Amidst The Skies (Part 1)

“Yes mom, I have reached the airport.” Amaira hung up her phone, even before her mother could say goodbye.

With earphones plugged, a bag pack strapped across her shoulders she pushed the trolley like fighting an uphill battle. A gray sweatshirt and black pants along with a lazy uptied messy bun, that’s all what she put on for a flight back home. ‘When the world went cold, you were brighter than gold, our feelings only escalate’ She went on humming the song ‘Home’ by Deluka on her herculean journey from the entrance to the baggage counter. Finally rid of the baggage, she collected her boarding pass and waited patiently for her flight. Too many people around was just not her thing, making airports one of the most hated places on her list. She had never visited concerts of her favourite singers because she did not like massive crowds. Once she left her friend’s birthday party midway simply because a large crowd had gathered which was unknown to her. Enochlophobia is what people usually call it.

She sat back at the waiting area. Suddenly insightful, she slipped out a piece of paper with utmost care so as to not tear it off . Every single time she touched it, her heart sank in the deep unending ocean of sorrow and her soul would crush into pieces. She did not know how to mend herself, but she had learned to live with the pain. The feel of the paper was enough to play all the words at the back of her head. She read it, re-read it

‘Dear Amaira...............

.................Take care.’ .

Sick at heart she leaned back on the chair and shut her eyes trying to comfort herself. The past flashed again and again leaving her distressed. She opened her eyes simply to see a long line moving towards the gate of the flight. She sifted through the bag for her boarding pass but all in vain, at last with no option left she vacated her hand by carefully placing the paper on the next seat and again scanned through the bag. Organized and careful wasn’t by any chance Amaira. She was highly accident prone.

“Ma’am, are you to board K-37548?” The airport official politely asked.

“Yes” Amaira replied, again searching through her bag.

“Ma’am we are about to close the gates, please hurry.”

“Found it, found it.” Her voice loud as never before.

“This way Ma’am.” The official displayed a formal smile.

“This is a call for Mr. Varun to please board the flight K-37548 ” All 10 gates echoed his name. Probably not the first time he heard his name this loud, however this time not responding to it could cost a fortune. A pair of blue Ripped jeans, white t-shirt topped with a black leather jacket made sure every woman who looked at him would remember him for quite a while.

“There, keep the change” He quickly collected the parcel and ran towards the gate. As he scanned through the airside while on his way to the flight, to his sight came a piece of paper lying on a chair. He fairly well did remember of a girl clinging on to the paper for quite a while and then placing it on the seat. Without a second thought he quickly picked that paper up and slid it into his pocket. While he adjusted himself the girl with the paper was fully evident to him. Her sight reminded him of the paper, which he decided to return.

“Sir, could you please be seated, we are preparing to take off.” The flight attendant made sure Varun was in his seat within a minutes time.

‘Should I read it or simply return it? She looked quite sad when she read it? Is there something wrong? Whatever it is, it’s unethical on my part to read it? Varun as if you have ever stuck to ethics or rules’ His mind popped up several questions, finally he decided to read it. As his eyes scrolled through the lines, words started making sense, sentences depicted deep meaning, it all shook him to a great extent. A few strings attached, but many left. His mind left him with many questions and heart with sympathy. He wanted to know, he wanted to heal, but he could feel the glass wall she built around. It was thick enough for him or anyone to sense it.

His challenging personality moved him to the seat beside her. Kind of glossy, moreover messy, a tendril fell on her face, like the first drop of monsoon on a forever dry window pane. Her eyes shut, as if she had distanced herself from the world. Her sweet aroma enchanted him. Her skin at peace and hands clung around a little white furry cushion. She didn’t seem to belong to this world, wherein people were busy clicking selfies she just didn’t care. She had alienated herself. Earphones still plugged in, she did not notice that her co-passenger for the next 8 hours had changed.

“Passengers please fasten your seatbelts” A firm voice echoed through the flight. A turbulence struck, shaking her to reality. Her then peaceful eyes, opened up wide in tremor. Her hands clung even more tight to her snowy pillow.

“Relax, it’s just a turbulence” Varun whispered in her ears.

“I’m fine.” She reverted, hiding her fear with a confident voice. This was something she had learned from life. It had taught her to build walls around herself, so that no one could ever come to know she existed. Well she never knew there would be a man who would try to break through.

“Yeah right”, he smirked at her.

“By the way I’m Varun.” He moved his hand towards her looking forward to a handshake. She was quite stuck, handshake wasn’t something that comfortable for her and too cold wasn’t someone she liked to depict herself as. Conflicting with herself, she finally decided to give it a shot. His massive, rough hands felt secure, yet her slender but long hands shivered on his contact. They disengaged immediately.

“So, do you have a name?”He sounded highly inquisitive.

A momentary glance in utter discomfort was all she shared “Amaira” She uttered a word with an intention to clarify her disinterest, nothing followed her name.

“It’s a 8 hour journey if you answer in one word I’ll have to come up with many questions and that’s too difficult for me.”

“Hmm” She replied with a smile so slight that if he wasn’t so careful to each expression she gave, he would never get it. She quickly plugged in her earphones.

