A new year's eve , In less than ten minutes, the sky will be filled with exploding fireworks and all their pretty colors. In less than ten minutes, somewhere people will be toasting their drinks, clinking glasses, to the sound of cheers and claps. In less than ten minutes, another year will be gone forever.
Sitting on the windowsill of my small and dusty four-walls apartment, I get a clear view of the sky. Also, a clear view of the treetops, the park in the north side, and the street lights that accompany the long line of the narrow road leading up to this apartment building. Yet I only have the faintest recollection of memories of them. These past years have been like a long, tiring dream that I have yet to wake up from.
It wasn't always like this. I remember the time when everything was vivid; every smile , every word spoken , every sunset (we could see the sunset clearly if we sat at Thomas Road's bridge facing west, the dazzling yellow lights would sometimes hurt our eyes), every sound (the honking sometimes sounded too loud in the night when I was lying quietly in the dark).
The world has gotten unbelievably quiet these past years. I wonder if she was really the only one who left. Or has the rest of the human race too disappeared, leaving me with no one to talk to? This question, is followed by the pale sound of fireworks bursting in the sky faraway in the north west, where the center of the city is, informing me that another year is gone, another starts. Yet another burst of fireworks filling up the sky faraway. Four years ago, at this moment, my phone rang.
"Is this Karan ?". The voice, even before she told me, I knew.
"So you're still using this number," she said when I answered her. She gave a chuckle, the one that had a sign of relief in it. I thought the sound that she made when she chuckled sounded like someone who had just cried. It was two years since I last talked to her. She left the city after she graduated. I graduated only a year after. I didn't hear anything from her after that, only that she moved to USA
"I'm in the city right now, visiting a friend. I knew you worked here so I thought I'd try my luck and give you a call," she said, almost cheerfully. To me, it came off as suppressed and forceful.
"Have you.. been okay?" I asked doubtfully. She dropped to silence when I asked her this.
"Come to Thomas Road, Karan , do you know where that is?" she said suddenly. It was now her real voice; the one that concealed nothing. It was calm and hopeful. I said I do.
"The footbridge. I'll wait for you there," she added.
It took me forty five minutes to reach Thomas Road by taxi. Another ten to reach the bridge by foot. The road was still busy, people everywhere. 'Please use footbridge', I read the sign and climbed the stairs. There were a few young couples along the rails of the bridge; lost in their own world. I tried to look for her.
"Karan!" I heard. I looked around and she was waving at me from another end of the bridge.
"Happy new year Karan ," she said when I was standing in front of her. Her hair was much longer than I had remembered it. She used to wear it short. She had it down to her shoulders now, it was pulled back behind her ears. A few stubborn ones put a mere curtain on her forehead. She had colored it blonde, and because of that she looked different than how I had always remembered her.
"It's been a long time, isn't it?" Mishty said, stepping away and leaned against the rail. She rested her elbows on it, making herself feel comfortable as she observed our surrounding. I moved to her side, and by being very close at her side, her dimple became clearly visible on her cheek when she occasionally moved her lips. On her earlobe an earring with the shape of a heart glistened when the lights were reflected on it. There was a familiar feeling when I saw all this.
