Story 2 - Goodbye!

 

 

Looking forward to a 28-hour journey, Arya had moved to the top berth to lie down and watch the unfinished movie on her laptop with headphones on. She usually doesn't start conversations on trains and keeps to herself. The right berth was already occupied by a couple and their daughter. So, she got really comfortable and dozed off to sleep after some time.

 

She felt the train halt and immediately woke up and checked her surroundings. The couple and their daughter had already left the train. She could hear someone talking.

"Yes, maa, I have found the berth and I got the food too", the boy at the lower berth said. He was on a call. He had a good physique and his voice was good. 

After some time more people arrived and he moved to his side of the top berth.

 

"Can I plug my laptop here?" he asked.

"I am sorry?" Arya said, removing her earphones.

"Can I plug my laptop here?" he said again.

"Yeah sure," Arya said unplugging the charger.

 

The movie had ended and she was reading a softcopy of a novel. She felt as if the boy was looking at her, so she turned her head. 

 

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"Someone We Know by Shari Lapena," she said looking towards him.

 

"It's a psychological thriller, mystery kind of," she said again with a lot of excitement and a moment later she thought he never asked the genre idiot.

 

"So, you like crime thrillers," he said with a grin on his face.

"Yes, a lot," she said trying to keep it short.

"My name is Aakash, What's yours?" he asked quietly.

"Myself Arya" 

"So, Arya Let’s converse if you are okay with it?" he said shutting his laptop.

 

Arya was taken aback but she decided to go ahead with the conversation. He asked what kind of books, music, TV shows she likes. She mentioned a few books of crime, fiction, historical genre along with Dexter, Hannibal, breaking bad kind of shows. He had a similar taste. He was a big fan of Hannibal too. Their music tastes were quite similar too.

 

"So, what do you do?" she asked.

"I am an entrepreneur and I deal with cybersecurity," he said as he started unpacking samosas.

"So, does your system rely on machine learning and A.I. to detect and respond to threats," she said seriously.

 

As he offered me samosas, he started explaining the area of his work and narrated his experience as a speaker too. He talked about the stock market, numbers, and trading. We were so engrossed in our conversations that it was evening by now and we have already finished the samosas. 

 

"I think you are an engineer, am I right?" he said with some weird actions.

"Yes, Electrical Engineer with a lot of "extra" knowledge," she said as they laughed.

" By the way, I think you are quite clear about your thoughts even being four years younger than me," he said seriously.

"Oh, am I?" she said confused.

"Yeah" 

 

They watched "The Godfather" together (first watch for both of them) eating the sandwiches she brought along with chips, discussing twists and turns of the movie. 

The next morning, Arya, being an early riser woke up at 6 a.m. She started checking her phone, scrolling through texts and posts. She glanced at Aakash while tying her hair up. 

"Oh! You want me to get up too," he said while opening his right eye and smiling.

"You scared me a bit," she said smiling.

"Your alarms woke me up girl," he said turning his back towards her.

Arya got down and after freshening up came back to a full breakfast right at the table. He was already ready and was pointing to the whole setup. 

"So, Miss Arya, how about this breakfast date?" he laughed.

"I am impressed, " she said picking up her cup of tea.

That was the last breakfast they both had and they exchanged e-mails. He picked out something from his bag. It had a coin like structure.

"This is for you Arya, " he leaned as he handed the object to Arya.

"We will be back to zero, but as known strangers" she read the quote that the pendant like structure had.

"This is amazing, but I can't take this away from you," she said. 

"I have two of them, you can keep one," he said eating his breakfast. 

"You know I really like your voice and your personality as a whole", she said looking into his eyes. 

"Right back at you miss, I think that is why I started a conversation with you in the first place, " he said grinning. 

We wished each other good luck and he left leaving a memory of a beautiful time. Some goodbyes are so important to put a good end.