The following day was our very first day in college. Students were hustling along their way to their classes and dragging our feets to the board room I and Anny traipsed forward. However half of my mind was roaming around the days of me being independent and ecstatically spending my dollars euros dinars and yes rupeeess( I told you money makes me happy..).
After a fairly prolonged and tedious lecture we were freed from that place and we regressed towards the hostel. We reached the hostle and continued with our daily chores whereas there was no sign of Joe until late night. I had no doubts whether I should interrogate her whereabouts or not but Anny did seem a bit worried. Anyways pondering upon our worn out condition we dozed off to sleep.
At midnight our sleep was disturbed by a peculiar murmur and it seemed that someone was crying. We got up and took the notice that our miss cyclone was weeping (over what? I was hardly interested). We approached her and did the same very old formal thing of questioning ( which was actually initiated by Anny but I don't know from where at these situations the human in me wakes up from years of sleep and I also accompanied her! Gosh I would regret that later certainly....) .
"What on earth has dawned upon you at such a time" (Oh of course that had to be me Anny was a lot more sensible than this)
"Why are you crying like this" questioned the pertubrated tone of Anny.
But we (ummm... actually me) recieved a surprise at that moment when Joe actually did say everything despite of the fact that we were still strangers to her!!! We were slowly getting enticed by the feeling that we would be good friends but that essence was just for a short interval of time after which we came to know that only her purse was lost. I don't know about Anny but I was really frustrated over the fact that for some stupid reason my peaceful sleep (and oh the dreams of my dolllarsss ahh i could kill that girl at that very moment! ) had been disturbed and I was sure enough that I would be dozing off in the class the next day.
However after hearing Anny's sympathy for Joe I became aware that I was behaving like an immature being (ohh man i hate it when the human in me wakes up) and I too got indulged in sympathizing with Joe. However still I knew that in some corner of my mind I considered this act as a very silly one.
"Let's help her in this Kenny (oh wait that's me Kenny so yeah that's me maybe someday I would change it to dollaro or rupinar or duero you know nice combinations of different currencies but I don't know why till date it sounded exciting only to me...) but now let's get her into a sleep" said Anny to me.
I didn't argue but the expression on my face completely satisfied Anny that I wasn't a bit ready for all these and when we were sure enough that Joe was in a deep sleep Anny said
" common Kenny you can afford your evening for a friend "
I never considered Joe as my friend and I was quite sure she possessed the same opinion but I didn't feel it right to express my thoughts and the matter got over there.
The next morning as discussed by me and Anny, after our classes we would go and speak to the manager of the mall to which Joe had visited after the college. So, we got ready for our college but it seemed like Joe had some other plans. Joe was in an outfit quite contrasting to us. Then we came to know or I should rather say we realized that we hadn't even spoken to Joe about our plan, and it was obvious by looking at her that her plans were quite contrasting to that of us.
Anny tried to handle the matter "Joe I think... actually we think...that it would be appropriate if we start our search after attending the seminar. So Joe, I think you should get ready for the college."
The following scene was half expected by me and was quite astounding for Anny. Joe again undertook the character of a small baby crying and screeching and screeming and whatsoever synonym one could avail for mourning just to force others to take her side. Finally after a period of chaos we finally agreed in unison. Anger loomed around me but I didn't feel it right that my feelings should proceed in the form of words through my mouth. So I left the matter there with a slight hope that my indication should have been understood by my sincere friend (hey man didn't I say that i was sensible..) .
During the whole journey I was busy in discovering every single reason which contrasted our dunce-like decision of accompanying Joe for a stupid purse. I was busy wondering what I would do if I found the purse useless. Then I got a real point contrasting to all these silly ones... what caused her to feel that her purse was lost in the middle of the night. However before I could go deeper into this thought of mine ,we had reached the mall.
For a while after seeing the mall I didn't care anymore for my absence in college. But before I could continue my inquisitiveness for the same I was brought back to the world by Anny.
"Common Kenny let's get going. Joe, I think you know this place better. Can you recollect where had you used the purse the last time?"
"Yeah I think at the cas counter of the third floor."
We went up following her instructions. As I started to adore the mall my frustration upon Joe for wasting our time slowly degraded. Probably because she had brought us to a quite an awe-inspiring place. We approached to the incharge of the cash counter and inquired her. As expected it was not a cinch to find each and every lost thing dropped by these homo sapiens, the in charge of the counter didn't knew anything about it. However, she provided a little hope to Joe
"There's a corner in this floor straight to the bowling area where one of the staffs takes hold of all these things."
We went to the place as directed and inquired the person. At last a sigh of relief was experienced by us. (Whoa! We did find that damn thing.) My expressions suddenly changed from relief to that of anger when the fact sank in that it was very silly and a torn up fritter like thing which I wonder to whom it would look like a purse and wait the best part was it didn't even have a single penny inside it!( That really screwed me up I swear!).
I lost all the control which I had tried to withhold since morning and approached Joe in the most brusque manner I could. I forgot everything about the mall,its beauty and the mumerous varieties of accesories it contained and showered upon Joe like anything.
"Joe Fitswilliam or whatever your name is I have never seen such a guile like you who brooded over the whole night and the morning and also indulge others to leave their important works for such a silly got damn thing! If you would have told me earlier about the condition of your silly garbage then instead of accompanying you I would have given you another purse which would be a lot better than this one!!!"
For the first time I didn't bother to care about the expression on Anny's face and went straight to the hostel still cross for whatever had occurred.
