The GOLD Smith

    5.30 a.m, the smell of fresh earth surrounded her. It had been a stormy night but she slept through it like a baby. Not once did she stir. Now as she lay there on her bed, the only light emanating from her Tablet, reading the messages with one eye open. She knew what was coming next. Expected yet unexpected. She seemed calm on the outside. She said not a single word nor shed a single tear. Just read the alphabets on the screen put it aside and turned to her side. Yet inside her the wind billowed sweeping away with it everything that came in its path.
   Jamie's life was never an easy one. It was always a stormy sea, but she always sailed through the raging waters. For the first time in her life she felt the fear of being shipwrecked. The fear of being isolated from the only reality she knew... Mikhael. Jamie had met Mikhael at one of those charity balls that happened every year before Christmas. A ball where she was hired to sing, while the guests danced. She had heard the manager give instructions to his crew to take special care of a certain Mikhael Smith. All she heard for the rest of the evening were the praises of Mr. Smith, most of which came from the tongues of the womenfolk in the hall.
    Mr. Smith was apparently a man who was the sole heir to a large fortune and each bachelorette wanted him for herself. He was a celebrity even before he entered. When he finally did enter and Jamie set eyes on him her heart felt jolts of sparks. He was the handsomest man she had ever laid eyes on. Brown eyes, curly hair and a wheatish complexion. He was an American citizen but definitely not of an American origin. Women fluttered around him like  butterflies but he either seemed to busy to notice or honestly didn't care.
       Everyone waited for him to come to the dance floor but he didn't. He just sat sipping his soda (for he didn't drink alcohol) and watched with a keen eye the lady singing on stage. Jamie's shift for the night ended and her replacement was ready to hog the limelight. Jamie walked down to the back of the hall where she kept her regular attire. She had to get out of the dress that belonged to the club at which she worked, but the zip wouldn't budge. In her struggle she hadn't heard someone walk up to her. A large hand yanked the zip half way and stopped.  Jamie jumped out of fear and anger to face the miscreant. But what she saw made her stumble and she had to be steadied by those large, warm hands.
  "I.... I'm sorry..."
   He chuckled, the deep throaty voice, "Actually I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."
    "It's ok. Please don't apologise."
     He chuckled again closing the distance between the two. He bent forward so that she felt his breath on her bare shoulders, "I just came to compliment you. You sing beautifully." He grazed his hand ever so lightly on her collar bone.
Jamie held her breath, her eyelids tightly shut. She heard him chuckle again and when she opened her eyes he was gone.
    "Was this a figment of my imagination. Whatever that was it was creepy."
    She changed into her jeans and t-shirt and made a dash to the bus stop. The clouds loomed in the sky threateningly. Call it her bad luck or call it fate she had missed the last bus on that route. She decided to walk to a friends house as there was no way she male it to her apartment (an hours drive by the bus) and she didn't earn enough to afford a cab. She had barely walked twenty steps than the downpour began. Jamie made a dash for a shed across the road but as she did a car screeched to a halt a few millimetres away from her. The chauffeur jumped out immediately and began hurling curses at her.
    "I'm really sorry. I know it's my fault...."
    "You really love apologising don't you."
    Jamie turned to face Mikhael. She didn't know what to say. But she didn't need to.
    "Allow me drop you home."
    "I...." she hesitated.
    "Get in, it's raining pretty heavy. "
    She obeyed his command as if by magic.
    Her white t-shirt now dripping with rain water and transparent clung to her body.
    She was cold and awkward. Not a person who could comfortably engage in small talk
    "Where do you want to go?" He asked.
    "I don't know."
    " Para la mansión" he barked at the driver who suddenly swerved the car into an alley and back to a wider and apparently richer neighbourhood.
    He came to a halt outside a huge mansion in an affluent uptown locality. The car drove into an underground parking. Mikhael jumped out of his seat and went around to where Jamie sat. He opened the door and with a firm grip on her arm pulled her out and dragged her to the elevator. She was pale her lips blue with the cold and she was shivering. Her legs couldn't carry her anymore and she sank to the floor. Mikhael effortlessly swooped her into his arms and took her to the room on the second floor. He laid her down on the couch while he started up a fire in the fireplace.
    Jamie needed to get out of her wet clothes, he patted her cheeks in an attempt to revive her. She didn't budge he knew what he had to do next. He lifted her shirt up and over her head making no effort whatsoever to look away. He did the same with her jeans. Laying them near the fire to dry. He lifted her holding her close to himself and lay her on the bed. She was cold and shivering. He covered her with a soft blanket that lay at the foot of the bed, and made his way to the bathroom.
    He turned on the hot water faucet and stood under the shower.              "She's so beautiful." He thought to himself."
    If it was any other woman I wouldn't have held back, but something about her makes me yearn for her not physically. It seems like my soul beckons to be united with hers. Darn it what spiritual nonsense am I rambling."
    He turned off the shower, slipped into his boxer and walked into the room. Slipping inside the blanket besides Jamie. Just then she stirred and unconsciously moved closer to Mikhael. Her palm on his chest. Mikhael couldn't hold back anymore. He moved in and kissed her. His hands in her hair and on her back. He crushed her to himself. There was no space on her body that he left unexplored.
                                          *-*-*
    Jamie awoke the next morning.  It was still dark outside the pitter patter of the rain still occasionally heard. She wasn't in her own apartment. She stirred and saw her clothes near the fireplace.  The events of the previous night came flashing before her eyes. A sense of fear crept in. She checked her tab for the time and saw she had one new message. She opened it.
"Hey Jamie, it's me Mikhael. I'm sorry about whatever happened last night. I had an important meeting had to leave for California. I shall be back soon. Take care. M.S."
She knew what was coming next. Expected yet unexpected. She seemed calm on the outside. She said not a single word nor shed a single tear. Just read the alphabets on the screen put it aside and turned to her side. Yet inside her the wind billowed sweeping away with it everything that came in its path.
Jamie hurried out of bed. Her body still ached with whatever had transpired. She had to get away from him. Leave and go where? Anywhere he couldn't find her. He won't even remember, why do I need to run? Is it him, or am I scared of myself. Her phone rang. It was him.
"Hello..." it was his voice.
Just then there was a sound of car tyres screeching and a loud bang after which the phone went dead.

