t last forever.”
The night fell silent again.