My Soulmate

Chapter 7 - Shiuli (part 1)

Again I woke up due to a nightmare today. I was standing on a road, a speeding car came towards me, I saw someone's shadow pushing me, and then everything was dark. I didn’t give much priority to my nightmare and started following my morning routine. I left for college in time. I come back from college with Rimti but we both go to college alone cause we don't have a fixed time to leave from home. Whoever goes first keeps a seat for the other one.

 Today I arrived at college first so I kept a seat for Rimti. A few minutes before the bell rang, Rimti entered the class. She came running. She must have woken up late today.

"Why are you late?"

'What else…'' she said while panting.

I didn't ask her anything about Ullash. After yesterday's incident it was clear that she is not comfortable talking about him. Rimti is a person who likes to talk. She can talk for hours about a small incident. But why is she so quiet when we talk about Ullash? She is also not sharing anything about him. Seeing how she avoids talking about Ullash, I decided not to ask anything about him just like she never forces me to share anything. Like every other day we started talking about random things.

My college life was going well. I learnt a lot of new things coming back in time. Our interactions with Ullash and Ethar were also good. But I'm not sure if we are friends yet. Rimti is trying to make me talk to boys a lot but it's useless. That's why I made a imaginary world about my soulmate because I am not good at talking to boys. If Ullash hadn’t talked to us first then I think I wouldn’t have spoken to them also. Maybe this is the reason I saw them but never spoke to them in my previous life. 

Our pre-test starts in two weeks, so everyone is quite busy with their studies. Student's worries know no boundaries as it is our first exam after entering college. I didn’t have much worries, but if I wanted I could have studied a little more to top the class. I already know everything but still I need to revise a bit. But I was not in the mood to study at all. So I know I'll have an average result.

We were going home when we saw Nilima. She was bending down and looking at the water. There is a small bridge on our way to home. Below that bridge a small part of a river flows towards the forest.Though we live in town, there are a lot of trees and forests surrounding us. It's because except for Dhaka, every city has huge greenery. 

I called her,"Nilima, what are you looking at?"

''Sujita apu? You are here?''

"Hmm"

Rimti was looking at me surprisingly,''Who is she, Sujita?'

"Oh I forgot to tell you. She is Ethar's younger sister, Nilima. I met her one day at the park." I introduced them.

"Nilima, she is my best friend, Rimti."

''Hi apu. You have a cute name.''

Rimti became shy and said,''Thank you. Yours is also cute.''

''Oh I forgot!'' Nilima said while pointing at the water,''See, there's shiuli(night blooming jasmine) in the water.''  hearing her I quickly looked at the water.

"Where? There is no shuili."

''Just wait. After a few minutes you will see.''

Me and Rimti along with Nilima were looking at the water hoping to see shiuli. After a while we saw two shiuli flowing in the water."

But the direction from which the stream of the river is coming is the forest.
''Where will Shiuli come from in the forest?" 

Nilima said in a serious voice,''Exactly! Let's go and see.''

"Huh? Will we go there now?"

Rimti held my hand and said,''Come on! Let's go. We have to see where it is coming from? Is there a shiuli tree in the forest? Let's go!''

They both started dragging me from there. So, I also agreed to them.

''Where are you guys going?''

We turned and saw Ethar and Ullash standing.