The Stranger

The stranger I stepped out of the house through the blind lanes. Lights had gone out. My main motive was the maths tuition, and had to walk 3 miles. With the sky laden with unexpected rough clouds, the moon could barely silver the path. Road of the first half mile was really rough and walking without a torch seemed really insecure. The concrete jungle receded to show a bit of the outline on where I was walking, just enough to prevent foot-loss in manhole. Winter garments locked my fitness and over that I was a bit late. “Who worries? At least I don’t!” I consoled. There seemed a long stretch before main road through infinite lanes. I wasn’t used to making mistake though. Walking 5 minutes, I took out the cell to check updates. Walking was boring. Unfortunately nobody remembered me, so I removed the lighted screen and put it in the pocket. A little far off was someone moving slowly. “Perhaps I found a company to the tuition”, I thought while rushing forward. As I neared, I saw a small scarf covering the ponytail of a girl wrapped tightly in a blanket-like cardigan. There wasn’t a single girl in the tuition so I was confirmed she is a stranger and set back a little. It was an uncanny darkness which grasped a small part of my uneasiness. I neared her a bit, maybe for nothing. Now I could see her more. She crossed her arms across to prevent the chill and kept the head bowed. Perhaps she was afraid, as it seemed from her footsteps. “Pretty dark isn’t?” I surprised her. She shook her head and stopped abruptly staring scarcely at me. Her eyes were still covered by the large shadow of the scarf, her vision hardly stable. She sped up. I said, “Wait! I won’t harm you.” She slowed down immediately. I caught her up within a second and we continued walking. “Seems rare isn’t? Such long darkness”, I started. “Hmm”, she said shortly. We remained quiet for a minute or two until she quite timidly und unknowingly uttered, “I don’t wanna go.” I asked her, “Where?” “She will beat me again, I haven’t done my homework.” I arbitrarily said, “So, don’t go!” She became even more timid. “Aunty will tell Pa and he’s gonna kill me!” To be frank, even I wasn’t at all interested in attending my class as the teacher disliked me a lot. “Give me her number”, I decided confidently. She was confused. “Who? Aunty? What will you do?” she asked. “Nothing much, do you trust me?” I was firm. She stammered a bit over “But…” and finally uttered, “Yes, take it.” “What’s your name?” “Milee” I dialled the number and said, “I’m Milee’s father speaking, she isn’t well today and so I haven’t sent her to the tuition, please kindly tell one of her friends to hand the notes to her next day, okay?” “Yes, it is okay”, came the fine reply and I cut off. “Are you crazy? Now if she rings back?” she was excited. I eased her by saying with a smile, “At least, you won’t get any beatings. Now relax!” We remained standing in the dark alley. I sent a text to my mom, saying that maths class is postponed and Im at a friend’s place. “Thank you Mr. Someone”, she uttered softly. “It’s better to remain off public area, we may get recognised”, I uttered in which she gave a sigh. Two and a half hours were left before we could plan to return home and till then we had nothing to do other than talking. Standing became painful so we managed cleaning a part of a broken palm tree for a seat. She was fifteen, and talked warmly in soft whispers. I loved the innocent smell from her. She was just a couple of years younger than me and we kept on discussing on our lives, like buds of the same branch. We didn’t even notice the far off tiny street light glowing again. Realising the time was out of question. More than 3 hours passed, when her phone rang. “Hello Pa. Aunty is keeping us a little longer, I will be back in fifteen minutes” she lied so easily. I stood up but she kept seated murmuring something. When we were to leave, I held her hand and asked, “Can I have your number? Wish to talk a little longer.” A short tempting smile ran across her face. She snatched my mobile and saved her number. We rushed home. As I stepped into the room the mobile vibrated with her text. It read, “Sometimes strangers are awesome :)”