Our Story

Chapter 12

Next morning I woke up when the sun was already out of it’s horizon and saw Scott was already awake.

He greeted me and asked, "Good morning. How was your first night ? You must have missed your comfortable bed, huh ?"

And I replied stretching my back, "Umm! Not really. But my back is surely missing my bed. I guess."

And he laughed at my miserable condition.

Soon, the sun was about to come on the top of our heads and the road became busy. Those two counter ladies arrived at the hospital. They paused, spotting an i***t beside the main gates, who was leaving all his work waiting for an unknown girl, besides a blind beggar.

Ignoring me they stepped inside to do their work. I too didn’t mind them and kept my gaze on the gates doing my work, as we argued.

At noon I shifted myself against the hospital's boundary wall. Scott came, doing his acting of being blind and he also sat beside me.

Maybe he noticed my restlessness and couldn't resist himself from asking, "What important work are you doing while wasting your time here ? Don't you have any work to do or they threw you out ?"

I glanced at his face and again kept my eyes on the gates, replying to him, "Yeah, I work in an office but.. I don't know if I still have my job."

Firstly I answered his second question, as I decided to ignore his first question. But I didn't know why I told him at the end, "And I am not wasting my time, actually. I wanted to do my work properly but a girl is distracting me."

He replied, "Bah! Then you have to sit out of your office and protest."

Then I have to explain the whole matter and my whole situation to him. At the end he asked me, taking his glasses off and looking into my eyes. "You're saying that you are leaving your perfect job, your workshop and your comfortable life just because you need to talk to her and nothing else ?"

I nodded and said, "Yes."

"That's useless. Don't you think searching that one face here in so many faces is like searching a needle in the bushes." He unwillingly tried to demotivate me but still that didn't change my mind a bit.

"Maybe, but I have already lost many of my chances. And now I am not in a position to miss even a single chance. And The world survives on hope, doesn't it?" I said such a thing that day, which even I did not ever believe before.

"My boy! This hospital is so big and there are 4 gates. How can you be so sure that this is the right one?" He reminded me.

I replied," I don't know if it's the right one but it's the nearest one to the subway."

He kept silent for a while, thinking about something and at last motivated me with a little curved lips, saying, "You are right, it's all about hope. And I hope your efforts pay off soon."

Then looking at his face, I asked, thinking that maybe he knew something about her, "How long have you been here ?"

He replied, "For about two and a half years."

"Then maybe you've seen her." I asked him as a light of hope lit inside my heart.

"I have been acting like a blind for almost 30 months. I always keep my sight straight and actually sometimes I feel that I am really a blind." And he bitterly extinguished the light of hope inside my heart.

He disappointed me and again I shifted my gaze from him to the gates saying, "She's adorable. Whenever she comes here, she would have definitely helped you. She is just like that. She has a very pure and helping heart, and a beautiful innocent face. It can't happen that she passed beside someone and didn't gain any attention. She is a Pure beauty. If you have seen her once you would have definitely seen her twice or thrice or.... " While I was telling him about her I got lost in her and a huge unconscious smile was displaying on my face.

That fake blind man interrupted me and brought me back to the real world, snapping his fingers. He questioned me with a frown, "You just told me that you are just attracted to her ?"

Coming out of my lost world, I answered firmly, "Yes."

He shifted himself a little backward, scanning me properly and asked me again, "You are just attracted to her, huh?"

I said with confidence, "Yes, that's what I am saying." While I repeated my words I was completely obstinate on my point but the way he was staring at me made me doubtful of myself. And just to change the topic, I reminded him, "Hey! You can't stare at me like this. Don't forget you're blind."

"Oh! Yeah." He immediately wore his black glasses.

And I asked him about himself, "You are perfectly fine yet why are you begging? Why don't you work ?"

As I asked him, his lips straightened. He shifted his gaze from me and got lost deeply in thoughts.

Before I snapped my fingers in front of him and woke him, he broke his silence and said, "It's my persistence."

"Persistence!?" I repeated as I heard something strange from him.

Clearing his throat he said, "Yeah ! When I was healthy and young, I worked hard. Thinking that, I won't do anything at this age but just rest, so I am doing it."

I said, "What ? Isn't it crazy ?"

He smiled but couldn't control that tear streaking down from behind his black glasses and said, " That's what my kids used to call me. 'Crazy.' If they say so then I am."

And that made me confused, I asked him, "You have family ?"

He slowly nodded and smiled, "I have two healthy and handsome boys, actually. One was 16 and the other was 19 when I was with them."

I asked him, "And your wife ?"

"My beloved wife died while giving birth to my younger son." He replied.

I asked him again, "Why are you here then, I mean where are your sons ? You left them ?"

He said, controlling himself from crying, "They left me. No.. They threw me. Because I am a crazy man, you know."

"What !?" I asked with a shock as it wasn't acceptable for me.

And he told me about him , "I raised them in the absence of my wife. I did factory work, did cleaning, and site work. I did everything that a crazy father does for their loving kids. All because I hoped that one day when they will be grown up, they'll never let me do anything in my old age. But that didn’t happen. One day, we were passing from here, this same road. (He pointed to the road in front of us.) I had an argument with them about property things and my elder son asked me to get out of the cab. Even my younger son didn't stop him. They both threw me here, right here, where I am sitting."

