THE SCARLET WOMEN

Story 2 - Encounter

Thoughts had always been spoken through the language of eyes when no words could explain them. We were sitting by each other glaring in each other souls without saying much. I didn’t know where we were heading towards though boarding this train was my idea. He always had been such attractive as like today, or more attractive than other days. In that silence the rattling of the train was flawless.

The scene introduced me to ancient but still exquisite palaces towered incongruously over modern tenements, and then unexpectedly there would be a long stretch of waste ground with stubbly scorched grass and garish billboards. In this part of the world I could feel the air of mystery and land with great treasure still left to explore. People on the hanging bridges, the endless river beneath it roaring louder than every word I could scream, deeper like the ocean and I couldn’t guess how deeper it gets after mixing in it, glacier mountains as taller touching the clouds, overflowing stream through the heart of it –appeared briefly in our windows and were gone before I could do more than catch them on my film. The massive walls of tunnels through the most mountainous terrains, with the crumbling lights on the shattered walls I hardly could follow the scenes beneath it –I glimpsed them briefly, but not even the slightest imagination occurred about the idea of such masterwork. I always wished to see all the seven wonders of this world before I die. I wondered, among all the wonders of the world, I would have felt the same as now, both exhilarating and euphoric if my wish comes true in this short life. I didn’t know how he could read my mind and all hear those untold dreams. I remember, making myself quite determined, that I never did tell him about this wish to travel in this newly built railway track joining human faith with divine accomplishment. But he always found a way to fulfill them the best he could. Certainly and clearly, I was meant to be here with him, to fulfill this destiny. I believe I'll fly if I dare to fall; fall in love.

-Suddenly we were interrupted by the ticketing officer, 'Tickets please, he said looking at us'.

He then reached for his pocket and pulled out two of the tickets and showed it to him. 'Have a nice journey sir, ticket officer left by saying this to him and he just smiled back to him.

-Ah, I hope it doesn’t bother you to ask where we are heading towards, I asked him in a declining voice as I know he doesn’t like being questioned more often. 'Don’t worry, we are just moving to a place where nobody could recognize us, it just a few more hours from now, he said looking at me. 'I loved your idea of traveling by train, he said with a smile on his face.

It was Saturday evening around 7-8 pm. Outside it was cold and a light snowing as I could see through the windows of the train. I looked at him, busy with his mails, and works on his cell phone. Do you work all the time? I asked him calmly. He then stared at me & said nothing. A few minutes later he put his phone in the pocket.

-No, I just don’t work all the time, but I just don’t want to miss my schedules. I just went through all those junk & unread emails which I had missed to check yet. And I also don’t feel sure of talking to you and asking about your life, he said like as it was not being heard by me.

It's been long we have been doing this thing & still, you feel like you are meeting me for the first time, how could you possibly be so ignoble? He then just lowered his eyes not letting any word spoken through them. All those times we spent till now started becoming incomprehensible. And then he stood, came near me and sat beside me putting beside his hand over mine.

"Do you remember the day when we met for the first time?" –he asked me.

"Yeah…yeah…I do, more than anything else I could remember." I met him like a prostitute for the first time until I fell in love with him. I never thought that prostitutes ever could fall in love or are allowed to in their profession. I still remember him standing with a bouquet in his hand trembling enough to mark anxiety and fear in his eyes. It was his first time with people like me which I could easily say looking at his nervousness. Men with prostitutes are often polite for the first time. And they easily get rude after the climax.

Are you Mr. Christopher who called me? He immediately gave me his bouquet without any reply. 'Thank you', for such nice flowers Mr. Christopher, by the way, I'm Scarlet. Mention not Miss Scarlet, the smell of those flowers does not make much impression than the smell you wear. You really are something more than I was expecting to arrive. I hope I made something good of mine too. Well, are you hungry Miss Scarlet? he asked me. I could not imagine the moments I was going to spend with this man. He really made a strong impression with his hypnotizing voice and excellent looks. Oh yes, I'm feeling hungry too. That’s great, let me take you to the best place in town Miss Scarlet, he said and went for his watch. It was almost 11:00 pm on my watch.

