Where Parallels Meet

Chapter 2

LOST IN A BAZZILION DARK STAIRS

We discussed my job interview due at 9 tomorrow morning, my journey, the food, the language, the shock, and the awesomeness of my surprise over coffee. And at about 8, we left the cafe.

While the drawstrings of the pouch of night tightened around us, and we, in sweet oblivion drank in the pleasant darkness, he rode us through a tangle of wavy roads while the wind brushing softly over his disheveled hair, electrified mine in a frenzy of their own.

"Where are we headed?" I asked after he narrated to me a longish sort of short story, where the boys and he, basically hijacked the Cafe Sunflower.

"Uhmm...guess?" he shrugged. "I have no clue." I said wearily, needing him to let the cat the heck out. He took a sharp turn leftwards on to a road with the looming darkness pouring down on us in cold silence.

"...besides, all I know about Chennai is Dosa, you, and marina beach!" I exclaimed jokingly. "Well, you're pretty close to all three." He laughed an airy laugh, and my subconscious opened her eyes and looked at me through the corner. I was suddenly aware of how close we really were. That put an end to my silly jokes for the time being.

As we rode in silence for some more minutes, the roads gave up with the sky high buildings and petty mortal cemented structures, putting up a more scenic view.

My exhilaration was so palpable one could smell it in the air through which wafted the saltiness of the sea. We were still pretty far from the beach. The water was nowhere in sight. If fact, all we could see was an endless darkness that stretched on as far as sight accompanied it.

Ten minutes from there, my lungs were burning, because we had stopped at the foot of a gigantic structure and climbed a bazillion dark stairs, and because the view from up there was...simply breathtaking.

"The lighthouse." He announced to the cool air, while my jaw had dropped straight ten stories down.

White waters gently made love to the dark shore, running in, fading out; while the shore awash in the salty sea, basked dark and solitary in the water's touch, and I, was a witness to it. We were a witness to it. Maybe the only two witnesses to have seen this tonight if the world decided to end tomorrow.

The broad alternate strips of sand and asphalt and the dividing trees, looked far enough to be unreal. The road was alive with brisk flashes of light, as the sea was with the revolving light of the lighthouse which threw slow flashes on the darkness in equidistant lapses.

The hard slab a few steps to our back, felt cold yet comfortable after the tiring day we'd both had. The night continued its downpour of secrets while the two of us sat comfortably, gazing out at the clear night, a billion stars, and the endless sea.

Silence wrapped over us like a blanket keeping us warm from the futility of words, until he sighed, a deep sigh. "Thank you Ananya." He breathed in a low whisper, as if the thank you was addressed to an all knowing pair of ears, which always heard him.

"Well, you brought me here, so thanks to you." I said filling my eyes with the stars, wanting to pack them in my knapsack and take them home with me.

He chuckled before falling silent. It was as if something in his eyes shone brighter than Sirius which had me transfixed for so long. I turned to meet his eyes with my own. Not just a passing glance, but an exhilarating gaze through a window to an unknown dimension of darkness which captivated me, which I wanted to captivate me.

"Thank you for everything Ananya." he said. I'm not too sure if he spoke these words of if I read them in his eyes, but they were there. Ultra present.