19 F

Trrrng..... Trrng....  the same sound which takes me back, back to the real mean world, away from the world of my dreams and today too it won. But then I gave it a good fight and the outcome of this fight was that I was late. I realised this when it gave me the final stare with its two hands as if telling me watch out its nine.  I had an interview today to put it more precisely “today too”. This was the fifth interview i was going to attend, nothing seemed to be working. But still I am back fighting each day, I got up did everything that a clean decent man would do after getting up each day, took the helmet, checked my tie in the mirror, looked at the clock, locked the door  and there it was my bike, my soul mate on my roads.

I looked towards the road, it was the only one which went to connect the main road from our building, a rather lonely road, a short one with only one bus stop. Exactly at 9:10 am a bus would stop at the stop and almost every day when I kicked by bike to life the bus would halt at the stop. I was not used to going in the bus, but it was some 19 F number bus going to the city centre, one of the few buses which the people around the area would call luxury. 

Now as I kicked the bike and was about to start my journey I saw the bus again just halting at the stop, it meant that it was on time. And as I crossed my building gate, I saw a girl, a girl in her twenties with a beautiful white dress running, for a second I wondered why? Then i realised that she was waving her hand towards the bus balancing her purse in the other hand, but then it seemed that she wouldn’t be able to make it.

 My technical mind went at work, considering the bus had already stopped for about 10 seconds and she was about twenty steps away, she won’t be able to catch the bus.

But then I don’t know what went into my mind, I sped the bike crossed the running girl and as I reached the driver’s window, I stopped the bike just ahead of the bus  faking that there was some problem in the bike. I could hear the driver using greatest of the vocabulary but I acted as if both of my ears had fallen off my helmet and  I was looking for them under the bike and then there was this sound the loud sound of the horn  and suddenly both my ears were back on my head I started my bike raced away slowly.

My technical mind went at work again and it calculated that I had spent enough time ahead of the bus for the girl in the white to catch the bus. The other part of my mind asked me to slow the bike to check whether the mission was accomplished, my right wrist followed the instructions and reduced the speed. Few seconds later the bus crossed me from my right side and I heard the vocabulary again this time from the front seat passengers. Though it was a milder one from what the driver had the knowledge of. But then I didn’t want my ears to work right now, what my eyes were up to was more important and  as the bus sped I turned my head right, fifth window, sixth window, seventh, eight and there she was on the ninth window sitting, looking into her purse, perhaps looking for the  money to buy ticket. She was beautiful but tired she had run, she was panting.

I felt a sense of achievement and felt like a hero sitting on the bike but she was still looking into her purse, damn.

My technical mind took me back to my interview asking me to ride the bike faster. I was late again but didn’t resist the temptation to look at her again this time she was not looking into her purse but she looked more beautiful with her hair giving a perfect response to the air gushing in from the window into her face I looked ahead and sped away.

Trrrng... back again to the mean bad world it seemed more mean and  more bad as the interview had gone good but still i was jobless today too, I lost to the alarm  again. Was out of the house in ten minutes, I started the bike  and!  And! And! I saw her again, she was running again after the bus, today I didn’t have to think what I had to do. I did the heroic act once again, this time i thought she noticed because this time the bus had started and I made it(the bus) make a brake sound also, it was at my own life’s cost though.

And I was right, she had realised that it was me, she was looking outside for something and when she found me riding the bike she let out the feeling that she found what she was looking for. Pity she could not see me, hell met...

 This kept on happening almost 4 times in a week, though I didn’t get a job till now but then she started giving smiles to me, but the hell met....

After a month this had happened almost about fifteen times, me stopping the bus, she just catching it. I was happy but I was scared that the driver someday might try to get rid of me and would not put his foot on the brakes.

It almost became a routine, more than anticipating what might happen in the interviews, I anticipated to see her looking at me smiling, she smiled daily at me, even when I was not the hero of the day. We both had become friends, the smile-friends, we had never talked, never met. Whenever we saw each other she was in bus and I was on bike I wanted to follow the bus some day to meet her without my helmet. I wanted to do that badly but then, the interviews....

And the day came when I got the final interview call. The telephone thing had been done, I just had to be there at 9:30 am and submit my papers. They had clearly mentioned that I had to be on time. Today I surrendered to the alarm and was on my bike exactly at 9:10 am. And there she was, running again after the bus. She would be able to catch it easily, I knew. I started my bike, crossed the bus, it had just stopped and she was about seven steps away from the bus. Being very sure of that she would catch the bus, I decided not to be the hero of the day. The temptation to see her smile was there, but then the interview, I didn’t even have a second to spare. I could always see that smiling face tomorrow. Heroes too need a break.  

As I crossed the bus, still thinking whether I would be able to reach on time, I heard a loud screeching sound, I stopped the bike and looked back.

The bus was still there, a little away from the bus stop though. There was a crowd gathered at the back door of the bus,  some accident I thought ?

I looked at the crowd for few seconds, it seemed to be serious accident. I thought of parking my bike at the side and go there to see what happened, but then I looked at my watch. I was getting late. I turned my head back for one last time and went away.

It has been a month now that I got my Job, every day I leave my home around 9:10 am, the bus daily reaches the stop exactly at the same time, but I have not seen her since one month.

I still wonder , whether i should have stopped the bus that day.


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