Thursday, July 19, 2007

Mysterious ways

It was three days before Christmas. His date was scheduled for 8pm. He reached at 7:50 and for the next one and a half hours he kept looking at the glass door, every 3 minutes, hoping to see Cathy walk in looking just as beautiful as she did a week back when he had first met her. All this while he kept thinking how difficult it had been for him to ask her out on a date and how happy he was when she had said yes. It was not until he finished gulping down 11 glasses of water that he gave up hopes on her showing up.

Just when he was about to leave, he heard a voice say “Hi”. He looked up to see an incredibly gorgeous woman standing before him. For the next few seconds he was lost in her deep blue eyes and so he did not listen to what she said next. She had asked if she could sit on the chair opposite him. By the time he regained his senses she had taken her seat in front of him.

“I’m Sarah. Now .. I know this might sound strange but when I saw you here tonight I just had to come up to you and tell you this. I don’t know who you are but.. umm..”
She opened her purse and took a sheet of paper out. She handed it over to him and he finally took his eyes off her to place them on a portrait.

He was shocked to see that it was his portrait. In all the amazement all he could say was “Where did you… how do you.. aa..” and after a long pause “Have we met before?”

“Not while I was conscious. But I dream about you.. every other night. I know this sounds crazy but I drew that because I kept seeing you in this dream i keep having. I am watering the plants in the backyard of this beautiful house and I call out to you saying “Mark, come out… I wanna show you something.. come quick” and then you come running out of the back door and….”
He interrupted her saying “how the hell do you know my name??”
“That’s your real name??? Whoa !! I can’t believe this.. I mean I used to wonder why I keep having this dream but I dint think you existed.. but.. you’re for real.”

Although he was startled by whatever was happening, he couldn’t help admire her beauty.
Deep down he was thanking Cathy for not showing up because she was at least ten time prettier than her. It was almost as if his dream had come true and not hers.

She continued to explain her dream “I go to pick up the morning newspaper and the mail. An envelope reads ‘Mark Thompson,17/7 Wonder valley'
With raised eyebrows he replied “That’s where I live!”

“This is just too spooky. I have never even been to Wonder valley! Look I don’t know why this is happening and I don’t believe in past lives and all but this has to mean something.. don’t you think so? Don’t you feel a connection??”

Feeling as if he were on top of the world he said “I do”

Over dinner they discussed a lot of things like where both of them were brought up and what they were doing in life. He couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas gift. He kept losing himself in her pretty blue eyes and just couldn’t help flirting occasionally.

After a lovely meal, while they were waiting for the waiter to get the change, he gathered all his courage and said “Well, a very strange first meeting.. but I’d love to have a second one. May I have your phone number?”

“This isn’t something usual, so lets not go the usual way. Fate bought us together once and I’m sure, if we are to meet again, it will happen.” saying that she left.

He picked up his change and was about to leave when he noticed that she had left her purse behind. He quickly grabbed it and turned towards the door only to notice that she had left. He looked at the purse, smiled and thought to himself 'fate'.

He opened the purse and found a wallet and a piece of paper in it. He took the wallet out and was shocked to notice that it was his. He recalled that he had lost it two weeks ago, on the local train, on his way to work. He opened it to find his driver’s license, all his credit cards and the exact amount of money it had when he had last seen it. Puzzled, he took out the paper, unfolded it and started to read….

I found your wallet two weeks ago on the station. I got your address from your license and had come to your house to return it. But no one answered the door.
I got stood up too tonight but when I saw you sitting on a near by table I decided to have a little fun. I drew a portrait of yours from the picture on your license and made up the story. It was just meant as a joke.

Sarah.


He chuckled.

14 comments:

siddharth b said...

brilliant! lovely twist in the end. roald dahl-esque.

Pallav said...

devilishly cute stuff!
reminds me of dat story we had bak in school... where that 16 yr old tells the story of her aunts dead(sic) husband and brother returning...

rollick on!

Aarthi said...

hehee! amazing! just brilliant! loved the ending! :D

Unknown said...

and i almost thought this revolved around 'Serendipity'.
how mean! :P

Shruti said...

dude even i thought it was on serendipity lines with a twisted ending..and how amazingly different from the last post!

sonam said...

@shruti: and thats why the name 'pendulum'!

Sriram Varadarajan said...

I might sound hopelessly romantic but come on... there has to be a part 2 to this one. Do some magic ms. cupid! :)

Unknown said...

Good idea, but your execution could use a bit of tweaking...spotted a couple of editing mistakes. Minor, a few typos and the odd wrong tense but try and make it perfect. Not too bad overall, but I think i preferred the first post. Try working on the language(I'm not saying copy paste from dictionary.com like the crazy bongs), and I think you could have built up the story slightly better.I'm only saying this cuz you have palpable talent. Keep writing...I know you'll improve in leaps and bounds with every post..

cheers!!

Ankeet Bhat said...

well i likd th twist in th end aftr it goes all goodie-goodie in th strt.....vry readr friendly post....awesm.....keep it up!!!! lookn frwrd fr mor posts......

Unknown said...

Why does it look so familiar to me??? ;-)

Mandava Harsha Vardhan said...

When I started reding the story, I was wondering why you asked me to read this love shit but what an ending! Agree with Sid: Brilliant! Do I sense a real life inspiration?!

Harini Padmanabhan said...

hey! nice one!

Kim said...

Nice story indeed and the twists at the end was superb :)

Amateur Poet said...

good one.. esp the twist in the end