That definitely didn't sound good to me. I asked him the reason and he said, "You know these teenagers. They don't wanna live with their parents. My both sons said raising them was my duty. I know they were my responsibility but didn't I also their responsibility too. That day they argued that I used to show off my struggles to them. Sigh. . I wish life should be like the Big Brother show where everything would have been recorded. Then I would have shown them how I raised them and I am not pretending."

He told me a lot more things and I was attentively listening to him. While I was listening, I was unconsciously thinking about my dad. He also was raising us, me and Rachel, in absence of my mom. Raising us wasn't easy but he was doing a very good job.

At last that blind man couldn't control himself and started crying. Seeing him like that I too felt some moisture in my eyes and I tried to steal my eyes from him as I could feel his pain of separating from the family. But I didn’t know what I should do to console him. And again my unconscious mind reminded me of 'Her'. Once she too couldn't change the condition of a crying boy but she diverted his attention somewhere else, which she could actually do.

Remembering that just to divert him from crying I shared my memory with him and told him, "How could they leave you here? This is not appropriate. I think that's the thing you should have done to them."

He looked at me and started me listening carefully, "You know, my father threw me out of the house which was appropriate."

He subconsciously laughed and asked me, " Did he?"

I replied raising my collar, "Yeah! He did the right thing and I mean it. Now I am a successful employee. Umm.. Maybe I still am."

He surprisingly asked, " Are you agreeing with your father ?"

"Of course, if you ask me I would give you the same advice." I proudly said.

"Oh! My Boy. I should have met you earlier " he said, giving me a cheerful smile.

I said, "Better late than never. Now if we have met, then now we must find your boys and you should sue them." And we both laughed, cursing those boys for some minutes.

After a while he stopped and replied, " They are my sons. I gave them everything they want, if they want freedom from me, I'll give them that too."

"And what about you? Why don't you go to any old age home? That would be a better option than this, what do you think?" I advised him.

He laughed stubbornly and replied, "I don't need to go to old age. When they brought me here I decided to stay here always. I am accustomed to this life now and you know, I am a crazy and stubborn man. When I decide once, I will do that and can not back off."

And I asked him, "Really? Or do you still think they'll come back to you ?"

"Huh! I don't want to face those inane. I don't want to remember them. Forget those bastards'' He sniffed and rubbed his nose in his full sleeved shirt while using some hearted words for his sons but from his expression it was evident that he still loved them and was still waiting for them.

I asked him, "Are you alright?"

" Absolutely! I am fine and it's your share from today's earnings." He replied, shifting himself close to me and giving me half of his hot dog for lunch, which he bought before starting our conversation.

A moment ago, he just rubbed his nose from the same hand's sleeve from which he was offering me that half hot dog. My hygienic inner self was kicking me to refuse that loveable offer but I extended my hand and took that half piece to eat.

Taking that in my hand I asked him, "How much do you earn?"

"Maximum 15 to 35 dollars a day." He replied.

I asked, "That's it! But I read on the internet that beggars earn a maximum of 15 to 30 dollars just in an hour."

"Wao! Maybe, but many people took pity on a blind beggar but couldn't pay me.'Side effects of the cashless world'." He half smiled.

Truly that really was the side effect of the cashless world. I could at least help him by buying lunch for him. But I never carried cash with me, I didn't have my credit cards with me because I rarely used them and what I had in my pocket was a metrocard, my home keys and a dead mobile.

Then he requested me, "Don't share my secret to anybody that I am not blind. It's an advantage to me."

And I promised, "Don't worry. I don't even share my secret to myself."

I ate that first bite and realized my stomach was starving but we both were out of cash. All I could do was eat that half bun and pray for his better earring patiently. So, I started eating that half hotdog slowly taking small bites to eat longer.

When I finished that hotdog I felt something on my shoulder. I glanced on my right and saw Scott's head was resting without support and his eyes were closed. I shifted myself a little bit towards him, giving him support and placed his head on my shoulder in a comfortable position.

The whole scene was totally weird. I was staying out of my house, sitting on a dirty mat. And someone's smelly rough hair was touching my neck and lower chin. My whole hygienic life was railing me but still I was impulsively smiling, watching that man snoring on my shoulder. Again my mind started remembering 'Her'. That scene was a bit similar to her's. When she was resting her head on her father's shoulder in the metro. Yes, he was not my father but someone else's, and it didn't make much difference.

I was wondering in my head, "If I was in the place of Scott's son then I would have never separated my father from myself. I would have always kept him with me and Rachel. But he himself threw me out and I can't do anything about that."

Yet that day, I didn't hate his boys. I was relating myself with them. When ‘she’ gave me a chance I hid from her and now she hid herself and I was seeking for her. That day I hoped, "Maybe one day his sons will come back to their father. And ‘she’ too."

"We humans always run. Sometimes towards the things we want and sometimes from the things we don't want. But we hardly accept what we have." Philosopher me, wanted to post these lines on f*******: and unfortunately my mobile was dead.

Soon, it was evening time and Scott was still snoring on my shoulder. Meanwhile those two ladies passed through the gates, staring at me.

I gave them a stubborn look, saying, "I will be here till she comes." They both shifted their eyes from me and walked away.

After a few hours, my second day ended there adding one more failure in my life.