With the sprinting of trees, a lock of hair falls on her face.
Unaware of the beauty she was showcasing, lost in her thoughts, suddenly out of the blue her contemplation broke as her subconscious alerts her of someone's presence. Though her rigid focus was continuously in a denial about an unknown peer's arrival, but somewhere in the back of her mind a blurred realization triggered her sense to describe the "peer" as a 'he'. She invests every effort to ignore the happenings of the ambience she was in but repeated phone calls in his cell phone never let her reach the end of Mariana trench of her thoughts. It is obvious that irritation in her mind was taking its peak. Ohh! But don't you all want to know why she was rebellious against being in the present???
Well, she was travelling to Las Vegas. She was a student at Milan University. In her vacations she visited her parents in Montgomery which was 1661 miles from Las Vegas. After a chained academic era, break was something her heart, mind and body was craving for. This journey of hers seemed to be a timeless introspection channel into a conflict between her personal life and her career. She was lost and struggling to find her way out.
So, as the train was cruising pass Dallas, her thought again got invaded by the stentorian ringtone. Unwillingly gyrating her attention towards him still experiencing the sprinting of trees, she stabilized her point of convergence. He picked up the call and said "hello dad"!! After some seconds of silence he broke down into tears and in a shivering voice he again spoke "I know she is christian but she is someone who completes me and I cannot live without her. Please dad..please try to understand !" She gave him a vague stare as she could connect it to her life and recall how her relationship got massacred when her parents went against her will of love. The phone rang again and he said "hii jaan" , his voice still shivering as he fumbled "its over".
Now, after unintentionally hearing the conversation, she turns towards him and the first thing she notices is his ID card with 'Milan University' printed on it and the name said Alex. As she lifts her eyes shattered by questions to confront a face which must have overflown itself with agony, she witnessed the tears of a man for the first time in her life. It was surprising to her that how his tears transformed the rebel inside her into someone who now desperately wants to soothe him. But the question is,
whether she will say that magical word-"hii".
Despite the rebel inside her that had transformed into the one who wanted to soothe Alex, she never said a formal "hii". She offered him a handkerchief as a gesture of empathy and compassion towards him. Without noticing his face, she observed the intricately designed lace-up pair of leather shoes and a well-cut fancifully detailed coat as she moved her eyes up to his face. Alex got dark brown hair and Hazel eyes to which she couldn't get her eyes off.
He took the hanky without even a concern for the one who was offering. He messed it up and gave it back to her and she was caught by his disgust.
She abused and without even addressing him ran towards the washbasin. Her brain stopped with a "how dare you". Coming back, she found him gone.
The train already left the station and had picked up pace. The disgust was suddenly overpowered by her sympathy for him and the first thing that flashed in her memory about Alex was his eyes full of tears. She felt a vacancy inside her. Somewhere deep down she regretted that she had missed a formal "hii" and her lips automatically uttered "hii Alex". But it was too late then.
She sighed as she sat down again to only stare out of the window. But now there was no sprinting of trees, but a man with a broken heart that triggered restlessness and a latent conflict in her subconscious. Questions like-"was he alright now?", "was this their last meeting?", "will she ever see him again? " popped up in her mind at an enormous speed.
Suddenly her questions were answered as soon as she noticed Alex's ID, which he left on his seat. To her surprise, it contained all of his details, his mobile number too. She experienced an unintended joy. Amidst all this, the train reached her destination, Las Vegas. She took a cab and reached home. But her anxiety exponentially went on growing, making her feel butterflies in the stomach, as she prepared to call Alex for the first time.
As she prepares to call him, a distant chatter unleashed in her mind. Out of her unintended excitement to meet and know him, she called him and finally uttered "Hii Alex". After their formal introduction, they had a chat and planned to meet at Las Vegas.
Alex arrived a day later, she came to meet him with the ID and they planned to explore the city and had lunch together.
In old downtown LA, Fremont Street is a 'pedestrian only' area with all kinds of unique sites. A five - block section of Fremont Street was covered over with a canopy of LED lights that illuminated the sky in a spectacle of different colors and designs as they walked below. They enjoyed each other's company so much that they lost track of time. It got so late and Alex ran out of options for transportation back to Colorado.
She recalled that her uncle and aunt were out of town for two days, and offered him stay at her place till the morning trains kicked off. That day she walked around the city in utter amazement , as if she had just been reborn into this world.
As they reached home, there was complete silence and the soft luminous city lights filtering through the curtains was love itself. She walked around the room, and recognized that she had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. They chatted and became more friendly as they opened up through dinner and high old-fashioned red wine. After a long time, she lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. She couldn't gather courage to ask about what happened in the train when she saw him for the first time. Though being strangers, they had spent some quality time together. They, soon, dozed off talking.. she fell asleep on the couch while he lied on the sofa next to her.
Early morning, as she struggled to open her eyes only to find him gone. This left her shattered and maybe they were never destined to be together. She knew, of course, that something profoundly significant had happened to her, but she didn't understand it at all. She had an intense pressure of suffering which led her to collapse, just as if a plug had been pulled out of an inflatable toy.
Suddenly she woke up to an "excuse me" sound by a male voice behind her. She was astonished by looking a face similar to the one she just dreamt of. "This is my seat" he utters. Approaching the exit gate, "sure" she said. Smiling at herself ,she gets out of the train.
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