Somebody to love

Chapter-1 An Echo From the Past

I just got up only to see a bunch of letters and newspapers lying near the door. I pick them up and go to the kitchen to brew my morning coffee. I sit down to read the newspaper, the heading reads “William Wilson a new sensation“. Everybody knows him. William Wilson the overachiever. William Wilson the new name in the field of palaeontology. William Wilson who is just 27. But nobody knows the real William Wilson. William Wilson the loner. William Wilson who tries to forget himself in his work and the bitterness of alcohol. I know him. I try to run from him but I can’t because I am William Wilson. I put down the paper, take up my coffee and start going through the letters. Most of them are to congratulate me but the one that gets me is the one from Michael Rodriguez, an author. He writes “Dear, Mr. William I hope you would allow me as I wish  to write your biography...”  Why would someone want that. But then again not a lot of people do something “extraordinary” at the age of 27 . I close my eyes and try to focus on my routine for the day. A conference. Different seminars. A meeting with Michael Rodriguez. I take a deep breath and go to the shower.
I get ready, grab my car keys and go out. The first is a conference with the young minds of today and then some seminars but my mind is preoccupied with Michael Rodriguez. I’ve heard of him. Some prodigious writer. But what I don’t get is his interest in me. As I reach the restaurant for my meeting  with Michael the watch shows 2:00pm. I’m 30 minutes early. I occupy the table in the corner and try to focus on my meeting. It’s been hard to focus on anything but work lately. I try to think about my life, my journey, and what interests Michael. I close my eyes and try to relax. It only felt like minutes when I heard my name.
“Mr. Wilson”
“Yes!” I reply.
“Hello! It’s so great to finally meet you. And you must be aware of why we are here”
“Mr. Rodriguez?” I ask.
He nods.
“Please take a seat”
“Very well. So let’s start. Tell me something about yourself”
I like how he gets straight to the point. “Well I am William Wilson, 27, a palaeontologist” he stops me with a sudden wave of hand.
“Not this. Not something everyone knows.” He says and looks at me. As if he is searching for answers to some unknown, unspoken questions. He continues,“I did some research on your past life before coming here. So how about we start from junior college?”
“Junior College?” I gasp, but it was more of a whisper.
“Yes! I’ve heard you had some pretty serious romance cooking up back then.” He pulls out something from his bag. A scrapbook and placed it on the table. “Oak Wood High” he points at the book “isn’t this where you went?”
And there on the table was the yearbook of my school. I open it and turn the pages. Oak Wood High it feels like ages since I’ve heard this name. I can feel his stare. I look up at him, wondering how he got this. The name of my junior college it’s not something a lot of people know about.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“Like you already know I wish to write your biography. I want to tell your story to the world. So shall we begin, sir?”
I was pissed off. The yearbook, this man, they were annoying me. I try to run from memories but they find their way back to me. This man brought them back to me and now he just sits there waiting for me to tell my story. “No I don’t want to tell you anything.''
I get up to walk out.
“Mr. Wilson please sit down. I see I’ve offended you. I apologise. But I request you to let me write your biography. Please sir.”
I don’t want to but his tone, his voice makes me as if I’m under a spell.  As if there are voices inside me telling me to obey him, telling me that I have to tell him everything. I sit down with a deep breath and prepare myself to relive the memories.
“Very well.”
“Thank you sir”, he says
And I begin “I was sitting in this café under the overpowering smell of coffee. As you know, a paleontologist's business is hectic and dull, I was going through one of the most important courses to stay alive. I was going through memes on my iPhone. As I was relaxing, with my memes, something distracted me. A weeping kid. Following the voice, I turned my head on the kid's direction. A cute little girl who, perhaps, was reluctant to have those pastries. As I was about to continue with memes I caught hold of the bracelet the kid was wearing. The bracelet stirred some fading memories in front of my eyes. I was teleported to the moment when I first saw those brown eyes."
I took a sip from the glass of water as I continued."It was the beginning of the new session of my high school and I was concentrating on the first paleontology lecture. 'And you see, carbon dating has an edge over other methods', said the professor.
'Yes, dating is good', interrupted a tall muscular boy inducing a series of laughter in the class.
'Not funny, Morgan', said the professor.
Morgan was the captain of the baseball team of Oak Wood High. His father was a successful entrepreneur. Most of the times the halls brimmed with conversations about Morgan and his psyche. He kidnapped the girl who refused his proposal of a relationship. In a nutshell he was someone no one  wanted to mess with.
