CHAPTER 3: UNPLANNED
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Even though I’m not a fan of the Beatles, I do remember a song written by their front-man. One line stood out to me in particular;
“Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
Come to think of it, life is full of certain constants and variables. The constants remain, but the variables bring a change to the stagnation of life. I think it would be safe to say that Violet was my variable, and she was the biggest darn variable I had experienced.
August 28th, 2016. It had been almost three weeks after I had cut off all contact with Violet. I had continued with the same dreadful routine I was familiar with. Unbeknownst to me, that day had something in store for me, which would completely change my life.
It was pretty late in the evening, and I had to stay back in school for some research work. Upon completion, I started making my way to the school gate. As I approached it, a familiar voice greeted me from behind.
“You look good in a uniform,” the voice remarked. I recognised it immediately, as a I slowly turned around to face it. There stood Violet, perfect as the day when I first saw her. To my surprise, she shot a smile towards me.
“Violet? What… What are you doing here?” I asked, with utter confusion on my face.
She replied, “I came to look for a pot of gold. What do you think? To see you, silly!”
Before she could continue, I wanted to apologise for shutting her out, even though I knew that it would not suffice.
“But I- look, I want to say that-” she interrupted me by putting a finger over my lips.
“Shh! Stop talking! We have to move or else we’ll miss it,” she replied.
“Miss what?” I asked.
“You’ll see. Now follow me!” said Violet, as she started to lead the way.
We walked without uttering a single word. She kept a fast pace, and I found it difficult at times to keep up with her. Not wanting to waste any time, Violet took us through a lot of dark alleyways and shortcuts. I thought that she was definitely taking me to some place secluded to murder me. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame her if she did take me to some graveyard and decided to beat the living daylight out of me. I was the one who cut her off after all.
To my relief, she didn’t take me to a graveyard. Instead, she brought me to the local park.
“The park? Why have you brought me here? I asked. What was she planning?
“Just a bit further now, Hurry!” Violet replied. She began to jog, as I was caught off-guard by her agility. We began climbing a small uphill path, located at the edge of the park. As we continued climbing, her excitement to show what she had planned started becoming more obvious.
After around five minutes of uphill jogging, we reached our destination. I looked at her, completely out of breath, while she seemed to be perfectly alright. I spoke, “Why- why are we here? What’d ya want to show me?”
Violet replied, “Don’t look at me! Look over there.” She pointed to her left. I turned my head to see the sight that awaited us.
It was a sunset, but not the ordinary kind. The huge glowing ball of heat had caused the sky to turn into a dark amber. The city was engulfed by this hue, as the dull concrete buildings and glass skyscraper were infused with the light. The clouds too were scattered in the sky, like carefully placed balls of cotton. A calm washed over the both of us, as she took a seat on the ground. I sat down beside her, on the cold cobblestone floor.
“Beautiful. Isn’t it?” Violet asked, her voice becoming softer than usual.
“Mhm-” was all I could say, being overwhelmed by the sight.
“I come here whenever life does what its good at, and tries to beat me to the ground,” she spoke. Clearly, she knew that I was going through something.
Not wanting to prolong it any further, I blurted out my apology, “Violet, look. I’m sorry I didn’t call you for the past few days. Its just that I was going through something.” I hoped that I would not have to elaborate any further.
“I figured you were. You wanna know why I brought you to this place? It’s because this place? It’s special to me. You’re the first person I’ve brought here, and I wanted to share this secret hideout of mine with you,” Violet said, as she turned to face me.
Perplexed, I asked, “But- but, why?”
“Because I want you to know that you are not alone. Look, whatever happens to you, no matter how insignificant, or how stupid it is. Heck, even if it feels like the world is against you. Talk to me. Okay Robin? Tell me about it,” she said, as her enchanting eyes looked straight into mine.
“I won’t mind,” she continued, while shooting that same infectious smile at me. “Aaaand… I will do the same with you,” she held her finger out.
“Pinky truce?” she asked.
At this point, I was trying my best not to let the tears roll. Thankfully, it was getting darker, so she could not see my watery eyes.
I held her finger with mine and said, “Pinky truce.”
“Good! Now its official, Robin Hastings,” she declared, while turning to face the sun. I did the same, as we sat in silence.
The VOID that had plagued my chest started to fade away. Instead, it was replace by an emptiness, not the nihilistic kind, but the peaceful sort. Here I was, sitting next to this girl. One who had gone out of her way to wait for hours outside my school, and take me to one of her secret places, and for what? Just to let me know that I could talk to her. She wasn’t angry, or upset that I cut her off. She came back to me! Was she crazy?
That was the moment when I started to fall into a rabbithole, out of which I could not find my way out. The sunset marked the end of day, but something new had started. That was the moment where I wanted this variable I experienced to be my constant forever. That was the moment when, I fell for Violet Andrews.
