March’
2003,
San Jose, Santa Carla County, California.
‘Kalki’ was the only name on his mind. He repeated the appellation several hundreds of times, in fact zillion times in his mind on his way to San Jose. It was five odd hours’ of flight to her place for him. He was deprived of sleep last night, the night before his first meet with the anxiety. I am gonna meet her He spoke to his heart thinking out loud in conjuring up on the tryst I am gonna meet my friend He ceased ruminating for a second I am gonna meet her as my lover He began to muse over. It had been six odd years since their last meet. He painted her picture in his mind, recollecting the features she left on him in her last meet with him back then.
“When I look at those untainted eyes, the pleasure I feel is indelible,
The innocence I see is innate, an exemplary for one’s delectations, the seventh heaven,
When I look at her cuddly smile on her teensy-weensy lips,
I cruise in the swoon of merriment, perhaps next to ecstasy,
The hirsute which stuck over is palpable and to get filled in with joie de vivre”
Well that was her Aryan composed a short strophe and began to question himself yet again, how would she look? What would she wear? How should we see each other in our presence? How should I look when I first see her, how to break the ice? Will it be a conventional talking? Like the one we did it on the phone or would there be a surprise for a change? How is it gonna be on our first meet?
Aryan kept asking several questions and he struggled to find answers to each one of them. He conceived answers to a few of them so as to make himself attain contentment.
***
“Where are you?” he received a message on phone. “I am waiting at the gas station, eight hundred meters away from your home,” he sent a reply. “Okay, honey. Walk towards the Louisiana bistro, its two hundred meter way in the other direction from your location,” She sent the second message, and then again a third message arrived in no less than a sec, “I will start in a min, the driver’s gonna drop me off. Remember, we are strangers.” She sent we are strangers in capitals. She was apprehensive and didn’t take a chance in letting any of the outsiders know that they were related.
Kalki calling…
“Hello, I have arrived at the spot, where are you?” she said in her honey dipped tone. “Madam, you drove and I am walking, I am on my way,” Aryan said. Her voice was like chalk and cheese, it sounded to him as if he was talking to her in person.
He remained silent on the phone as he walked and she too, didn’t speak anything much, just waited for him to arrive near her.
His heart started thumping, anxiety rose to the extremes and the beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, his tingling palms oozed out the dampness and fear; not that of a literal fear, kind of fear with a positive vibe completed his yen. He walked towards her, few meters more He said to himself and I am gonna see her He recalled his lateral dream. He slowed down the pace of his walk. He felt her presence, he felt her breathe, and he heard a sound on the phone nibbling what? He questioned his intelligence nails? He rendered in his mind and it evinced her lips. He fiddled as he conceived himself with his brink of lower lip being crushed by her denticle. The ambience was full of smoke, he had seen a woman twirling her hair and with her back facing him. She stood still gazing at the other side of the road, he couldn’t distinguish her from the mob as she was covered in the smoke. Seconds later he neared her, he was close and he could hardly think.
There she is, Aryan had seen his love of life, a woman in a striped grey-black coloured blend maxi dress, and embedded on it were Lilly. Her curly hair neatly combed and hung with a barrette in the ponytail hair style. she’s got alligator hair clips each one on either of the centre parted hair, her eyebrows fairly done, her ears loaded with dangle earrings long enough nearly touching the jaw bone, the suspended miniscule diamond pendants danced as she jiggled her noggin. Her eye lashes brushed with kohl and her lips lightly drowned in the lip gloss did their bits to effulge them under the sun light. He approached her from the back and nudged her shoulder. Abruptly she turned back, she didn’t raise her chin up. She knew it was him, she stood right in front at a whisker, her forehead was exactly even to his shoulder. If he hugged her, she would listen to the stories that his heart would tell her, that’s where they matched in height. He kept looking at her, he moved closer, so close that he missed the hazard of having a keek at her countenance. In a blink of an eye, she turned sideways, “taxi”, she called. No sooner had they got inside back seat of the car than they left the place. He was seated left to her. Silence prevailed longer than usual yet again, the pair kept quiet, absolutely quite for ten minutes. As Aryan had the dream last night of the game, he knew he had the ball in his court and had to sling his racket to break the silence and he just did.
“Why don’t you talk? Don’t I look good for you?” he messaged her on phone, “please, you are freaking me out with your silence”.
She just smiled to herself after she read the text, “Why don’t you talk? Try a reply”, he sent an immediate second message. “Can’t talk, people around”, replied Kalki.
He wondered who the people were. While it was just she and him sitting inside the car. He asked her, “people around? What do you mean honey?” She replied with an ultimate answer, “the mob”. She meant, as they were riding in the city centre, she felt that people would peep through the window if they happened to converse. Aryan had the highest mode of scepticism turned on about how she had happened to love him, if she was so obsessed with the mob and the fear of someone stalking the damsel. He didn’t dare to speak out thereafter till they halted their ride but he couldn’t just help himself with his steadfast notion.
“You know I have rented a car, a good car in all terms,” he said looking outside the window. He didn’t had the guts to look into her eyes, “why are we riding in a taxi?” asked Aryan. He presided over to accrue courage and exploited it all of a sudden by turning his face right to look at her. It shore him up to acknowledge something unexpected, he didn’t even suppose she would play her card, not until they reached the tryst. I knew it He talked under his breath slapping his dorsal hand over the front headrest. He learned that she had her eyes locked on him while he looked away from her, but she winced apace no sooner she realized his trace back at her.
