100 miles

The trees swished, clouds roared and the tyres screeched. I stood there hoping. With memories washed away and a fatigued body I stood there to cruise in the red machine as if it were taking me to the land where smiles were not plastic and greetings not so dry.

The glass rolled down as if the cloud passed over the sun. The smile was eternal and her eyes blue as the sky. Her hair fluttered like the waving golden corn in the field waiting to be harvested. The machine had power to zip through space in a wink but it was silent as a mourner. Music was soft as her voice and she said, “Hop in”. I said “thanks” to be heard and “heaven” under my breath.

She called herself Elena or that’s what I heard, too lost in my thoughts of where I wanted to go. It is a state of mind every body is always in. My eyes peered through the dark, straight ahead. I didn’t know where I was going. Her scent lead me into exotic lands and I lost touch with reality, again. With eyes shut and breath heavy I went into a trance. Very aptly ‘Too much of Heaven’ by Eiffel 65 cracked itself on the radio. We had not spoken a word since she had been grateful to me. The silence spoke aloud. She in her world, in a hurry to get somewhere, I don’t know and I, confused about my destination.

The headlights sped across us as I hit reality with a jolt. The board on the roadside glowed, ‘New York--- 100’. Her bare foot on the metal told me she was in a hurry to get there. How different people are, though how similar! We were both in a hurry, one with a destination, one aimless. The silence broke; words flowed like champagne for celebration, her voice soft like silk from the east. She said, “Hello, how are you?” I with a voice coarse as the craters of the moon lied, “fine”. Forgot the thank you. “So where are you heading to?” we asked together. A laughter, and that broke the ice.

She said she was going to New York to meet her fiancé. Lucky chap! Now it was my turn, I didn’t know. “New York”, I said. At least now I had company for 100 miles. A lonely soul searching companionship, I felt good. We talked how lives of people change with changing times. I lied all the way through. She talked about her job and the relationship and I made up a story about a flourishing business and used it as a tool to explain a recent divorce. Her phone came alive and she blushed, I knew who. The conversation was short and soft. That told me the relationship was stable and that it had a happy history assuring a bright future. Felt happy for someone after a long time.

The traffic seemed to thicken and so did the fog. We went under a cluster of bridges, the confusing convolutions made traffic flow so smooth. An irony of life, I thought. All those confusions you go through tell you what not to do so you don’t screw up. Words were hard to find and her face told me the story of her life.

I woke up in the sky, it seemed. The water gushing below me felt like clouds still roaring. The silk felt like, “You slept off”. I responded with a smile like the setting sun, giving way to the gleaming moon. The skyline, tall and imposing hit me in the face. New York, I thought. A hundred miles of quick realization. Flew across the clouds and reached a land of fear and future. The door clicked again and the silence said it all. The red machine glided past me with the elegance of the driver.