'Any questions?' the professor asked.
A hand raised. That was when I first saw that bracelet. I didn't pay heed to the question for I was lost in the dark blonde silky hair and engaging brown eyes of the bracelet's owner. She looked in my direction and our eyes met for a moment.
I hurried my eyes to the book and acted as if I was concentrating hard. After the lecture she approached me. 'So you were checking me out?' she asked.
'wh-what!' I stammered.
'I caught you staring at me', she said.
'I wasn't' '-I'm Amelia, Amelia Stewart', she intervened.
'I'm William Wilson', I introduced myself.
'I'm going to the library, wanna join?' she asked.
'I don't see why should I say no', I said. 'let's go.' "
I pause and draw in a sharp breath, I can feel the memories breaking the barrier I had created to keep going on with life because with the memories coming back it was nearly impossible. As if sensing the tension building up Michael chimed in “It seems that this particular story is very close to your heart, isn't it? He didn't made any effort to hide the desire to decipher my life.
“Yes it is indeed. The start always matters.” I replied but more to myself. I looked at him and he motioned for me to continue.
“ I gathered my things and stuffed them hastily in my backpack and made my way towards the library with Amelia. She was ahead of me, her long tangled hair fell loosely swaying as she moved with a ethereal grace. Her backpack swinging over one shoulder decorated by batches and stickers of one direction. That almost made me chuckle. I found it funny for someone with such elegance to indulge in something like a boy band. She turned around and gave me a questioning look. I still remember the way she looked at me, the innocent eyes penetrating my heart. The freckles made her look vulnerable. I smiled at her and she turned away. When we entered the library it was nearly full. I was placing my bag on a table when she caught my wrist and half dragged me beside her that's when I noticed the details of the bracelet. It was pretty and delicate and looked perfect against the olive complexion of her skin. She took me to the back of the library. There were some tables there but it was empty and quiet except for the occasional sound of books being slammed on a table. She dropped my wrist and turned to look at me. “I like the silence, away from the crowd” her voice was like velvet and a sheepish grin spread across her face. I collected some books and sat beside her as she pulled out her laptop. Looking eagerly at the screen. I had just decided what to read and was opening it when she suddenly slammed her laptop shut and buried her face in her palms clearly frustrated. I kept my book down and asked her what's wrong. She looked up, on the verge of crying and told me how she was a Directioner and had been saving up for their concert but the tickets were sold out. Her face clearly showed her feelings and she made no effort to hide it. I was about to say I'm sorry that she didn't get the tickets when I remembered my visit to the science exhibition. I had always been a science nerd and won a lot of stuffs that day and among them were two tickets of the Wembley concert. Without a moment's thought I reached for the tickets in my bag and placed them on the table tapping them until I caught her attention. As her gaze fell on the tickets, a wave of happiness washed over her, making her look younger.
She looked at me and said “bu….but I can't take it?”.
I smiled a little at her innocence and said “who said I am giving it to you? I'm in no mood of doing favours.”
she dropped her head in embarrassment “ I thought…..i”
I interjected before she could finish “ I do want a favour though. I have two tickets and I don't wanna go alone. So,  Amelia would you like to come to the concert with me?”
“Yesss” she almost screamed.
“Very well” I said.
We studied for a while and exchanged numbers before leaving. The concert was next week and I couldn't wait for it.
When the day finally arrived a sickness washed over me. I had never been more nervous in my life than I was the moment I walked to her door. I had taken my time to get ready. Continuously trying on clothes and ended up on a black fitting jeans, and a white button down with white nikes. I rang the doorbell my grip growing tighter around the roses. Now that I think about it, it seems a little too much but back then I couldn't bring myself to go to her without something to give her. Something that described her. Roses seemed like the right thing, no matter how long you look at them they still seem fascinating. We had texted back and forth throughout the week but that did nothing to calm me. As the door opened and she emerged I was awestruck. She was looking beautiful in a off-white crochet dress. She tucked in a loose strand of hair. I opened my mouth to say something clever but the words didn't came out. I must have seemed stupid back then. I brought myself to give her the flowers and our hands brushed gently only for a moment but a shock ran down my veins.
“Shall we go?” I asked
“In a moment. Let me just keep these flowers inside. They are beautiful. Thank you” she said and went inside.
