Mixed Tape: Short Stories For All Ages

States apart: An unexpected friendship

Wanna feel good? Read this! I promise it'd make you happy ❤️

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She was happy.....yes.... sure she was! She wasn't just trying to convince herself of that, nor was she trying to convince anyone else. Not that there was anyone else who cared anyway. She was happy and she was independent just like she had always been in her younger days.

As a young adult she was the 'working woman' of the neighborhood; never married and no kids because it got in the way of her ambitions. She was a highly successful woman then, respected and loved and very high up in the corporate world.

All that was in the past though. Back then she had loved her life and cherished her freedom. She was always surrounded by people: that came with the job and she always dealt with each of them politely yet efficiently.

Now however, things were different. She was 62 years old and retired. The job she once loved and the people who loved her because of it were all gone now. An occasional phone call from some old acquaintance who wanted her advice or needed a favor was all she got now. Everyone was busy....but she was stuck in her single bedroom flat, in the middle of the city of Bangalore, all alone and bored, secretly wishing that she had a family after all.

But she would never admit that out loud. At least she was healthy enough to stay independent even now, she told herself. Hence, she was happy, like she always had been.

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He was an aspiring actor. He had just moved to the big city of Mumbai from his home town in Jaipur, Rajasthan. His parents did not support his dreams. They never really understood him yet claimed to want the best for him. They wanted him to be a doctor, a secure and respectable job with guaranteed success if you're intelligent enough to pass all the exams.

But what his parents never understood was, that he never was intelligent enough for it. He had excellent performing skills, that was what he was cut out for, not medicine.

When he remained adamant about his choice and left home, his parents cut off all ties with him. He was alone, he knew it, but he had made his choice. He used his savings to stay as a paying guest in a relatively remote part of the city where he could afford it and worked hard, day in and day out. He went for audition after audition, and play after play and met people after people who might see his talent and perhaps help him out.

It had been two months now since he had shifted. It had been two months since he had eaten a proper meal or slept in a tidy bed. Vada Pav and maggi had become his staple food. And it had been two months since he had some close friends whom he could trust and share with, someone whom he could go to at the end of the day and ask about their day and tell them about his own.

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She was browsing through a book, out of lack of anything better to do, late in the evening when her mobile rang. It made her happy. It always did even if she knew that it was only temporary. She picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Stephanie ma'am? Its me Angelin." a young voice spoke from the phone.

Stephanie frowned, she did not remember any Angelin. But she was probably someone from work because she addressed Stephanie as ma'am.

"Uh....Hello dear. How have you been?"

"I've been great ma'am. It feels great to hear your voice after so long. I was so used to hearing you tsk tsk tsk behind me if I were making a mistake that now when I feel I'm going wrong, I hear your voice in my head!"