“Mind if I share?” He wouldn’t give up that easily.

Amaira felt he stuck to her like a bee sticks to honey. She wanted to shout at him and say ‘No, can you please leave?’, but that was something she wouldn’t like to do. “You can have them.” She gave away her ipod and earphones to him with a hope that he would shut up at least until the battery lasts.

“Could you please excuse me?” She looked forward to some break from him.

“Sure.” As she left he quickly slid the paper into her bag along with another note attached.

“Oh god! Can this be any worse? Can he please leave? Can I have some peace in life? Does he always speak so much? Is something wrong with him?” She stared at herself through the mirror and asked herself numerous questions, without even a single being answered. “Okay, I have to face him. I can do it. Oh goodness, how will I do it?” She felt helpless and irritated, however she made her way back to her seat.

“Excuse me.” Her honeyed flat voice reached his ears.

He stood up like a gentleman to let her in. “By the way I think you should speak more words more often, you’ve got a beautiful voice.”

“Hmm” She replied. ‘If he can’t get this clue does he need an affidavit?’

Her ‘hmmm’s’ had got him slightly mad. His parents until alive had never ignored him. In case of his friends, a few he had, all of them had been highly acknowledging. However he wouldn’t give up so easily. He wanted to get her talking a bit so that the topic of the letter comes up.

“Do you listen to bollywood music?” He asked as if boiling with curiosity.

“Very rare.” Finally, a shift to two words.

“Have you heard the latest song ‘Mere Jana’?” Which singer wouldn’t want to know if his debut song was heard enough or not?

“ I’ve heard about it.” It looked as if she started opening up, her pitch black eyes met his hazel ones occasionally. Those moments where she looked up to his face, she started realizing she had seen this face somewhere, it looked familiar. Her memory wasn’t being that good to her though, that day. She was irritated with his never ending questions, but no one had ever been this patient with her. Her few friends were undoubtedly a result of her uninterested behaviour. Highly instinctual, she felt a different vibe from this man. He seemed to be genuinely concerned unlike all the other people she met daily, which were a few though. She spent almost all the time sitting back home either studying, listening to songs or watching cartoons. As she lived alone, she only spoke to her cat. Expecting a normal conversation from a person who has hardly spoken to people since the past 3-4 years wouldn’t be fair. A chirpy bird until 10, she went cold from then and years later she moved around like a living dead.

“Why would you be so specific with this song?” With so much generosity from his side, it felt like an obligation to be a bit nice to him.

She framed a complete question only to leave him stunned. His eyes widened as if in surprise and mouth left open. She snapped her fingers across his face after a minute of silence had passed. “Yeah... Actually it’s my debut as a playback singer for a movie.” He tried to get himself back to consciousness.

“Oh, that’s...that’s great.” Her voice went flat and pale again. The charm seemed to fade off, not just in her voice but also her face. She turned her face away, no more getting a glimpse of that jolly face. The fact that he was a famous person was something that forced her to withdraw herself. The little she felt, had all doomed. Popularity was something she did not prefer. All those incidents she kept running from, all those moments she did not want to feel again, simply kept milling around her little brain. She felt that withdrawal, that loss all over again.

Not wasting a moment she called for the attendant. “Yes ma’am, How can I help you?”

“I need to change my seat, could you please do something about it?”

“Sorry ma’am we do not have a single seat we can shift you to. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No thank you” Her unsatisfied self replied. She leaned back to her chair and was highly regretful for she gave away her i-pod to him, which he wasn’t even using. ‘I do not want to talk to him, or even look at his face.’ She thought to herself. There wasn’t a single way out for her. It was too early to sleep, too early to be hungry. Three PM literally time for nothing in her case.

All this while he looked at her blankly, unable to figure out what was wrong with her. She changed her behaviour faster than a chameleon changes it colour. ‘What’s wrong with this woman? Okay wait is she a psychopath? Split personality or something? No Varun.... Relax, she seems alright, just like a normal girl. Maybe it’s that time of the month. Should I ask her what’s wrong? No. Bad idea. Should I talk about the letter? She might get uncomfortable.’ He almost starred in the Jimmy Fallon’s Show in his head, with himself being the host as well as the guest. An hour passed in silence. During this time she kept on thinking of ways to avoid him and he kept thinking of ways to begin a conversation again. While the brainstorming continued, his eyes shut and minutes hence he was fast asleep. She looked at his slender face, his high cheek bones, which looked calm and peaceful as never before. His hazel eyes were shut in innocence. She, for the first time had noticed his lashes, long and upturned. She stared at him and somewhere within herself had praised him a lot, a few minutes passed. Lost in him, her hands unconsciously stroked his cheek in the gentlest manner possible. She leaned towards him, examining his beauty. A smile drew on her lips. She forgot all the grievances and how annoying she thought he was. At that moment he was a calm human, that was it. All her cognitive abilities stood still. Her touch instantaneously woke him up. His shuddered hazel eyes stared at her. She was shoved back to reality. Somewhere guilty of her actions, she pulled herself back to her seat rest. Her eyes wide open and face red. It looked as if she had gulped in a glass full of something bitter and throwing up wasn’t an option.