HER PAST & HIS FUTURE

CHAPTER - 20 LIVING OR JUST SURVIVING

“Bye Ashish!” Alara leaves the place. “So, should I do it now?” she thinks. She searches for a jewellery shop for almost an hour. She finds one and goes in. she talks to the manager about something and he agrees. Alara removes the platinum bracelet she has on her hand abound gives it to him. She leaves the shop with a bag full of 7 lakh rupees. “Damn dude. My dad bought the bracelet for thrice the price” she thinks to herself. She walks straight into the digital store to buy the thing she considers the most important. “Show me an iphone version 20 please”she asks and the seller eyes her from head to toe. “Which version are you talking about?” he asks her. “Shit! I’m in 2020” she says smiling awkwardly. She buys the iphone 11 and goes out after starting to make use of the device as much as she can to survive.

Being from the future, she indeed wastes a few hours trying to find a house similar to the one she lives in. In the end she understands it's hard to find and settles for a normal looking flat in a mildly rich neighbourhood. She pays 30,000 in advance for staying there. Alara finds
herself lucky to be able to find a fully furnished apartment.She thought it would be hard to do. She secures the money in the locker and leaves the house again.

At 12:50 PM:

“If she’s home by now then she really might be a random prankster” Ashish thinks sitting in his class in the middle of the day. “If not, then the only answer is the future…” he thinks “Hmm, I wonder what she is?” he mumbles smiling.

At 7:00 PM:

Alara comes back home after buying all the essentials she needs to stay there until she can go back to the future
including clothes and food products. Anyone would believe she’s someone living in 2020. She walks straight into the washroom to take a long comfortable shower.“So, first I have to find a way to get back but to do that, I need to find where Vimala aunty lives in 2020 and I also need money. I seem to have used up around 2 lakhs today and that means I have 5 lakhs left. Shouldn’t I find a job
for myself to pay for everything because what if it takes a long time for me to go back? I need to save a lot but I indeed also spend a lot” Alara makes a calculation map over her head in the air while taking a shower. “I wonder what mom and dad are doing? Do they even know what happened to me? Vimala aunty and uncle must be panicking. Joy’s battery must be dead by now”. Mike, Ruby, Nikki and Ronak too. “Damn! I miss them all so much” she thinks tears dwell up in her eyes but she doesn’t cry. I’ll come back as soon as possible. Alara says to herself in her mind.

After getting out of the shower, Alara orders herself a chicken noodle soup. “Tasty but the khichdi dosa was homely. They both must be thinking I’m a lunatic” she thinks while eating her dinner. Alara decides to find a job the next day. “I am doing fine here. I’ll come back for sure” she says to everyone in the future. Alara wakes up in the middle of the night to sleep, sweating. She drinks more water. “RONAK!” she says out of the blue. “I’m so sorry for not meeting you. I know how you are feeling right now. I miss you and I’m really sorry that I left you clueless. You told me not to say goodbyes. you said we’ll meet again and I believe we will, my friend. Wait for me”she confesses what she thinks to the wall opposite the refrigerator but for Alara, it's Ronak standing there.

2nd March 2020:

Alara wakes up at the usual time by herself. She realises she doesn’t need to go to UNI here. “I should’ve time travelled after completing the last semester and graduating” she thinks to herself. Alara also understands she has a long way to go without joy. She has a convenience store packed sandwiches for breakfast. She gets out of her flat determined to find a job. On her way to take the cab, she tries to recollect where Ramanaidu works or their house address but she fails, giving up for certain times Alara takes the cab and visits all the places she has seen online offering a job. One work Alara avoids doing is working in a coffee shop or restaurant because no one can drink the coffee she makes. Still scrolling through the site, Alara finds one interesting and odd one from the whole list.

“A tour guide??” she says to herself sitting in the cab. She calls them and enquires if they offer a job to the people from abroad. She goes to the tourist office. Sometime between half an hour to an hour, Alara gets out of there after successfully getting a job. “So, one can get a basic job in 2020 without a graduation degree huh! The only thing I have to do is not letting anyone find out I’m from 2052 so they won’t isolate me” she thinks. “But damn! I wish I had someone to celebrate this memory with. It’s disappointing”. But again, wait a minute. I have two people I can share with, but I don’t know anything about those guys to contact them. Anyways let’s just go” she says to herself leaving the building.

Alara gets out of the cab nearby her house. She begins walking home and notices an extremely crowded ground.
“What’s going on here?” she wonders walking towards the ground. She sees a banner that reads “Weekly market
open 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm”. “What is this about?” she asks the watchman standing there. “It opens once a week. There’s a lot of things you can do like shop, eat, play. You should visit if you’re new here” he says. Alara nods. “It’s not like I have to do anything today, let’s just go in” she thinks walking inside. After walking through some crowd stalls, she halts at a vegetable stall. “Let’s master a new skill today” she walks to the stall to learn how to buy vegetables. “Carrot please” she asks. The shopkeeper eyes her. “35 rupees per kg” he says. “Uh! a kg? sure give it”Alara says. She takes the bag and walks away.

“Why is everything so cheap though? Is it because the economy is bad?” she thinks. She looks around wondering what to do next. She then sees a familiar face. Of course, who would it be that Alara finds familiar in 2020? Ashish. She sees him talking to a middle aged woman facing him. “His mother?”She thinks. She walks towards the stall she sees him at.

“Ashish just a minute. I’ll go get the radish and we’ll head back home” Vimala says to Ashish and walks away.
“Ashish? Why are you here?” Alara asks Ashish approaching him. “I should ask the same thing. Why do I  keep running into you all the time?” he says. “Maybe
because you’re the only friend I have here” Alara murmurs. “Huh? What?” he asks. “Nothing! look I just learnt how to buy vegetables here” Ashish tilts his head. “You’ve never been here before?” he asks. “Well! I”Alara says but pauses when her phone rings. “Excuse me, I have to take this. It’s from work" she says. “Oh, By the way, I got a job a few hours ago” she adds before walking aside to take the call. Ashish nods. “Congrats!” he says while smiling. Alara smiles back. “Talk to you later” she says. “But hey! Your number?” he asks. “Oh sure!! Here, this is new too” she smiles brightly typing her number.“Why is everything new to this girl?” Ashish murmurs with a smile on his face unconsciously. Vimala buys what she needs and walks back to where Ashish is. She sees him talking to someone. “Oh! She’s pretty” Vimala thinks. She walks faster to greet her but that girl walks away before she could reach them. “Who is she?” Vimala asks excited. “A friend” he says and smiles. “Just a friend?” she’s pretty and looks nice. What’s her name?”she asks. “Alara, not just pretty, she’s crazy too” he says.
Vimala nods. “Alara!! Hi! I’m his aunty” Vimala says waving her hand. Alara turns around….