There was a moment of beautiful solace when they both locked eyes, a moment of slow realisation of a truth they had known all their lives. The moment was short and abrupt, a question left lingering in the air; was this their cue to start their lives anew? Were they to find magic again?
She pocketed the change as she made her way to her seat. Her heart was aflame, a feeling she was not new to, but something she thought she’d never have again. The bus was crowded and she felt eyes on her, watching her every move as she looked for the elusive seat number 14, which in the end happened to be the only seat that was free on the sides. Switching her backpack to the front, she seated herself and wondered as to what was going through her troubled mind.
He, on the other hand, never knew what real infatuation was before this night. Clocking in at 5 pm on the dot, doing work for minimum wage just so he could leave his dad’s home before he turned 23 this year, he was starstruck, wondering if fairytales took strolls down the world of the common people. His mind was not present while he absently did the work of a conductor on the inter-city Rapid-Transit Service bus number 22. He pressed the button to close the door when he pulled the last perforated ticket, trying in vain not to lift his eyes and gaze at the girl that took his breath away.
She was nervous, fiddling with the straps of her travel backpack. In her confused state of her mind, she did not trouble herself with putting her bag onto the overhead compartment. He noticed it, and he wondered if he should go help her. She got jolted in her seat as the bus pulled away from the curb. His heart yearned for a stolen glance from her bright green eyes, the ones that stabbed his heart with a blade of honey, more sweetness than pain, more yearning than a feeling of helplessness. She watched the urban buildings pass by, giving rise to the open road, a scenery of openness and hope as she ran from home. He saw instead the road that had once given him a dreary routine transform into a myriad of possibilities, a road to a solace he had always wanted.
She passed her forty-minutes by pretending to read a book she brought with her, while he passed his forty-minutes sitting in the conductor’s seat concentrating on the lack of traffic ahead. Thoughts were wheeling, questions left hanging between two points of certainty, where the tempest of emotions refused to show them any clarity.
The brake lights lit their wake as the bus neared the stop. This was a final destination, being the last ride of the day for the inter-city Rapid-Transit Service bus number 22. People with lives as diverse as the millions of combinations of a poker card deck started disembarking, going their separate ways, hoping to achieve what little or big goal they had set for themselves. They usually had no goal to their mediocre existence, yet today, two amongst their number had found their purpose. As she walked up to the door, she hesitated, a thousand answers floating everywhere and she wondered which one would finally settle.
When his hand touched hers, she found her answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment