It was Rahul's birthday, his favourite day. He was eagerly waiting for the hour hand, the minute hand and the seconds hand to coincide at XII and the talking-bird dwelling inside the huge British antique pendulum wall clock to hum its daily monotonous tune.

The time arrived. The wait was over. It was finally 12 o' clock. His happiness knew no bounds. He was literally jumping around like some crazy monkey. He was rejoicing the moment to the brim.

But then a strange thing happened or may be not - I Don't Know.

I'm not trying to confuse you. The rest of the story will give you it's answer.

Rahul felt as if the Bird in the clock hummed "Happy birthday to you Rahul". This is the "Strange Thing" I was talking about.

Well, it must have been an illusion as he was just really exhilarated and in a jovial mood. Most of us have faced such incidents in our lifetimes, haven't we?
Yeah.....
These things are often not taken into account as they are beyond logic.

Similarly he ignored it.

As soon as the clock struck twelve, he slid his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it and gazed at the screen with excitement. His emotions were overflowing through his eyes. He was really happy about something, something that holds a deep connection with his soul. As expected, calls and messages started pouring in but he ignored them all . . . . . . . Strange.

Thirty minutes passed and he was still not ready to answer any calls or reply to any message. His face was now pale, his expressions were not of a crazy Birthday-Boy anymore, rather it showed disappointment and anger, his eyes were wet.

What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he acting weird?

Finally he started answering the calls and this continued untill 1:30am. He was famous among his friends and had a huge group of acquaintances.
It was really late, yet his eyes refused to show even a tinge of weariness in them. They were still waiting for someone, a very special someone.

But who was he waiting for??

Well, It was his childhood bestie Kajal, who shifted to a foreign country with her family 2 years back. Till his 7th birthday, Kajal had always been the first one to wish him. She was too special for him, she was his life, his breath. She was his source of happiness.

He was disappointed. The clock as well as Kajal had ditched him. The promise Kajal had made to him before leaving was broken, which left his heart maimed, wrecked and marred. He collected the broken pieces of his heart and careful not to lose it and went to bed to grab some sleep.

After about fifteen minutes, his sleep was snatched away by his buzzing phone. He received a message from an international number which read,
"Sorry Rahul, we are really grieved to inform you that Kajal is no more with us. She died in an accident this evening."

He laughed at the message at first, thinking it to be an April fool prank, but then one could sense terror in his eyes. He called back to that number and it was Kajal's father on line who confirmed the dreadful news with a heavy heart.

This news was too heavy for Rahul to bear. He completely lost his mind. He had turned into a living corpse.
Few months later, his parents left that house and shifted to another place, away from the memories of Kajal.

I don't know what happened to Rahul after that.

Did he recover?
Could he come out of this trauma?

I have no idea.
It's been seven years now.

But yes the few people still staying near that house say that on 4th April, every year, they still hear the Bird in the Pendulum Clock sing,
"Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to dear Rahul
Happy birthday to you."

Now, I don't think that this is just a mere delusion. So many people can't possibly hallucinate the same thing and that too at the same time every year. This is something much more and much deep and beyond human understanding.

Some bonds do become immortal. 
The PROMISE made by a sincere heart was not broken and will never be broken.