Fate's Quiet Whisper

Crossed Paths Again

A week had passed since the brief meeting. Mary couldn't get it out of her head. It wasn't a paradigm-shifting event; it was just an accident of contact between two strangers, yet the character of their eyes meeting each other's, the timbre of the voice, with which they engaged with every other's speech was still imprinted on her mind. She couldn't avoid asking herself if he hadn't, perhaps, sensed that queer phenomenon as well.

Her days began to take on a routine - the well-known pace of volunteering a few times a week at the local library, shelving books, and answering the patrons' questions. It's a cozy little library imbued with that familiar book smell and the gentle 'thud' of pages being flipped. It's a place that feels like home - a sanctuary where she can let herself go into the world of stories outside that maelstrom.

The library had been very still all day and, unless one paid close attention, all that was audible was the quiet rustling of a page or the quiet click of the front door being opened and closed. Mary was putting away a stack of contemporary fiction, as the voice entered her thoughts and broke her concentration.

"Excuse me. Do you have books on modern poetry?"

Mary turned round, and in the act of turning round, she encountered the man from the bookshop a short distance down from her; the ebony of his eyes watched hers with a spark of disbelief. Neither of them said anything for an instant, for in the hesitation that lay before them was an unsaid question.

"Rayan bhai!" someone called from behind, and a little boy came running up to grab Rayan's jacket. Rayan softened and smiled down at the boy.

Mary couldn't help but notice how brightly his face had lighted up at Ryan's appearance, but it was the same warmth that came from within him the last time they met and had an aura around him as if it attracted people towards him. Her chest stuttered a bit, but she tried to ignore it. Silly. They were strangers after all.

"Poetry, yeah?" she finally opened, breaking the silence and asked, "Let's find it."

While shifting in the direction of the poetry book section, Rayan couldn't suppress a chuckle when he glanced back at her. His amusement was repressed by a smothered smile. "Bookshop enthusiast," he said sweetly while needling her.

She smiled at Mary. The feel of the subtle jibe was comfortable in a funny kind of way. "And poet admirer" she shot back very softly, as if to imply playfulness through her words instead.

“Touché,” he said, his smile widening. “I was hoping you’d be here. I'd like to know your suggestions for poetry.

Poetry can be quite personal, Mary said thoughtfully, pulling a few books from the shelf and handing them to him.

"I like to think of myself as a storyteller," he replied, a slight gleam in his eyes. "So, maybe something that tells a story, even if it's in verse."

Mary smiled and got up to retrieve some books from the bookcase. "These should do," she said.

Rayan accepted the books with a happy smile. "I'll check these out. I can tell you know your poetry. "

I try, I do, " Mary admitted with a barely there glow of pride. "What about you? What brings you to the poetry section?"

"Well,"

Rayan started, his voice becoming slightly more grave as he walked through the empty library. "I'm a teacher. I've been pushing my students to discover poetry as a tool for self-expression," but I'd like to become more intimately acquainted with it, too.

Good, Mary whispered. Poetry has an outreach to people that few other things have. It speaks its language."

He nodded, seeming pensive over the words. "I always thought it was that literature helps people know and understand one another better. People cannot connect with people in any other way. "

As they talked, Mary forgot to feel out of sorts and stilted; her face had such ease from the tension as they did share their fondness for literature, teaching, and their daily lives. It was very easy to talk like they had known each other all this long, much longer than those few minutes or that week. Time seemed to flow naturally between them but in a relationship which was indicative of the most natural ease.

And then the discussion can be stopped, and Rayan receives a book that he is familiar with. Life seems destined to re-cross their path again, thanks to the recommendation Rayan said seriously. I will make sure to tell you how I feel about them.

I'm looking forward to your comments, she said with a light smile as she smiled back at him. "Have fun, reading the poems.

She had stepped out of the library and stood there in the aisle, silent with a sense of something settling inside of her chest. So strange the way it all seemed, so fast a first impression might happen on someone and so easily, how two strangers who hadn't even crossed each other's path before formed some kind of connection.

Or maybe no more random than this was a wild guess--or maybe not.