"No, I won't be needing an umbrella", I said as mom urged me to take one. Why did I even come home this evening? I asked myself. I'm high on something. Something that made me forget what it was. I was speaking differently, couldn't recognise my own voice in my head too. I tried to sleep it off but couldn't. My eyes were wide as an owl and also bloodshot. I left home because I didn't want a scene happening and not remembering it the next day. I mean there was a possibility of it happening.
Kicking that plastic carry bag on the deserted street was appeasing as well as irritating at the same time. It's not like the ball that you kick, and kick hard, and then you have to go get it back because it went too far with no one to pass it back. This humble invertebrate on the other hand goes nowhere no matter how hard you punt. Though sometimes it clings to your footgear like that ex-lover you had who doesn't know how to let go. This makes you go even harder the next time.
I had nowhere to go and then it started pouring. This reminded me of my mother when she tried to make me take that octagon canopy with me while leaving the house for group studies at a friends apartment. My eyes were moist now, thinking of all the people who love and care for me. Am I letting them down by doing or not doing what's expected of me, that is to perform well in academics and bagging a good paying job? Nah! I thought, they just want me to be happy. Besides, I don't have many well wishers to be sad about. I sat on a bench meant for patients, outside a sexual wellness clinic to protect myself of the downpour. 'Carefree', the sign-board above me read. 'Careful', I thought to myself. I wouldn't bring myself to do this in the bright light of the day but given at this hour with the showers and also the closed dispensary, it would be easier to explain if someone saw me here.
It wasn't a very comfortable waiting experience, wait, I wasn't waiting at all. I ended up on this termite infested wooden settee out of my own misery with nothing to look forward to. Looking at the filthy water flowing in the open gutters I wondered if this was the same water I pissed last year which somehow evaporated, formed clouds and came back again this year only to find itself in the waste water line. Someday, the same molecules will be packed and sold as 'aqua vitae' by some mineral water giant. Water cycle is a funny thing.
I was staring at the river infront of me which was, a few minutes ago, Station Rd. The yellow street lights reflected like the oil lamp in a holy river. A bright green SUV stopped on the stream like a rich mans yacht infront of me. Another lost soul in the city, I thought. The glass rolled down and a very enthusiastic voice, called out my name. Well, this is strange. I don't have any rich friends. This must be a car heist and I'm gonna be in trouble as this guy, who knows me, maybe my friend, is surely gonna rope me in the crime. I was about to disappear in the moist darkness of the night but then I saw the guy. A familiar face but not someone I know or maybe don't remember right now. Must've been someone from my high school. 'High' school, I pondered and laughed at the greatest joke I cracked to myself while I was 'High'. Ritesh! I called back. I didn't know why called him by that name but it turned out he was indeed Ritesh! Subconsciousness fucks with you sometimes.
Ritesh was a guy that never took bullshit from anyone. The bullies would kick and punch him but he never answered back. He never struggled or tried to run away, instead he'd just flash his amber eyes at them. Not begging for sympathy of any kind but apathy for their actions. This thin lad came from a very humble background. The teacher would always send him back home from school to fetch his guardians for fee payments they missed on and then he wouldn't return for the day. Grades didn't mean anything for this guy at school. Back then I wondered how it must've felt to not care for anything. Maybe I know it now, maybe not yet. I never spoke to Ritesh those days except once where I mumbled something funny to his twin sister and she laughed. Right then this guy thinks he needs a piece of my humour and asks if could repeat the joke. I tell him to ask his sister instead, very humbly ofcourse and he goggles at me with those killer hazel eyes. In that moment I was really skeptical if this guy would let me see what I looked like when I turned sixteen. I couldn't catch the emotion behind that gaze ever. Turns out he wasn't gonna kill me, although on the eve of my sixteenth birthday I wished he did.
After almost nine years, he shows up with this lush ride of his on this crappy night of mine and requests me to join him in the wagon. Request? Yes, he asked, "Will you please join us for tonight my friend? I'll be honoured." Just a few seconds ago I was struggling to recall his name and he wishes to be honoured by my presence along with those three oh!, no, four Roman Goddesses of his. I smell something fishy here but that ride looks comfier than the throne I'm already assed on. Perhaps he may drop me off somewhere better than this place after a little chat or 'Home'. Not that I was eager to get there but that is where I was eventually gonna end up. Not taking too much of his precious time, I hop in the SUV as Kate Upton hopping in that Happy Easter video. I tried to dodge the thick water bullets from the sky but found myself wounded once I got in the vehicles safety. I was soaked. The glass rolled up and the four wheeled yacht started floating again.
