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Pulling the chair closer to the table, Rashi Dubey smiled as she realised that she was in Goa. This has been happening for the past two days now; the sudden realisation that she was in a completely different state altogether. It wasn't really the place that excited her but the fact that she was there alone, finally doing something she wanted without her mother's constant nagging.
She had packed her bags early morning that day, made a call to her mother and had hopped on the train not waiting to hear what her mother had to say on the matter. Honestly, she couldn't care less.
Now don't get her wrong, she loves her mother to the core but sometimes if not all the time, the nagging gets on her nerves. Her never ending complaints, finding faults in the way she dressed and walked and sat, comparing her grades with the kid next door, it just went on and on.
Sit properly, that's not how a lady should sit, her mother had said one evening when Rashi had comfortably thrown one of her legs over the sofa's arm rest while she sat sideways on it.
If you spent a little less time on that wretched phone, then maybe, you would've scored better than Aditya, was another one of her mother's concern. It gets a little too much sometimes and during those times, Rashi would hope to grow wings and lose her way to a land unknown where it would be just her.
Rashi cupped her hands around the hot mug, her fingers had began to turn blue and this mug came as a relief. She could feel Agnes's eyes on her and she deliberately avoided them as she sipped some hot chocolate. Resisting the urge to question Agnes, she focused on the mug until she couldn't anymore. "Why are you staring at me?"
"I..I'm not?"
Rashi narrowed her eyes and said "I saw you"
"It's just that I wasn't expecting company"
"Oh"
Silence settled in once again as the two searched for words but seeing how that didn't do any good, Rashi returned her attention to the mug in hand. It was still raining; it only seemed to grow worse.
When Rashi finished her hot chocolate, she moved her gaze back from the glass doors to Agnes, only to find her asleep with her earphones on. Agnes looked so peaceful that Rashi couldn't help but watch and take in Agnes's features. Her unruly hair and high cheekbones. Lean and tall figure, indicating that Agnes probably played some sport.
A few minutes of that before Rashi finally pulled back her thoughts. Mentally facepalming, she got up from her seat and made her way to the kitchen to wash the mug.
When she got back, Agnes was still fast asleep or at least that's how it appeared to her. Since she was now left with no one to talk to or with nothing to do, she looked around the little place; from the counters, to the cookbooks, the ingredients on the shelf, the menu, the little sticky notes left by customers and the photo frames that hung on the wall facing her from the counter.
Rashi slowly walked towards the frames to get a closer look of the pictures. They were all black and white in white/teal coloured frames. She quickly scans them before noticing that they were taken from the bakery. There were pictures of coffee, cupcakes and chocolates along with those of people; customers smiling, laughing, being engrossed in a conversation. None of the subjects (except for a few) in the pictures seemed to be aware of their picture being taken or if they did, they didn't make it obvious.
She spends a few minutes looking at the pictures and wondered if Agnes was the photographer. If she was then, Agnes was incredibly talented when it came to capturing the beauty of a moment. Rashi loses herself in them before she is startled by a voice from behind her. "You like them?" Agnes asked.
She turned around to find Agnes still seated on the same spot but her legs were no longer propped up and her earphones unplugged, placed on the table next to her phone. "Did you take them?" she asked back.
Agnes tilts her head slightly and said "Yeah, I did"
"They're beautiful" Rashi didn't fail to notice Agnes's cheeks turn a little pink at the compliment as she tries to mask her smile. "You don't have to hide that pretty smile of yours, you know"
This got Agnes to cover her face with her palms for a few seconds before she dropped them, revealing a toothy grin. "Thank you, t-hat means a lot me"
"There's no need to thank me, you're really talented!" Rashi said as she made her way to the chair next to Agnes and sat on it.
Silence engulfed them as Agnes turned her attention to the pictures on the wall, she was smiling and Rashi watched her. When Agnes turns around to face Rashi, Rashi swiftly shifted her head to face the wall with the frames.
"I really like that one. The one with the two girls on the right corner. Teal frame. " Rashi pointed at her finger towards the picture. In the frame, two girls who seemed to be in their early 20s sit across from each other holding hands over the table. The picture was taken from an angle that made it difficult to make out one of the girls' face, the other one, however, had her head hung low and it looked like she was crying.
Agnes smiled "I'm glad. That's my favourite one"
"Is she crying?"
"Yup"
Rashi raised an eyebrow at that, her eyes asked for an explanation.
"You want to know the story behind it?"
Rashi nodded.
Agnes sighed "Those two were regulars here. I don't remember when they started visiting but they were here every evening until it felt like they were just an extension of this place. That picture was taken when they last stopped by together. The next day, only one of them showed up. The one whose face you can't make out from the picture. She came by a few times, sat on that same place, ordered their usual but it was just her...just her. One day, I went up to her with that picture. I didn't say anything, just slid that photo across the table to her and she started crying"
Rashi absorbed Agnes's words, preparing herself for the worst.
"... she cried quietly for a while before wiping them off and smiling sadly at the picture. She asked me if I was going to put it up on the wall like the rest and I told her that I only do if the ones in the picture were okay with it. She fell silent at that but then she looked up and told me that she wanted it to be put up"
"You ask permission from all of them before putting them up?"
"Obviously. After I click a picture, I approach them and show it to them. The ones that agreed are up on the wall, some of them who didn't want their pictures on display are stored in my laptop; they told me I could keep it instead. The rest, I send it to them before deleting it."
"That's thoughtful. So, What happened to the girls?"
Agnes turned to face the picture " I don't know...the girl stopped visiting after the day I showed her the picture"
"That's it?" Rashi looked at Agnes wide-eyed.
"I'm only a mere observer, Rashi. A girl with a camera. I don't know what happened to them or what their story is but I do know one thing"
"What is it?"
Agnes looked into Rashi's eyes before saying "They were in love"
To an outsider, this moment between Rashi and Agnes would give out the same energy as the one caught in the photograph of the two girls in the teal frame. As Rashi and Agnes stare into each other, the pouring rain outside gets heavier.