We were at Hotel Oberoi within 11:30 where he already had booked a table and room for us. After you, he politely asked me to order for dinner. He started looking at the menu while I was still staring at him. I always have found men in a hurry like the whole world running after them. For them, we are not humans but just a toy of lust and desires. Prostitutes are always men's second desire when their first desire turns to sinful lust. What do you like to have for drinks Sirs, the waitress came to ask us. Ah, I'd like some champagne and risotto, he said looking at me. Oh, I'll have the same one too. After our drinks, we had our dinner which he already had ordered to be served in the best way they could serve to their customers. I knew he too was looking at me in a few moments of our dinner. We didn’t talk much but we had enough of it through our eyes. I was asking myself, is something going to happen or something already has happened above in the universe. Suddenly he stood up and came near to me asking for my hand to dance. I never could deny and I never wanted to spoil this moment. It never happened before in my long career with several clients from different lives. I could not believe I was really dancing to the tunes of his voice. When he put his arms around my waist and I put mine on his shoulder I felt like the whole time had stopped in those moments. I'm not a good dancer Miss Scarlet, he said smilingly. Oh, Mr. Christopher please do not worry, you're doing really good & I put my head on him. Nobody had ever asked me before for dance.

More than forgetting being just my client I was remembering him as my true admirer. Look at your beauty for God's sake; the divinity of your soul is speaking through it, and it could redeem every soul it touches -he said when I was standing naked in front of him.

For this time, I started undressing him in contrary to general rules followed by the prostitutes. He put his lips over me and I didn’t stop him though I never allow men to kiss me. I forget being pro and started being his lover. When you start loving something in someone, you never deny losing everything in them. Soon we surrendered ourselves in each other.

We often got flaked with the thought of a surreal view instead of getting by on our own identity.  Is it often because of our meekness or our other side of fear?  When the state of being congruent could not justify the individual's peculiarity, we call it dissociation or lack of proper association with the ongoing surrounding. Freedom of our individualism gets risked by a preponderance of conflicting thoughts around us. Then we come to realize the fact and importance of resolving the conflict with a better understanding of self but from other points of view.

What's plausible and implausible regarding the strength and weakness of individuals perceiving capability? Is it because we comprehend the same things differently considering the conclusion we derive from our distinct perception? Our consciousnesses are built with a combination of several factors which are incommensurable to human sanity. The homogeneous and heterogeneous groups are formed by the likes and dislikes of members within the group. Even such likes and dislikes are formed out of human perception built resembling characteristics of individuals within a group. I'm trying to find truth and humanity which is completely fabricated in this real world. The truth may illuminate in dark but you have to seek it there. Sometimes the truth isn't believable. That doesn’t mean it's not the truth.

-Ah Miss Scarlet did u say something? -he said breathing heavily.

-No Mr. Christopher I suppose I didn’t say anything but there are loudness and boldness of this moment speaking inside my head.  You must have felt it when you were inside me.

-O, that could be possible,' he nodded. It happened to me after a long time, he exclaimed.

-I believe this was your first time with prostitutes. I could feel it in your every move. And then I pressed back my head in his chest.

-"But you must- you, with your soul and beauty, tempt men to want you beyond their desires. I always have believed that this world's most beauty and innocence lies in the eyes of forsaken and forbidden. Oh, Scarlet, you are made for love, so you must love. His eyes were watching me beneath this mortal body and fingers pampering my hair off his soft touch.

I smiled at his soulful words and let myself more retreat into him. "How a man could be such kind to a prostitute who believed to be carrying no heart. How I could let myself fall in love when cursed fate has already denied me to know the meaning of it? We don’t love because we are not allowed to. The purity of love demands purity of soul which we already have sold it to the devil. Have you ever fallen in love, Mr. Christopher? I asked him like I was asking the same thing to myself.

