I woke up early next morning. I had to catch a train at 6 a.m. back to Lanjigarh. With red eyes, a painful head and strained neck, I went to the washroom to refresh myself. Splashing water into my eyes, I still couldn’t shake off the images of last night. I had been sleeping and waking up intermittently; checking the mobile and thinking and then dreaming, all this happening in motley, during the course of the night.

She appeared with her baby-face, smiling…when I touched her she vanished, and then reappeared again. Sush waved my jacket. It smelled of me. Next, she guided her bare arms seductively through them. Raising her eyebrows, she pinched herself close to her heart. Plucking at the jacket, she offered me to take it back. I extended my hand in half-hearted reception.

“Take me…” she said, with tears swelling in her eyes and vapored into thin air, making the jacket fall abruptly to the ground. I lifted it off the cold ground and held it close to my face. Her warmth was still there. I breathed in. It smelled of us now; our body fragrances had blended to perfection.

There was a tinkling in my ears. I rushed to check my mobile phone. It wasn’t the message tone but the water against the eardrum doing the trick.

I thumped my left foot on the floor, jerking my head sideways.

“Is everything ok?” asked my cousin sister, concerned.

“Yeah,” I said sadly, hiding my face in the towel.

***

My sister and brother-in-law waved me goodbye and asked me to visit soon. I gave them a thumbs-up and grinned. The train had picked up speed and I seated myself comfortably in the side-upper berth. It is the best. I always check it as my first option while booking a rail ticket. Speaking of checking, I had checked my mobile for the umpteenth time now.

“Still no message from Sush,” I thought, fisting my hand frustrated. I am a proud beast and I don’t text a successive message till I get a reply to the former. It’s against my ego. I would wait for a complete day for her to reply, I decided. 22^nd November, we still have 3 more days to make peace, I assured myself.

“Excuse me! Which would be seat number 4? The upper berth or the lower berth?” he asked panting for breath.

I cast a glance at a balding, thick-spectacled guy with disoriented teeth. From the elevation, I could see his huge forehead shimmering with sweat droplets. Just below, were 4 excited eyes looking at me through different angles. He had a squinted eye. As I examined his facial features, he sealed his lips to hide his teeth.

“The lower one,” I replied courteously. I didn’t know where to look while addressing him. I climbed down my berth to help him with his baggage. But to be very honest, I offered help out of the guilt of making him self-conscious. I readily offered to lift and put his heavy suitcase in the place underneath his seat. Once we were done, both of us sat down with a loud thud. A breast-feeding mother seated in front of us, eyed her disapproval. Her baby had let go off the nipple and started wailing, to everyone’s discomfort.

“Man! What are you carrying in it?” I asked in a low voice, soothing my already corned hand.

“That has my books in it,” he replied shortly. He took out his soiled handkerchief and patted it against his head. I on the other hand tried to communicate a sorry to the lady in front.

To be continued…