Acquaintance

Oscar walked past his favourite bakery, shoving aside his indulgent desire to relish that delectable piece of lemon tart. He quickly glanced at the few coins in his pocket, estimating that they would be sufficient for him to take a bus ride back home. 

The bus arrived in no time, waited for the usual exchange of passengers at the stop and rushed forward emitting the trail of stale gases.

Oscar had a habit of observing strangers but this time the perpetually empty bus provided him with none except for a sufficiently strange old man; stark bald and his overly wrinkled face did not allow the onlookers to decipher whether he was asleep or awake. He seemed to present a sweet smile to Oscar which he reciprocated without a thought.

The man walked forward and took the seat beside him. 

Offering that same grin he started, "Isn't it a wonderful day!" Startled by the sudden question, Oscar nodded blatantly. 

"A smile is such a precious asset that you just shared, it made the day really wonderful for me. Wouldn't it be really lovely if we could share smiles among each other without a second though? The great deal of wars and demolitions, everything would come to a stop! Everyone harmoniously connected to one another by a smile!"

Oscar was not in a mood for a discussion on a utopian dream, that too when he himself had to choose between filling his belly or taking a bus back home. He looked out of the window at the clouds which had started to gather, pursed his lips and nodded to what the man had to say.

Suddenly the bus pulled up it's breaks, causing the Oldman to almost topple from his seat but Oscar was swift enough to come to the rescue. 

"Pheww, it was close!", the bus driver affirmed.

The Oldman grinned back at Oscar, who was puzzled by this sudden situation and helped him back to his seat.

"Strange world it is my child", the Oldman said, making Oscar put up an even confused look.

"Weren't you waiting for me to stop my blabbering a moment ago! Well you had the chance, but you didn't let me go. You rescued this ailing, irritating Oldman!"

"I didn't get you? I mean it was just a reflex sir, seeing a person in trouble, we always tend to help them, or atleast make an effort to it."

"But you saved me even when you knew I would eventually perish someday soon, why did you put that effort?"

"We all are going to perish someday, but someway or the other we try to make things work out."

"We try to keep going? Don't we?"

"Yeah"

"That's a sweet thing about life my child. Everyone in the world is gifted this little amount of time, we all know that we've got just a little span, but we try to make the best of it. The Baker wakes up every morning, with an urge to present his wares to his customers, this diligent bus driver works s

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o hard for us. The little urchins on the street dancing playfully in the rains, the honey-bees in the garden tenderly collecting drops of nectar for their young ones. The earth itself spinning diligently about the sun, knowing very well that it has that same fate- to perish into the abyss it once formed from…"

Oscar did not feel like interrupting the man, so he approved his words with a slight nod.

"But we still move on with our goals, dreams, aspirations, love and passions, even if our deeds would never be able to change the course of our existence, isn't it just wonderful?"

"Rather ironic, I presume"

"True, but isn't there such a sweet wonder in this irony, we still long for the hope that we'll make a difference and bring forth a wave of change. Sometimes we often succeed, don't we? But as I said, in the gigantic history of our existence, these deeds often gather dust, but we still move forth with our dreams in our hearts, with hopes of making things work out and the little changes we see, fills our hearts with delight!"

This time Oscar was silenced by his words of reflection as if they were the words he wanted to tell the world long time back but no one cared to listen.

"It's a sweet thing to dream and try to reach for one's goals. Just trying to make our lives sweet and happy!"

Oscar nodded in silence.

"I presume you are a writer?", asked the Oldman pointing at Oscar's ink-stained fingers.

"Not one yet!"

"Can I bother you with one more fact?"

"Yeah, I mean I wasn't bothered at all."

The Oldman grinned further and continued, "You've got a great role to play my child, maybe your words are still unheard, but I'll tell you, you've got to keep on telling your story! Maybe there'll be someone in some corner of the globe who would resonate your thoughts, and maybe it'll mean the most to that person. Just as you helped me, maybe you'll end up helping them! And who knows that one story you wrote for that one person would become the glory of your life! Don't let your dreams away cause that's why we've been gifted this life and so I think it's upto us to figure out the sweet parts amidst the dullness... Keep going my child. We all must!"

Oscar starred at those glistening eyes and they had a strange lifeless radiance.

"Well, that's my stop, must get down, as I said, got to keep going!", said the oldman, breaking the silence. He walked down the bus with that same grin.

"Such a gentleman, isn't he! Such a pain to see the good people suffer"

"Why, what's wrong with him?" inquired Oscar.

"Last stage of leukaemia they say, he'll not live quite long"

Oscar couldn't speak anymore. He gently relaxed his aching body and soul near the window and watched the Oldman walking away towards the cloudy horizon while the bus drove homeward.