Kicking that plastic carry bag on the deserted street was appeasing as well as irritating at the same time. It's not like the ball that you kick, and kick hard, and then you have to go get it back because it went too far with no one to pass it back. This humble invertebrate on the other hand goes nowhere no matter how hard you punt. Though sometimes it clings to your footgear like that ex-lover you had who doesn't know how to let go. This makes you go even harder the next time.
I had nowhere to go and then it started pouring. This reminded me of my mother when she tried to make me take that octagon canopy with me while leaving the house for group studies at a friends apartment. My eyes were moist now, thinking of all the people who love and care for me. Am I letting them down by doing or not doing what's expected of me, that is to perform well in academics and bagging a good paying job? Nah! I thought, they just want me to be happy. Besides, I don't have many well wishers to be sad about. I sat on a bench meant for patients, outside a sexual wellness clinic to protect myself of the downpour. 'Carefree', the sign-board above me read. 'Careful', I thought to myself. I wouldn't bring myself to do this in the bright light of the day but given at this hour with the showers and also the closed dispensary, it would be easier to explain if someone saw me here.
It wasn't a very comfortable waiting experience, wait, I wasn't waiting at all. I ended up on this termite infested wooden settee out of my own misery with nothing to look forward to. Looking at the filthy water flowing in the open gutters I wondered if this was the same water I pissed last year which somehow evaporated, formed clouds and came back again this year only to find itself in the waste water line. Someday, the same molecules will be packed and sold as 'aqua vitae' by some mineral water giant. Water cycle is a funny thing.
I was staring at the river infront of me which was, a few minutes ago, Station Rd. The yellow street lights reflected like the oil lamp in a holy river. A bright green SUV stopped on the stream like a rich mans yacht infront of me. Another lost soul in the city, I thought. The glass rolled down and a very enthusiastic voice, called out my name. Well, this is strange. I don't have any rich friends. This must be a car heist and I'm gonna be in trouble as this guy, who knows me, maybe my friend, is surely gonna rope me in the crime. I was about to disappear in the moist darkness of the night but then I saw the guy. A familiar face but not someone I know or maybe don't remember right now. Must've been someone from my high school. 'High' school, I pondered and laughed at the greatest joke I cracked to myself while I was 'High'. Ritesh! I called back. I didn't know why called him by that name but it turned out he was indeed Ritesh! Subconsciousness fucks with you sometimes.
Ritesh was a guy that never took bullshit from anyone. The bullies would kick and punch him but he never answered back. He never struggled or tried to run away, instead he'd just flash his amber eyes at them. Not begging for sympathy of any kind but apathy for their actions. This thin lad came from a very humble background. The teacher would always send him back home from school to fetch his guardians for fee payments they missed on and then he wouldn't return for the day. Grades didn't mean anything for this guy at school. Back then I wondered how it must've felt to not care for anything. Maybe I know it now, maybe not yet. I never spoke to Ritesh those days except once where I mumbled something funny to his twin sister and she laughed. Right then this guy thinks he needs a piece of my humour and asks if could repeat the joke. I tell him to ask his sister instead, very humbly ofcourse and he goggles at me with those killer hazel eyes. In that moment I was really skeptical if this guy would let me see what I looked like when I turned sixteen. I couldn't catch the emotion behind that gaze ever. Turns out he wasn't gonna kill me, although on the eve of my sixteenth birthday I wished he did.
After almost nine years, he shows up with this lush ride of his on this crappy night of mine and requests me to join him in the wagon. Request? Yes, he asked, "Will you please join us for tonight my friend? I'll be honoured." Just a few seconds ago I was struggling to recall his name and he wishes to be honoured by my presence along with those three oh!, no, four Roman Goddesses of his. I smell something fishy here but that ride looks comfier than the throne I'm already assed on. Perhaps he may drop me off somewhere better than this place after a little chat or 'Home'. Not that I was eager to get there but that is where I was eventually gonna end up. Not taking too much of his precious time, I hop in the SUV as Kate Upton hopping in that Happy Easter video. I tried to dodge the thick water bullets from the sky but found myself wounded once I got in the vehicles safety. I was soaked. The glass rolled up and the four wheeled yacht started floating again.
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