                                       
    "Jamie... Jamie? ... Jamie!..."

    The driver jumped out of the car, "You stupid female, can't you look where you're walking?"
    The woman lay there unresponsive.
    "Oh my f***ing god, don't die on me. C'mon lady get up!"
    Still nothing.
    The driver carefully scooped her off the road and put the bleeding woman in the backseat of his car. He started his engine and zipped past the slow moving vehicles leaving he dust billowing behind his car, making a stray dress or two fly up to reveal a few underclothes. However he was too preoccupied saving the lady he almost killed to even notice such otherwise pleasurable moments.
    "Please I need some help here!"
    Almost in a jiffy a team of doctors had the woman on a stretcher and were rushing her to the emergency room, while one of the staff members had the police come over.
   "It was an accident.... She walked right onto the busy street.... It wasn't my fault! No I can't wait till she regains consciousness. Today is the final hearing of my divorce in the courthouse and I'm already late..."
    He tried everything possible but they weren't letting him loose that easy.
    "How do you know Ms. Jamie?"
    "Jamie?" He laughed, a self mocking laugh, "What a white trash name. "

   

(Stay tuned for part 3 to find out what happened next)

Transmutation

"Like bees are to roses,
Clouds are to trees,
A learned man to knowledge,
The world was to me"

Attracted to flames,
To burn and singe,
Yet return to the flame,
In pain then cringe.

Each raining blow,
Stung on her back,
Left swollen dunes,
Blue and black.

