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PULLING FORCE

Encounter part 2

ANDREE:

As I stepped outside the event room, whilst taking off my brown polo and just leaving the inner white shirt on, which I used to wear during my high school days, I noticed the hotel garden in my perepheral view, making me look towards its direction and to my surprise, it seemed more beautiful than it was when I first saw it.

I decided to have a tour inside the garden out of curiosity. I sent my friends a message via group chat, just to let them know that I would not be joining them anytime soon. I told them that I would stay in the garden for the meantime; they replied with a "thumbs up emote", a sign which meant "go ahead, do whatever you want. You're a grown-up adult already!"

After knowing that they were OK with it, and seemed like they were enjoying themselves, I hid my phone in my pocket and started approaching the garden.

It felt weird, I was feeling something of a mixed emotion, it felt like I was drawn to that place, the garden, to be specific.

What I felt that time while I was approaching was comparable to what I felt back during high school days when it was already my turn to come up the stage and perform my story telling act, unscripted and unprepared, but since I knew that I could give them a good act, I also have the feeling of excitement. I can not describe it in one word. I was anxious and, at the same time, overwhelmed with positive vibes.

While I was heading towards the garden, my heart was already beating faster. I felt so much happiness within, and it grew more and more while getting closer to it.

The moment my foot landed on the pavement, the excitement and gladness that I felt grew to a greater extent.

The feeling seemed familiar. This time it was not like I was on stage performing for the crowd with an unmemorized script. That time I could not recall where or when I had felt such kind of feeling before. It was an overpowering emotion that could make you forget your name.

I kept walking around, admiring the beauty of the garden, the welcoming ambiance of the place, it made me lay down on one of the benches I happened to find. At that very moment, I could not resist giving in to the relaxing mood to the extent that I ignored the thought of people or any of the security staff seeing me loitering around and worse, lying around in a place not intended for it.

Captivated by the garden's beauty, I closed my eyes and breathed the fresh air it was offering me. Partly, the reason for that breath-in and breathe-out thing that I did was because I felt a bit of shortness in breathing, my heart seemed to be throbbing in gladness, It was just like knowing that your crush was sitting beside you because he or she was your science lab partner and that your crush was trying to have a conversation with you by discussing on what to write down on the conclusion part of your experiment paper. That was the feeling I felt that time!

I made myself comfortable on the bench, so, I closed my eyes after I got the perfect and comfortable stance on the bench which I decided to lie down on. Surprisingly, it was indeed a comfortable piece of wood. I was enjoying the moment. Then suddenly,

“Oh, I guess someone wants to be alone.” I heard somebody say.

I immediately opened my eyes and tried to get up. I was expecting to see one of my batchmates, but instead, I saw a lady standing beside me and giving me a very sweet smile. She was stunning in her casual evening dress.

After seeing her, I kept quiet for a while on account of the fact that her beauty had struck me, but it felt odd, something seemed nostalgic, and I felt like there was something familiar about her, at the same moment I am trying hard to recall her.

I felt the feeling of familiarity, but I was certain that we were not acquaintances.

I tried to shake off the weird feeling and just assumed that she was one of the guests from another event being held in one of the event halls in the resort, since she was in evening dress.

I had the invitation for the class reunion inside my pocket. I took it and checked the dress code indicated there. We were told to wear casual attire. So, by that moment, I was sure she was not among the attendees of the event that I attended.

I looked towards her, and tried to be polite, while at the same time unsure why we were having a conversation,

I replied with " [chuckles awkwardly] Same with you. How did you find this place? ”

“It’s pretty, right? She answered me back.

“You bet!” I said, hoping that it would end the small talk.

“Leaving the party so soon?” she asked “Why are you in the garden, Noir?” she added.

“Huh? Sorry? ” It took me a while, but I managed to answer back. As astonished as I was, I felt that I was caught off guard. I was trying my hardest not to let her know that I was surprised.

I was hiding the fact that I was in a panic because of the name “Noir”.

After hearing her mention that name, I felt quite nervous because she addressed me using a name which holds a million secrets and was already buried in the past.

I tried to process what was happening right there. I was sure that all my classmates called me “En or Andree”. The rest of the school called me by my last name and "Noir" was a secret pen name, an extremely secret one, and I am more than a hundred percent sure it was not used irresponsibly. The worst was, I cannot even recall having her as part of our exclusive school club.

During my high school days, I used to write short stories, poems or articles for the school paper, but I used "En or Andree" as a pen name if I wanted them to know that a certain article was mine and I used "Noir" only when my identity needed to be kept as a secret. I seldom use it. I was certain that this lady was not one of those who knew it. She was not even one of my club colleagues nor one of the selected few who knew it. She was not even a classmate.

I tried to act normal and answered her query, “I am not sure, maybe because of the beauty of this place that I couldn’t resist admiring and just being here makes me somewhat happy and relaxed.”

“You and your romantic nature,” she said, giving me a sweet smile.

I became more confused; a lot was going on in my mind at that moment.

“Was she a scam? Phishing for information about me? She was too friendly for a stranger, right?” I asked myself. “Was she trying to befriend me and eventually take my stuff and declare a holdup?” I added.

I totally do not know her, but I just acted normal and pretended that I was not disturbed by the fact that I sensed something off about her presence.

I tried to go with the flow of our conversation, but I was not letting my guard down, no matter how hypnotizing her beauty was and may appear as a harmless maiden. At the back of my mind, there might be other accomplices hiding behind the bushes or the trees, but on a second thought, the place was highly guarded, it seemed a fully secured place; you cannot even pass through the gate without any tag or pass.

Who knows? There are bad people who were good at getting away with the security. I tried to stay calm as I stood up to move farther from her. Although I already thought of just leaving her behind, I was held back by the fact that it was not a gentleman’s way.

Anyway, I was just speculating that she would declare a holdup anytime, but you cannot blame me. I thought I should at least try to accompany her until she decided to go back to the event where she came from. I took several steps away from her. I was planning to offer to walk her to her event area, but she already stood up as well and followed me. I made sure we were strolling along the lighted posts, to avoid any harm to me or to her and to avoid mosquitos as well.

I tried to reach out to the light post that I happened to pass by earlier before we met. There was something odd. I noticed that I was 2 to 3 feet shorter than the light pole. Earlier it was only a foot shorter. It seemed like I shrank.

I tried to go from one pole to another to make the measurement, just far enough for me to still be able to monitor her. I thought maybe it was the effect of the alcohol I took at the party, it made me somehow tipsy. So, I just let it slide.