The Promise of Something

“This is fiction pulled out of my head!”

One is always trying to understand life and its ways. At first it gives you that red apple. And then in one swift motion it takes it away from you, so fast that you miss out on the actual lesson at hand.

She was one girl who had been through her share of life experiences and varied relationships, so much so that she was worried she was turning into a cynic and a non-believer of love. That ‘fate’ and things that were ‘meant to happen’ were just made up to make people feel better and give them a false sense of hope.

But one evening he crossed her path. It was a regular feature for her to meet different people, men in particular. The universe would every now and then throw at her new people to deal with, and in some ways teach her funny lessons that she could not quite understand.

But this was different. The meeting was out of the ordinary, like it was ‘meant to be.’ When the stars align, there is nothing you could have done to change it otherwise. Or so she thought at the time.

For the first time, the cynic in her could not find any faults in him. Too short, too dark, bad teeth, squint eye. Nothing. She could accept him for all that he was without needing to know more. She knew he was taken in by her as well. When there is a spark or connection between two people, the remaining  people in the room are oblivious to it. But the two people know it, sense it.

A few drinks down, a few bars visited, he seemed to only want her company. Or was she imagining it? Did she imagine the caress on her back? The tightness with which he held her? The sole attentiveness on his part despite the other pretty ladies around? There was a bit of hand holding, or maybe it was a momentary gesture of politeness. It all felt very high school to her. It was their world with no one to notice but the two people who had built that cocoon for themselves that night.

The lingering kiss on the cheek, the touch on the small of her back. No, she didn’t imagine any of it.

And then the eagerness to meet the next day, with the promise of something hanging in the air. She felt it, and she assumed he did too.

But what did all of it mean? Is chivalry such a pendulum that it only swings to extremes? Either none of it or then showered with extravagant attention, to which a friend would say ‘Don’t read too much into it.’ And so we must accept this as ‘normal decorum’ in order to protect ourselves and expect the least from him.

Thus the promise of something remained in the air, unsolved. She didn’t hear from him, the memories of the previous night still lingering in her mind. She never knew if she had built a castle in her mind, or that the moment could have been real. But if the memory of that night could bring a smile to her face each time, she wouldn’t trade it in for anything in the world. It is moments like these that make one appreciate the ‘real’ thing when it comes knocking. Because when you have it for good, you don’t let it go.

As they say, some fairytales remain as castles in the sky. And that fleeting moment is all you have. If we knew it back then, we would ask God to stop time so that we could experience and savour the moment completely for fear of not getting it back.