"Like bees are to roses,
Clouds are to trees,
A learned man to knowledge,
The world was to me"

Curiosity beckoned,
Havoc it wreaked,
The little hope,
Slowly bleaked.

Then at daybreak,
A new light unfurled,
Sat smiling upon my windowsill,
Comfortably curled.

And I let go my inhibition,
Unfolded my pinion bright,
Flew towards a different radiance,
A remedying light.

"Like bees are to roses,
Clouds are to trees,
A learned man to knowledge,
The world is to me."

The Tryst

They parted ways without so much  than even a goodbye and never thought much about it. It was normal for her. They frequently shifted apartments. For him too it wasn't a big deal after-all she meant nothing to him. Teenage crushes are like the wind they come and the next minute they are gone. Days, weeks, months, years passed each was to the other a faint remembrance... one that would bring a smile to their faces but that was about it. They never tried to find out the whereabouts of the other, even if they did it was as a matter of good mannerisms (or so they thought)

"She's mean and thinks too much of herself. Look at all that attitude."

This had been her case ever since childhood. Samaira was the most complex girl one could come across. The more frightened she was on the inside the bolder front she put up on the outside. To be honest she was always scared. Scared that if she gave in she would not be accepted as a woman of substance, she wouldn't be liked anymore, she'd become a loner. It was just once that she had someone defend her and it had been none other than Vishnu. 

Vishnu and Samaira were neighbours. Two totally different individuals. While he was more stable and sensible. She was outright crazy. They never expected to meet or speak to each other after they parted ways on the crossroads of life. But as fated their souls were intertwined. 

Ten years and a lot of nonsense later they crossed paths again. Things weren't the same. Samaira wasn't the same innocent girl Vishnu knew. She was different. She had fallen in and out of relationships. So much so that to the world she was just like any other small town good girl gone bad. Vishnu felt the same about her too. People had seen her external arrogance, her loud behaviour, but no one looked at the frightened child that hid behind this facade. She was in no mood to expose herself either.

So thank god for social networking, they "connected" again. 

"One new notification. Hoga koi stupid candy crush request." she complained. "Oooo what do we have here, one friend request... Vishnu... oh my god... the boy next door... it can't be him. He won't even remember me."

Click click...

And a few clicks later he was on her friend list.

"Oh my god, he's online too."

Furiously typing...

I'm sorry I'm unable to recollect but you're the same guy from across the street right? Veena's brother!?

"What kinda stupid question am I asking him!!" she spoke aloud and smacked her head. "Ooo he's typing..."

So with this things began. They were "friends". Well everyone on your Facebook account is your friend... so yeah... friends!!

Then Samaira was told that Vishnu is leaving for a foreign university. And it really didn't matter. Apart from the fact that a certain part of her heart singed with despair... but that had nothing to do with the boy.

Samaira had always aspired to leave India. Never return. Just run away to a far off place where no one knew her. Start afresh. But she always had this precious possession locked away in a heavy trunk at the bottom of the sea. Maybe this little event had a significance in both their life's... but it was too early to tell...!!

"Hey I'm in your city. My train departs in five hours. Can we meet up for coffee or something?" Vishnu's voice was soft yet husky over the phone. A voice she always imagined the heroes of her romantic novels to have. However this was something she failed to notice. She just couldn't believe he wanted to meet her.

"Maybe he doesn't know... he hasn't heard about it just yet." Samaira was not the kind to keep things from friends... but she never told them right away. Neither did she tell everyone, just those she thought were too important to let go...

"Hey it's a Sunday you know. I'm not granted permission to leave home. I'm really sorry. As much as I'd love to meet you after all these years I'll have to say some other day..." 

The conversation that followed seemed a mere formality.

So before they knew it he was miles away in college and she was finishing her first year Masters degree...! He sent her photographs of the university at which he had enrolled and the longing within her grew... but she knew her dreams would just remain dreams. She could just aspire and leave it at that...

Days changed to months and something else changed too. He was the first person to noicelessly break through her shell and bump headlong into the real her. His opinion of her changed. Naive as she was she never really noticed anything all along till he revealed it to her months later.

