The Tissue

The maniacal bus drivers never stopped the bus, even at the designated bus stops. They only slowed down the old, rickety and monstrous vehicles. One had to push people aside, make their way to the exit and then jump off before the driver slammed his foot down on the accelerator pedal. I guess I pushed a little too hard that morning. The lady in front of me, thinking I was some sick, perverted man looking for an excuse to touch her, made a swift, sudden dodge. I was cutting through towards the exit and the sudden emptiness in front of me caught me off guard. I couldn’t halt myself or slow myself down to safely alight from the moving bus and found myself walking over air. The moment my left foot touched the ground, inertia pulled me in the direction of the moving bus. My entire body just twisted and in an instant and I was down on the cemented road. Redness inundated my face; my instant reaction was embarrassment. With my body still mangled, I picked up my head and my eyes scanned the area for any life form, secretly praying that no one saw what happened. I could see that the bus hadn’t stopped and was moving. The athletic female who was responsible for my current state stuck her head out from the bus door. She had a grin of satisfaction across her face.

It was then that I felt the pain. It was probably building up and was now pushing itself through my body. It had a free passage – there was no crowd to push aside and no athletic aunties dodging it. In an instant, it filled my entire body. I went limp and I crashed again to the ground. I bit my tongue in a bid to stop myself from screaming and steadied my frame against the road with my arms. I stood up and looked at myself for any visible injuries. I had torn my jeans right above my right knee and scratched my arms, but it was my swollen left ankle that almost made me collapse again. It was HUGE! It was as big as a tennis ball and I could actually see it bloat up. Ever boiled milk? You know how it rises in the pot and then just kind of erupts and overflows. That was precisely how my ankle looked.

I hurriedly walked a few steps, trying to get away from any eyes that were fixed onto me. I’d barely walked seven steps when another shot of pain went up from the ankle, tearing up everything inside and crashed up into my head. I felt dizzy and sick. The pain was so overpowering that I threw up. I could see that running away was not helping. I turned around and limped my way back to the side of the road. I dropped myself and sat on the road berm. The pain was intolerable. I couldn’t even breathe. I lowered my back and just lay there on the roadside, trying to calm myself. That felt so much better. I didn’t care about the world at that point; didn’t care what anyone might say. They’d think of me as a drunkard, with puke all over him, who had passed out.

In the middle of this thought, I heard someone call out my name. I ignored. I did not want to break this moment of relief. Then again, someone put their hand on my arm and called out. I forced open my eyes. I saw a hazy picture of a face and the receptors in my brain told me that it was ‘Her’. HER?! Instantly, I pulled myself up. Sure enough, it was Priyanka. My heart skipped a million beats as I looked at her, lost in my own thoughts. There she was, right in front of me, her big brown eyes, still shining and staring right back at mine…
“Rahul… Rahul… RAHUL!!!”, she said as she shook my arm.
“Hmmm…?”, was all I could manage. I still couldn’t believe I was looking at Priyanka. I still couldn’t believe her tiny, feminine hands, with perfect little fingers having no nail-paint, held onto my arm. I kept blinking my eyes in disbelief uttering nothing from my mouth. It was then that she put her arm around me and tried picking me up. Her movement broke my trance and I was finally able to speak.

“Priyanka?! You? How come… I mean what are you doing here?”.
“What happened, Rahul?”, she asked while ignoring my query.
“I was getting down from the bus and my foot just…”.
Priyanka cut me short with a loud “HOLY SHIT!” as she glanced at my ankle. I really hoped she had not because as soon as I looked at my over-sized foot, the pain came right back. I let out a cry. Suddenly, I felt comfortable with expressing myself.
“Relax Rahul, just relax. I’ll just call for a cab and we’ll go see a doctor.”
“No… I think I first need to compose myself. I won’t be able to rush myself right now.”
She leaned forward for a better look at my foot. My toe nail had broken and was bleeding. She opened up her handbag, took out a tissue and proceeded to wipe the blood and dust off my foot. Priyanka gently lifted my leg and put her handbag underneath my foot. All this while, I just stared at her. It had been 13 months since we parted ways. Yet, when I saw her that morning, everything just came flooding back. She was still the same; hadn’t changed one bit. Her short hair, her shiny skin, her tiny ears… She got up and walked across the road towards the temple. Her walk… the way her body sashayed, left and right. I could spend my entire life watching her.
She went inside the temple and came back running a few minutes later with a bottle of cold water. Bending down in front of me, she removed the slipper from my foot and poured the water from the bottle. When she was done cleaning up, she again put the foot back on the handbag, in an effort to raise it so as to reduce the swelling. Handing me the bottle, she sat next to me. I took a few sips from the bottle while still looking at her in shock. She gave me smile, dragging me back further into the past.