"Yes, I did- he said with a huge sigh.

-I loved her more than I could, looking blankly in my eyes he plunged in thought for a few minutes.

-Do you like to smoke? -he lit the cigarette and stood beside the window watching the view of the dark and most silent roar of the ocean. I felt the depth of this same ocean in your eyes when I first saw you a few hours ago. It was the same feeling when I met her for the first time too,' he said just staring at the ocean.

For a few moments, I did not want to break the silence and just stood beside him sharing the smoke. I know that a man's silence after making love to a woman is much louder than the roar of the ocean and I wished we just could disappear in the depth of it.

-If you don’t mind you can share more of her with me- I said when we finished our first cigarette.

-Ah, Miss Scarlet, now it's all over and there's nothing left to say more about her.

-Anything else you would like me to do- I could not ask more.

-No, no, Miss Scarlet. You already have done much more than I was expecting of you.

He just went for his wallet and took out a picture of her. I just could not know how to react at that moment but I could not deny holding it and feeling like the picture speaking itself. There she was with him and a child in between them.

-This was one of the happiest moments of my life when we were together outing on the beach. She was my wife and my baby girl.

-I lost them both in an accident a few years back. My own life has become the despair of me, I don’t deserve to live and I don’t want too -he said with a deep exhalation. I could see his eyes getting wet without daring to cry in front of me.

-What? C'mon, Hey...Hey, …look at me, Mr. Christopher. I just hugged him and could not let him break in front of me. The moment became so emotional that I could not react normally seeming a man naked in his true emotions in front of me and I hold him so tightly that few of his tears were all over our bodies.

-I'm really very sorry to hear that Mr. Christopher. It really was a huge loss of which my sympathy would not be enough to console you. I never believed in God but if he really does exist I would pray for peace for their departed souls. We always were accused of apostasy and blasphemy but now I just don’t pray for you like a body of prostitute but like a soul of her.

-He just went for his coat's pocket and took out a pistol stumbling across his fingers. I became pretty scared. I just stood still and did nothing except staring at him. I was blank in my head and stiff in my body.

-Can you shoot? -he asked me holding my hand and putting the pistol in it.

-What? What are you asking Mr. Christopher? I got bemused by his question.

-Yes, Miss Scarlet. Yes, I don’t want to live anymore. And therefore I came to see you and beg you for my death, C'mon you can do it- he pleaded. I'd been to kill myself since that day but could not do it by myself. I beseech you to be my courage? Ye' just can have all of my money in my bank account as I already have signed a blank cheque in my pocket. And also a suicide note too. Ye' just can leave after my dead body and I assure you that nobody will come looking after you for my death. 'Death can never be more beautiful than this,' he was asking as like his last wish with all his heart out.

-No, Mr. Christopher. No, I can't shoot. I sell my body but not my soul.

He hugged me tightly and got more submissive than before. He dropped his pistol as his hands were shaking and not stronger enough to hold his death onto my hands.

-I carried him to the bed again. Mr. Christopher, I know how it feels to lose someone whom you loved more than your life. You told me your story but you don’t even know mine. If dying is the only solution of all these miseries then every life would be clueless about the reason for their existence. Death can never be beautiful if you cannot find beauty in your life.

-I never had told my story to anybody till now. But if you promise to start admiring the beauty of this life I'll tell you mine,' I started massaging his body and put myself above him. s*x is an art of appeasement; a catharsis that transcends human consciousness. It was the only drug I could give him now to settle his nerves. For a while he was apoplectic but soon he was ready for it.

-Ah…no, no don’t you just stop…let me die ceaselessly…let me die in your celestial beauty…Just let me die…die…

-Shhh!... Shhh!...don't talk,' just let yourself lose in me…I climbed onto his body like Bougainvillea.

He stopped listening and got completely lost like being sedated. I was 'bout to begin my story but I saved it for later. I never wanted him to be awake in reality again.