My Best Friend and I

Listening to Johny Watson's "Gangster of Love", Anna and I cruised the highway on a perfect cloudless day in a silky silver mitsubishi-lancer.The teasing wind in our faces kept our sun-kissed skin cool as we laughed at the good old days that were now only memories which we held onto so tightly with golden silk threads. Right from making our first crank call together in 10th standard to spending blissfull evenings in crowded coffee shops , we had been together for 12 long years.

We drove through the wilderness, feeling nostalgic and awakening slumbering memories
of fun and happiness that coloured our experiences of gentler times.Gentler, for those were the days which were spent in the innocence of a carefree attitude and a simple trust that we would be together forever.

We turned off the highway and into a tree-lined street searching for a restaurant tucked in the middle of the lovely picture-perfect countryside.We parked under a tree where the temperature dropped a few pleasant degrees and walked through a boisterous flower garden that led to the river.

We sat with our backs to the entire world.We looked at the river racing over the pebbles and the shadow of the trees dancing on the rippling water. The bright sun peirced its way through the canopy formed by the lush green trees and added a sparkle to the bright yellow flowers on the river bed. In the midst of this irenic retreat, we celebrated my friends new teaching position at a prestigious university.

Over a bottle of white wine, a salad of wild and garden greens, raspberry vinaigrette and pine nuts,we made most of the precious hours that remained before my friend and my soul mate would catch a flight that was going to take her approximately 10,000 miles away from me.

The summer breeze rustled through the trees as we fixed our eyes on the sand circles i was forming with a small twig.Oblivious of the irenic surroundings we were both lost in a maze of thoughts that both of us had avoided for the past few days. Thoughts that loomed in front of us the million unimagined possibilities of the future we could not see.The threads were going to snap and things were never going to be the same again. We were about to step out of the magical home we had made for ourselves into the mad world. We were about to part ways and walk on separate roads knowing very well that we would never be able to fill in the void in each others lives.

Done with the wine and the 30 minutes of quiet contemplation, we drove back to my home. As i got out of the car, i swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to stop the little tears that trickled down my cheeks. I shut the car door and tried to smile as i stared at Anna long and hard, hoping against hope that our paths would cross and we could re-live our innocent days all over again.

I always look for signs...signs that will tell me the answers to future questions ...those questions for which i cannot wait untill the future happens and answers itself.
I look for the tiniest of signs like for instance there is this demo that happened today and will be graded tomorrow...and as usual i cannot wait till tomorrow...so i start looking for signs...if i open the book in my hand and the page on the right side has an even page number, then the grades will be good else bad. If i look at my cell phone this instant and the the time shows and even digit number then my wish will come true. If i see at least 3 people wearing plain red t-shirts , then my guess about the person in yesterday's party is right and so it goes on untill i cant stop this sign searching activity and i go on and on untill my head starts spinning like a top.

Why do i wanna know about the future ? why cant i wait n watch ?