Once she came out, we made our way to the concert. The whole way she kept on telling me about one direction and how much she loved them and how grateful she was that I was taking her with me, but all I cared about was her presence next to me, the way she looked, the set of her jawline, her lips, her eyes and the way they twinkled when she talked about the things she loved.
The concert was filled with people, girls mostly. I still don't understand their obsession over such things, but then again I don't understand a lot of things. Once it started, I could feel Amelia's happiness as if it was my own. The concert was loud, colourful, the boys were singing some songs I didn't know but she knew every line. The way she looked at them, the love and longing made me jealous. She was dancing her heart out, occasionally looking at me with a big smile, singing along. It was like time slowed down, I didn't care about the music or the people or the noise all I saw was her. I was aware of her every movement, the way she was grooving on the music, the way she threw her hand up on a particular part of the lyrics. The way her hair scattered in every direction, the way her cheeks reddened from dancing. And I was aware of me, my every breath, the way I stood there looking at her. It was just me and her and everything else faded away.
After the concert was over I walked her home. I took the long way so that I could hear her talk about how much she enjoyed but I hardly heard what she was saying. My attention was on the way her lips moved, forming words, expressing feeling, her velvety voice in ears, the way she shrugged when she didn't approve of something, the way her bracelet dangled making a soft sound. Giving words to my feelings wasn't my speciality, I saw it as a privilege most of us had but not me, so I was quite just nodding as she spoke. As we reached her home I was aware of my every atom longing to touch her, to feel her skin against mine.
“I really enjoyed myself. Thank you so much. I wouldn't have got to go if it wasn't for you. I owe you.” She said.
“You don't owe me anything. It was my pleasure to take you.”
“ You are just being nice. But seriously thank you”
“ You're welcome”
“So umm...it's good bye I guess”
We both stood there for a moment looking at each other.
“You wanna say something?” She asked again.
“ Ye..no, I mean no...umm….. goodnight”.
I turned around and started walking.
“William” she called out.
“Yes?” I spun around.
“I'll see you tomorrow” she said.
“See you tomorrow” I said and turned and left blushing.”
I pause to take a sip of water and continue—
“The memories faded away as I was distracted by a woman arguing. I turned around to see the problem. A woman was standing at the counter her face covered with a scarf. She was arguing with the cashier about money.” I looked at Michael. He had his eyes glued on the table listening intently. I continue “ so I called for the waiter and asked for the problem. He said that the woman was some cents short and the cashier wasn’t ready to let go. I gave the waiter the rest of the money and asked to give it to the cashier. As he gave the money. The woman turned towards me. And I saw them. Those brown eyes, the mystery they held, the ones who make you fall in love. The ones I was so familiar with. The ones I’ll recognise anywhere. It was Amelia. I couldn’t believe it. I got up and ran behind her.
“Stop!” I shouted.
She was getting in a taxi and stopped midway. She turned back slowly. “It’s you. It’s really you. I knew it. I can never forget those eyes” I walked to enclose the space between us and my hands reached for her face. She flinched back and I pulled my hand back. I was overwhelmed. “please tell me it’s you. I can’t believe this I missed you so much. Where have you been all these years.”
“Will!” she had tears in her eyes
“Yes! I’m here. I thought I won’t see you again. I’m so happy.” She just stood there. So I continued “ what’s with the scarf? Why are you hiding your face”
“This, it’s nothing.” Her tone had a hint of worry.
I reached for it and grabbed her scarf to pull it off. She turned her face towards the other side.
“Will! Why would you do that. Give it back right now” she was panicking.
“No look at me what is it that you are hiding” I reached for her and turned her towards me. She was crying but that’s not what got me. Her face.”
I paused to take a sip of water. Curiosity was spread across Michael's face and he was waiting for me to continue.
“Her face. Half of it was burnt. The face that was once so flawless and yet she seemed beautiful. An ageless soul.
"what happens next", Michael asked curiously.
Before I continued with the story there was a knock on  the door.
'Come in', I permitted.
My secretary came in and said 'you've been nominated for the nobel!'
“Congrats! It really is an achievement and you deserve it.” says Michael with a sincere smile.
“Thank you!” I say and get up to hug the women and kiss her lightly on the cheek.
I turn around to face Michael with my hands still on the woman's back. “Oh! I almost forgot. Michael this is my secretary cum fiancé. Rachel, Rachel May.”
Michael smiles at her but I can see the uncertainty in it.