“I know you rented the beautiful car,” said Kalki, “I know it is so beautiful that everybody in the city would be drawn to a close in having a glance at her, your beautiful car and eventually they won’t abstain from eyeing on your beautiful Me.”, she paused and Aryan sent a smile through his eyes. He felt her love tangible when she opened her heart out in those lastly uttered three words, “and I don’t want to grab mobs attention”, she completed her intent and Aryan got to the bottom of her jitteriness.
Unaware about the itinerary, “Alright, where should we go?” he did a check. “What do I know? I am just coming with you”, she retorted.
“What do you mean? You were hollering last evening, those places we are to visit and your plans?” he asked chiacking her, “this is your city baby doll, show me the places” he said. “I don’t know my lousy beau”, she said in an undertone.
Kalki was a different woman. She had her own strategy to play it on Aryan. While she did answer with ‘I don’t know’ a few times and a monosyllabic word at other times for all of his questions, she mentioned to the driver to take them to a place. She also insisted him to take the longest route dictating him on the directions. At first Aryan couldn’t get his head around her decision on why she wanted to squander time traveling long but it only occurred to him after nearly fifteen minutes of continuous talking with her that she wanted to spend some more time talking to him in private. It was only then his so wise mind triggered his cells of attentiveness.
They drove to a smorgasbord of different food courts at the flea market after an hour long journey. The place will be remembered by Aryan for the rest of his life for two primary reasons, one was it being his first visit with his leman and the second; he made a renouncement of non-vegetarian diet. When he placed an ordered for the fried chicken she ratified but it all started when Aryan went to feed on it. He was disconcerted by the mein of Kalki, it made a huge impact on his choice of being a non-vegetarian. Aryan looked slightly abashed on giving her hard times as she devoured on her comestibles impelling him to make a choice.
They spent less time at the place than they had planned for. It was already 14:00 hrs by then and they had to go like the clappers to be on time for the movie. Kalki had reserved tickets for both of them, she hid the fact from him to tread the boards. Aryan knew she made plans on his arrival and Kalki knew that Aryan knows the fact that she had something in store for him. In the interim both of them were setting standards for themselves exploiting superlative thespianism.
Theywere seated next to each other at the table.It left no way out even for a momentary look. He haven’t yet seen her face then and he hoped to get glimpse of her face at the cinemas, Mama wish me luck He said to himself. They were seated in their cosy seats inside the hall to the top left corner in the highest level of mezzanine. “A paradise,”Aryan spoke in a hushed tone, “What,”Kalki enquired. “Never mind!” he said. He couldn’t wait a minute long and made an abrupt turn to right to look at her but it was dead dark inside the hall. Aryan wasn’t disappointed, in contrast he deemed fluky to have his girlfriend with a golden white complexion. There are perks of having your girlfriend being snow he said dabbing his heart. He was in the seventh heaven when caught a sight of her in the gleam of silver screen.
Forty five minutes of time had already flown by, Forty five minutes more Aryan thought after a furtive look over his cell phone. “I want to kiss you,” he spilled his guts. She remained silent, unreciprocated and Aryan continued, “You look stunning, especially with this dress on you. My goodness! You bowl me over darling and I don’t want to miss to kiss you on our first meet,” he uncloaked his wish making it as plain as pikestaff.
“You fizzled out my thoughts. So, dear beau, it’s up to you,” she sent a nuance and went untalkative.
What does her statement mean? Aryan began to weigh up, is she inviting me or is that an indication to shut the fuck up? What if I take her for granted and proceed?
“You know what? I need you to voice out your answer”, he said nonchalantly, “You better tell me. I reckon it is good to ask a girl what she likes rather than proceeding with the instincts that actually saves from being a prosaic”, he said.
“Uh-huh,” Her outer edge of the eyebrows rose; inner edge of them met at the point above the bridge of the nose in the procerus region, giving an impression of a unibrow, how cute you are Aryan made a voluptuary comment in an undertone. Kalki glanced at her wrist watch masticating a gum leisurely and continued, “We just have forty minutes more before we get outta here,” she said.
He suspended himself from being in two minds and made progress moving his hand across her back. He grabbed her waist and budged her close to his chest. He adjusted to his comfort while lowering himself down. That was the first time he was contended to experience a perceptible touch of a girl but that was not the first time he touched a girl, that’s to say, he had no feelings or his heart was indifferent and it made no complaints when he abutted Saryu, Pooja or Mruna for that matter. It was unlike any of the erstwhile bounds, he was in veracious contentment and when he touched her, it jettisoned a load of forlorn he carried since the demise of Dayanand. The touch flushed the dismal spirits out of his heart. His lower chin brushed her left cheek, he displaced his lips on to the left eye, and he breathed the redolence of her ringletted hair. He pecked on the eyelid and rapped his tongued over the eyelash. He then moved down to her lips, she breathed heavily and he too, they both felt the wisps of breathes. He paused and wedged his lips into the teeth, she remained cold with her eyes closed, he whisked to her lips and flinched slightly but then he began to trail his tongue over the curves of her mouth; after a lap of his trail, he aligned the corner of his lips with hers and kissed. He pressed hard with time, she remained tacit. A few seconds passed and she grabbed hold of his neck; wrapped her arms around running her fingers through his frizzled hair and they were snogging for minutes. It occurred to Kalki that the gum had already wafted into Aryan’s bazoo.
Power and Pelf 