Dear Prudence

Chapter 2 It's Only Love

Prudence's POV

The rest of the time passed in a blur and before I knew it, I was on a cramped tour bus on my way to discovering the eastern religion. I was squished in between Pattie and a man whom I didn't even know.

Pattie tried to make small talk, but that ultimatly failed because we couldn't hear eachother over the noise coming from the rest of the bus. I'll talk to you later, she finished giving up on our conversation.

Honestly, I wasn't even listening anyways. I was too busy thinking about John.

What happened in between us?

Does he like me?

Do I like him?

Even my own thoughts startled me. How could be thinking about any of these things when I met him just an hour ago. My head began hurting and the noise on the bus wasn't exactly helping.

I dedcided to close my eyes and relax for the rest of the bus ride. Images of John popped into my mind as soon as my eyes closed. I opened my eyes letting out a scream.  Pattie turned to look at me.

"What happened?" She asked, glancing at me to see if I was hurt in anyway.

"Sorry about that... the last bump on the road really hurt..." I looked up at Pattie to see if she was buying my lie. I mean, it wasn't entirely a lie, this bus must have no shock absorbers! Everytime we hit a bump, we all go flying into the air; and we're on a dirt road climbing a mountain!

Pattie nodded, but in her eyes I could see that she knew that wasn't what I had yelled about. Thankfully, she let it go. "Honestly, this whole ride makes me want to scream, it hurts my arse so much!" She said, lightly laughing.

"Yeah" I said, half smiling.

It hurt a bit to lie to Pattie, she's been so nice, and I only just met her. I mean, this wasn't a big lie or anything, but I really didn't want to talk to her about John until I have my feelings sorted out.

I just zoned out for the last couple of minutes on the bus, just like I had been doing for the majority of the day. This wasn't like me though. I was ussually paying attention to everything. Oh well, it's probably just the jetlag. I thought to myself to ease my worries. 

We arrived at the top of a mountain at what looked like a camp ground. 

There was a clearing surrounded with little tents which could only fit about three people in each. In the center of the clearing was a good sized fireplace with a man sitting directly next to it. His hair was long and dark and he had a beard which was begining to grey. He sat with his legs crossed and his eyes closed: he was meditating.

Everyone got off of the bus, and as if in a trance, we all began walking towards the man in the center. We sat at a respective distance from him, just watching him. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath, it was so quiet.

The man's lips began moving until we could hear the words he was whispering. I didn't know what he was saying, it was Indian. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. I felt someone jump in surprise next to me, and I turned to see Paul blushing in embarassment.

Jane looked at him with a knowing glance, and then turned her attention back to the man.

"Hello. My name is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but you can all call my Maharishi or Mahesh. I am happy to see how many of you could come. Each of you will be getting a tent which is where you will be staying until you wish to leave. I will let you go to get settled in now, we will begin our studies at dusk. Until then, get comfortable here." he said, standing up, and walking towards the largest tent which was in the back.