As he woke up again on a Monday morning, the weekend like every other weekend wasted away, he let out a huge sigh.
Head dizzy from still the lack of sleep, hair messy as always, back aching and that constant pain in his right knee. For a man in his early 20’s, his body surely felt like he was closer to his 50’s like his old man. His old man has a healthier body than him, he stopped and thought.
“You youth and your crazed new lifestyle!”, his old man would often say when he calls him up. Which reminded him, he needed to call home; it’s been almost 2 weeks now.
Nobody told him that this 9-5 that people live in, is all about the hurry. He never has time, the energy or the money to basically enjoy life, like his younger 16-year-old had imagined.
It’s all about the bills now, he realises. No point in cribbing. It is how it’s supposed to be.
His morning chores done, he started out for what is to become another mundane working day.
As he prepared to depart his four by four quarters, to be replaced by another four by four cabin; he hears his phone beep signalling the arrival of a message.
He quickly whips out his phone, saw it was a text from one of his best friend- a friend whom he had known since forever.
Her message just read- “Tonight… 8 PM, regular place.”
In his chaotic world which they call order, she seemed to be the only one holding him together.
She has been with him through thick and thin since they were small. Childhood friends, the same kindergarten, same middle school and being a small town, the same college and as quirky stories go the same et. al.
25 years later, both working in their own fields- he in a corporate IT firm, she as a librarian in a reputed university. She still was his go to person when all goes to the pits; which to him has been a recurring nightmare lately.
The bills that pile up every month, the debts he owes, the life of the city draining him. For a small-town boy like him and her, this life was taking a toll on them- him more than her.
But she has always been his constant. Even though he had lost her many a times before.
He still remembers the countless nights she would sneak over to his place, via the tree branch that occupied their backyards – A beautiful old tree, where the moon used to play hide and go seek with him when he was small.
There was this one particular night that his memory clings to- Her 16-year-old frail body out of breath, knocking on his window.
It was 12 midnight, “This girl would get me in trouble”, he had thought then.
As he slowly and gently opened his window sill for her to climb in, she noisily did so with not a care about the time of night.
His dad will kill him surely tonight.
As he recalled, she had happily climbed on his bed, holding his pillow to her chest and screaming and giggling. He swore he saw her cheeks blushing.
She had then related her story to him which would explain her euphoria at the moment. His groggy eyes suddenly were wide opened as he heard how her crush, the guy whom she had had a crush since middle school had kissed her for the very first time, in the park underneath the stars.
He could vaguely remember what she told him after, his stomach flurried, his eyes fixated on her, but his face portrayed one of joy for her.
“For what was her happiness was his as well.”
His reverie jolted to a halt as the train he took to work each day halted at his station.
“What a way to start a Monday!”, he thought to himself.
What a way indeed. You see he had been in love with her for so long that he had forgotten when she stole his heart.
Maybe it was when they were in high school when shetold him he had looked more mature than the other guys in their class. Or maybe it was during their freshmen year when she had told him that girls would love a guy like him.
Or maybe, just maybe it’s because she always had his back whenever he needed a shoulder to cry on. You see contrary to what society believes, he was the sensitive kind, easy to shed a tear and always wanting to help another soul. That’s just the kind of person he was raised to be.
Doesn’t help though that he is now a working zombie just like the countless others. But just to see her smile, that was enough for him. Even though he knew that even after all those years together as friends, she would never see him as anything else but “Him”.
But that was ok – “For what was her happiness was his as well.”
As he went through his regular everyday routine like a well-oiled machine, his only thoughts were to eight o’clock tonight. It didn’t matter that his manager was yelling at him to finish the ‘Hemingway Contract’. He had codes and codes to write for the program to be running smoothly. He didn’t care for all of that.
He didn’t even care when he was denied his planned holidays since he was needed at work more. He was valued he thought, yes indeed he was valued. He smiled and kept his face.
All this because he knew, come 8 :00 PM his worries would all fade away. He knew she had that pull on him. Her cheeriness, her joy, her aura was one which would pull you into her own bubble of euphoria and happiness.
Even if his was a will to help people out genuinely, that will has been regularly trampled upon that it rarely showcases itself anymore. It was only at times that they met, that the real him would come up. For as mentioned, “Hers was a smile that was contagious”.
He smiled at the thought.
And so, his day toiled on, another cog in a never-ending machine churning out what society needs…
Meanwhile, she was excited. Him not responding meant that he has received her text and knew exactly which place to come to.
When did that place become their regular place she thought….
Looking back she remembered the first time they found it.
It had been a few months since they both shifted to the new city, he staying with few of his friends and she moving to her then boyfriend’s place. She had thought he was the one, up to the point that she went against her parent’s wishes to be with him.
But as countless of her friends had warn her, and even after her parents were adamant about her choice she went on ahead, only to find herself on that particular park bench one autumn evening sobbing, cold and heartbroken. She had just return home from university, still not adjusting to her new work, when she found him with another girl.
