A Story   No story has a physical demarcation of the beginning or the end. It starts somewhere in the past, runs along the present and continues to the future. But, it’s an attempt to contain the vast eternity within the few pages and a practice of focusing on to the certain portions of the eternity which are enough to visualize the long chain of unceasing vastness. There is a lake and a river, both contains water. The difference is; lake is stagnant but river flows. A portion of the eternity is the lake and the river eternity itself. The key is imagination that stretches the lake in the river and makes it to flow the everlasting wilderness.   He was tired and hungry but the first thing that came in his mind was not the leftovers of the morning in his fridge or the cozy bed in his room, as he entered his residence. He knocked at the door twice, loud and clear. But there was no response from inside. It was already half past nine and too late for her to arrive. He switched on the lights of his room, took out the leftovers from the fridge, put it into the micro wave and waited till it was ready. It was an uneasy day for him; full of hassle. The morning shift at the work, parking the cars outside the hotel, from eight to one and the evening classes at the university from three to eight. And in between these two he had a meeting with his insurance agent to complete the remaining formalities.   He took a sip of coke and put a piece of sausage into his mouth. A stomach full of dinner and a nice nap wouldn’t take off his fatigue or provide a tranquility to his mind. The whole day he was longing to meet her and talk to her. Three months ago he stepped in that residence with faces full of strangers and it had been only two weeks when he first met her.   But it was not the residence where he met her. Life is full of surprises and for him it was one of them. It was actually a book shop, he was browsing for some short stories of Samrat Upadhyay. From a long time someone was talking on the phone behind him. He paid no attention to it but his senses diverted from the books to the person when the very person mentioned the address of his residence. The person was a girl that he had not seen before. She started to look for the books in the ‘Travel’ section as soon as she hung up.   “Hi, the address you mentioned, do you live there?”   “Yes. Why?”   “I live there too, in the second floor.”   “Really? Me in third. I’m Natacha.”   “‘Travel’, huh?”   “Yes, I love it. You get to know about new places, the people, the food they eat, the cloth they wear, the secrets of there religion and all that. I feel that I’m among those people. And you?”   “Fiction, the world of imagination, mostly short stories.”   After twenty five minutes of the quest for book, they both finally arrived to the cash counter.   “Four hundred and fifty for ‘Arresting god…’ and three hundred seventy five for ‘African Wonders’” The fat lady wearing glasses spoke behind the counter.   Paying their amounts they both got out of the shop. The outside air was refreshing and a bit chill hinting the approaching winter.   “Hey, there’s the number fourteen bus.” Natacha practically screamed as she saw the bus a couple of meters away.   “I’d prefer to walk and besides I know a shortcut to the residence. It takes only twenty minutes at maximum, it’s not a big deal.” He spoke giving more stress to ‘big deal’. Inside his heart he was thinking of not letting go the opportunity out of his hand; in a strange new place it is often difficult to make friends to share your feelings with.   As they walked, the conversation started with the formal talks. But it took no time to deepen the talk into the areas of their interest, the number of boyfriend and girlfriend they had and of course it turned a bit philosophical as they began to define life from their own perspective. During the whole conversation he never missed looking at her lips as they opened and closed at certain intervals exposing her white teeth beneath them. The sound that her heels produced as they stroke against the concrete pavement apparently vanished as he drove more and more into the words that bounced out those lovely lips. Amazingly he found a lot of things that were common between them. For instance, let it be the habit of drinking milk before going to bed or using two different tooth-pastes – one for the morning and other for the night.   The yellow street lamps had already been turned on as they reached their residence. He didn’t know what to do next, but one thing he knew that he must do something to let himself more into her and vice versa.   “How much you prefer fictions?” He asked being careful putting his foot onto the next step of the staircase.   “I do read them sometimes.”   “What about exchanging our books? You take mine and I’ll take yours. And after two weeks we meet again, talk about the books and finally we get the books exchanged once again to its rightful owner.” “Doesn’t sound too bad.”   After two weeks from that day there he was sitting in his room and chewing up his dinner. In his mind there were several things to tell her, about himself and of course about the book. He had read a couple of travel books before but this one really touched him. The author’s guide Abduliye, a tall and lean young guy from Senegal as described by the author himself, had his own story to tell. And he thought that his story is no different than the other people of the African continent.   An hour later he again knocked at her door. This time the door opened, but not hers. It was the room adjacent to her. A short guy with curly hairs and wearing blue sweater appeared on the door.   “You, looking for Natacha?”   “Yes.”   “She left.”   “Left?”   “Yeh, four days ago she left this residence. She said that now she is going to stay with her cousins.”   He decided not to ask realizing its unhappy and awful consequence and above all he fully trusted his extrapolated vision and was determined to stick on his decision. So, he walked towards the counter, completely ignoring the girl and the conversation she had on the phone.   As he was getting his money returned, the girl approached the counter, looked at him for a time and said, “I think I’ve seen you before.”                                                     Last edited: 21-Dec-09 08:24 AM