“I see you’re not doing too well without me!!”, she said and burst out laughing. I could sense that she was probably trying to change the mood and distract me. I gave her a shy smile myself. I did not know what to say. After the break-up, it took me a good four months to get my life back on track; four months to forget her; yet I would still think about the time we’d spent together. I guess I was lonely. After the split, she decided to move on and dated her roommate. She was my first girlfriend and I was 20 when I started dating her. Maybe because I’d waited for so many years before actually going out with a girl, that when I dated Priyanka, I put my heart and soul into the relationship. Then, when it did not work out, I could never really get over her.

“Helloooo?! Are you there?”, Priyanka asked suddenly.
“Oh yes. I’m so sorry. I mean, it’s 10 in the morning and you must be on your way to work and here you are nursing me while I’m lost in my own thoughts. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, Rahul. Come on now, don’t be so formal!”. I’d known her since I was 15 and we dated for 2 years. 7 years of friendship. We parted ways amicably when I was 22. After that, I never really saw her… till today.
“No Priyanka. I’m fine. Really. Thank you so much for the help.”. I started to get up when she just held my hand, signaling me to sit back. Like a little kid, I did not contest and obeyed. “Don’t act like a fool and sit down Rahul. In a moment, I’ll take you to a doctor. For now, can we not just sit and catch up?”
I could not hold back my smile. It felt just like the old times. It felt like I hadn’t missed any moment of her life at all! She smiled back and asked, “What are you doing here, exactly? Some drunken rendezvous?”, pointing at the puke on my shirt. “Hell no! You know I don’t drink Priyanka!”, I defended myself.
“You never know! It has been quite a while”. I could see that mischievous twinkle in her eye. “For you information, Madam, I work here at The Richmond Gardens”, I spoke feeling a lot more comfortable in her company now. “Well, I never knew they hired drunkards!”. We both burst out laughing.

Thirty minutes passed as we sat there talking to each other like two gossiping teenage girls. I’d not felt this happy in the recent past and I really didn’t care about my current state. All I knew was that Priyanka was sitting there right next to me. Her hair bounced as she animatedly narrated her tales and every time she waved her hands, the air carried the fragrance of her wonderful perfume to my nose. Just then, her phone rang.

“Incoming… ROHAN”.
Rohan – her roommate. The very same roommate she went out with after we broke up. I didn’t know if she was still out with him.

“Hey baby! Good morning!!”. Well, now I knew. I didn’t even bother listening to the rest of the conversation. The pain in my ankle had suddenly risen a few notches and the sun was beating down on me. I leaned forward and tried to feel my humongous ankle. It was numb. I couldn’t even move it.
“Rohan, darling… can I call you back in a while? I think I’ll tend to Rahul. Alright? OK, buhbye.”
Cool. She told her guy that she was with her ex. The relationship seemed solid and stable.
“So how are things going with Rohan, Priyanka?”, I enquired, trying to sound as normal as possible. “Great, actually!! We’re getting married in 3 months!”, her face beaming a big smile.

“Congratulations Priyanka!! I’m so happy for you”. I was. I was actually happy for her. I was really not even jealous of the fact that she was going out with Rohan. But the moment she told me that she was engaged to be married, I knew I’d lost her forever. She was my first, everything. She was someone I’d dreamt of growing old with; someone I’d shared special moments with; someone who understood me inside out. It broke my heart when we went our separate ways. But somehow, I had reconciled with the fact that we could not be together. But now, when she told me she was getting married, it abruptly put an end to that dream – the dream of living my life with her. Even though we hadn’t met in months, the dream lived on. It was shattered now.

“Thanks Rahul! I knew you’d be happy. We were best of friends. Somehow we lost track of each other in between. But I know that if there is someone in this world who genuinely cares for me and will be happy for me, it’s you.”
“That is very sweet of you, Priyanka.”
She smiled at me. I wanted to cry.

“I’ll just rush back to the temple and return this bottle, alright. Stay right here. I asked Rohan to send a cab here. It’ll be here any second.”. With that, she crossed over to the other side. I looked at the spot where she was sitting. Her scent still lingered there. Suddenly, another shot of pain ripped across my body. This time, I bit my tongue again, not wanting to let out a scream. Suddenly, I felt uneasy, as if a thousand eyes were watching me. I knew I could not stay there any longer. I pushed myself up. Just then, the cab arrived. I opened the door put her handbag inside.
With my slipper in my hand, I bent down and picked up the tissue she had used to clean my foot. I couldn’t leave it lying on the road there. It was too precious. I asked the driver for a pen and wrote on the tissue.

“Priyanka,
I’m sorry that I’m leaving today. I’m sorry that I left you before. But we will meet again. All the best.
Your best friend.”

I told the driver to wait for her. It was the first time in many months that I’d felt so happy and then had reality hit me in the face so hard. I turned around and started limping away from that place; not to my office, not to some doctor… just away. I guess, it was finally time to move on.

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