At that moment, it wasn’t him who hurt her, it was the words that her friends told her, her parent’s warnings but most of all his words when he said he didn’t approve of the guy.
She had gotten mad at him when he spoke of his disapproval about the guy and guys she had been dating. She didn’t even speak to him for almost two months when she started dating her ex-boyfriend.
But back then, on that cold park bench, when the sun was setting, orange leaves falling all over bathe with the rays of the orange sun; it was he who had come to her aid.
He had held a cup of hot chocolate with her name spelled incorrectly, her brown sweater and a red scarf up to her when she finally cleared her tears. He had taken it on himself to go to her place and get her warm clothes, and as usual he knew just what she needed.
They had spent close to an hour on that park bench, he just listening to her and she ranting and talking and apologizing to him about her then ex. The next day she had packed her bags and left her ex, moving in with another fellow worker she had met in the university.
That night became a turning point for her, she liked to think of it as her becoming free and shedding her cocoon. After that she felt lighter, her baggage gone and she fell in love with herself, her surroundings, her friends more and more importantly, she saw Him in a different light.
The nerdy boy whom she used to play video games with, rode bikes on the pavements with and occasionally going to the lake to attempt to catch fish; was suddenly this new man, this new person whom she hadn’t seen before.
Her friends used to joke about her and him when they were in high-school, how he used to look at her with such admiration and if anyone would have looked at them with the same eyes and awe he did at her, they would have asked for nothing else. But she had ridiculed them, saying that he wasn’t like that; he was the quiet one, the nerd, the one who reads. He wasn’t her type she had told them all. She blushed at the thought. She was such a child back then, wanting things that made her seem cool and popular.
They both had lived in different worlds, she thought, but she never knew her world was always his.
She had struggled with her feelings, she knew now how he felt about her. She had overheard him talking to one of their common friends once. All three of them were supposed to meet up for lunch and she had overheard his conversation with her when she was approaching the meeting place. She hid herself from them wanting to know what they were talking. There he had told their common friend his true feelings for her.
She had stood there, to the side of the store they were supposed to meet, holding her umbrella close to her heart as it poured down heavily- both her tears and the rain.
That was 2 years ago. The first time she had heard him say – “For what was her happiness was his as well.”
She never was even a good friend to him she had thought back. Always making him bear the brunt of her hardships, always pulling him into her problems. She felt sorry and sad for him. She wanted to apologize to him. But more than her apologies, she wanted to give it a try. She wanted to open her heart out to this person who had been so close to her and yet who she had failed to see. She wanted to see what it meant to be loved by him.
That was the whole point of her text to him – “Tonight… 8 PM, regular place.”
The same place where she had cried, the same place where she had told him of all the good and bad things that happened in her life. The same place where they always meet when something is up.
She wanted to pour her out to him… – “For maybe what was his happiness can be hers as well now”
The day ending, he had another 30 minutes to reach the park bench. And knowing her he knew that she would be a little late always. But it didn’t matter to him. He knew it would be worthwhile to see her smile. Somehow, he knew today would be news of happiness that he would hear from her.
Don’t ask how, he just knew.
Picking up his sling bag with his laptop and wallet in, he swiped his card signalling he was leaving the building. Nobody ever waved him goodbye, everybody was busy with their own lives. It’s just the life-style he had resigned himself to believe.
As he was walking he stepped into the local coffee shop knowing she would love a hot cup of chocolate.
Unknown to him, she was already at the bench waiting for him. It was winter and the first flakes of snow had started falling. She was in her over coat, the red scarf he had brought back then and gloves to make her warm. She knew it would be a surprise for him seeing her so early. But she wanted to be early and surprise him, especially this day when she had finally given up to her heart to open up to him.
As he entered the coffee shop, he failed to notice what was happening inside.
Smiling, he went in wanting to greet the person at the counter.
But a different sight greeted him. People on the floor with their hands on their heads, the cashier holding out money to a man with a black mask on and a gun pointing to her head. And another person whose face was covered slamming the door behind him and pulling a gun on his back.
Before he knew it, he was hit on the head with the end of the gun and he fell face down on the floor.
People started screaming with this sudden intrusion and two men who were previously on the floor tackled the guy who had hit him on the head. But in all this confusion the other masked guy fired a shot to the ceiling. And as he struggled to get back on his feet, still confused and dazed after the hit to the head, the last sound he heard was a large explosion as everything went black…
Still giddy with butterflies in her stomach, she waited for him on the bench, the ground gradually turning white.
It was already five minutes past eight when she heard the sound of sirens blaring in the far off distant.
Little did she know that the one and only time she would hear him say – “For what was her happiness was his as well,” would be that rainy day 2 years ago when she ran away with tears on her eyes.
She waited for him there alone, unknown to her that their regular meeting place would change to a tombstone back home.
Not knowing now and forever that her happiness was the only thing that he had.