"Why don't you apply for a PhD here too?" She jarred at hearing him speaking her mind out loud.

She had been thinking about the same just a minute before he suggested this...

"Prying into your head it seems.." he said after she had remained silent for way too long. She heard the mischief in his voice. She giggled nervously. 

"Thief" she playfully accused.

They both laughed.

"So Magic Realism.... hmmmm... aren't we also something like the term... we're an oxymoron..." she mused "we're so different yet we make perfect sense when we're together. On my own I'm such an idiot." She giggled while speaking to her reflection in the mirror.

"Darn it I'm late for class.." she rushed through her toiletries and ran to make it in time for her bus.

          

To he continued...!!

 

Wanderlust

In the still of the night,
The partial loss of sight,
Her journey begins.

Afar, afar!!
Far from the hullabaloo,
Deaf to the sorrowful wails,
Blind to the pitiful sight,
Dumb is the acidic tongue.
She travels to Paradise.

Where no night falls,
No dangers await,
No love is lost,
A blissful state.

In the still of the night,
The partial loss of sight,
Her journey begins.

Alight on angels wings,
Away she flies,
To a place boundless by time,
Undivided by barriers and walls,
Where the threads of her heart,
Remain unbound.

No fetters tie her down,
No hurt, no pain,
No superficial joy,
Just promises that remain.

In the still of the night,
The partial loss of sight,
Her journey begins.

Loss

The sublime, serene hillock,
Dotted with the magnificent pine,
The essence of which can't be found elsewhere,
An aura so divine.

The pendent frosty pine needles,
On the towering tree,
Something the human hand can't recreate,
But only his eye perceive.

Its boughs saddled with snow,
Burdened with an external weight,
yet it did not snap or break,
A tale of endurance, narrates.

But one fine morning,
I reached the spot,
Where the towering pine once stood tall
Methought I saw it not

It no longer welcomed me
With its conifer laden arms
I mourned the loss of a smiling friend
Who won me over with his scented charms.

I knew what I had lost,
What others had lost too,
As I imagined my friend in a river afloat,
With the ripples it bobbled and tossed.

A concept called LOVE

LOVE...
A concept that varies from man to woman.

For a man:

Such a fair dame,
Maketh me wonder,
What'll be her name?

Rebecca, Madonna, perhaps Cinderella?
Oh, such a beauty,
She may even be Isabella.

She's simple and pure,
Shy yet cautious,
Hence not easy to lure.

Untouched by another,
She trusts easily,
She's just like her mother.

Beauteous yet no pride,
Modestly dressed,
Bosom, arms and legs she hides.

A perfect bride,
Fitting to my stature,
Oh love! Now you can preside.

For a woman:

My mother is unwell,
She doesn't express it,
But I can tell.

My father has problems at work,
He doesn't show it,
But the eerie tension lurks.

My brother is sad,
His studies are lagging,
But I know he's not doing that bad.

My lover is at the gate,
He's anxious. He proposed,
My answer he awaits.

My husband is home,
He got the sack,
I can't for a moment leave him alone.

My hungry babe awakes,
I'm tired, its late in the night,
Yet I cry hearing his shrill wails.

I love not myself,
But those around me,
For they are my life,
It is for them that I'm alive.

The streets

Upon the street,
Their fortunes lie.
Thats where they live,
Thats where they die.
Thats where they laugh,
thats where they cry.

Upon the streets,
their fortunes lie.
Its there they spend,
Their entire life.
Through peace,through calm,
Through war, through strife.

Upon the streets,
Their fortunes lie.
With arms outstretched,
For alms they cry.
Their tongues are sharp,
They needn't act coy.

Upon the streets,
Their fortunes lie
The world uncaring,
Years just passing by.
Raise their stature in society?
No one will try.

Upon the streets,
Their fortunes lie.
Thats where they have lived,
Thats where they will die.