A girl walked in to the bus (Part 2)

“Excuse Me”, “Excuse Me”. He woke up. The girl was looking at him. “The bus has stopped for a break. I just wanted to step out. Could you excuse me please?”

“Sure”

“Sorry I woke you up” she said.

“Its OK. Actually I am sorry. Hope you didn’t have to struggle to wake me up”

“No. Not at all” she said & began to walk away towards the door. He sat down on his seat & looked at his watch. It was 2 AM. He thought he could do with some fresh air as well and stepped out. The bus had stopped at some hotel. There were at least 4 other buses there. Even at that hour people were grabbing themselves something to eat. He walked to some isolated place away from the hotel & relieved himself.

When he walked back to the bus, he saw the girl. She was drinking a tender coconut. He noticed that she looked confident. He liked that. A girl traveling alone, talking comfortably to a complete stranger, stepping out in the night, drinking tender coconut, it was all very nice.

He stopped at the entrance of the bus & looked around. The girl was paying the tender coconut vendor, there were a couple of other folks near by smoking or drinking tea from tiny plastic glasses. He suddenly wondered if the girl smoked. Now, why was he thinking like that he asked himself. He shook his head a couple of times & tried to get such nonsense thoughts off his head. The girl was walking up to the bus.

“Hi”, he said & smiled.

“Hi”, she replied. “Its actually warm out here, No. The AC in the bus is set pretty high I guess”

“Yeah, think so. But between AC & no AC, I prefer AC”, he said.

“Me too, actually. Shall we get in, or you staying out” she asked him.

“No lets get in. I think I see the driver coming over as well”

Once they were settled in the seat, the girl once again stared out of the window for quite a while. He noticed it & sat quietly. A couple of moments later a beggar stood out side her window. He seemed to be staring at the bus & especially at the spot where they were sitting. The girl seemed to get conscious of that & looked away from the window.

“You know once”, she started to speak to him, “sorry hope I am not disturbing you”

“No not at all. Please go on”, he advised

“Once I was traveling in a friend’s car. We were on our way to Lonavla I think. We had stopped like this on some highway dhaba for some tea. I was sitting in the car at the window & I had put my head down like this…”. She then went on to enact the posture she was sitting in. She put her hands on the handle on the front seat & put her head on it & turned right facing the window. She stayed in that position like that for a couple of seconds. “…I was sitting like this & before I knew I felt drowsy & closed my eyes. There was no one in the car; all my friends were outside drinking tea. They were a little away from the car. Suddenly I feel someone touching my hands. You know for a few seconds I thought it must be one of my friends and slowly opened my eyes. When my eyes were wide open & I registered the view in front of me, I was shit scared & I screamed. It was a monkey”

“Oh Shit”, he said, the look on his face was also of shock. “God. That must have been scary.”

“Scary? It was shit scary. I screamed & screamed. I had a hand bag near by & I took that to shoo it away. Only when it was away from the window did I breathe easy”. She paused for breath & continued, “the worst part is none of my friends could hear me scream. They walked in like as if everything was normal. I was so mad, you know…God…”

“Some Adventure that huh”. She smirked & shook her head.

The bus started off again.

“So you watched the entire film?” He asked her.

“No yeah. I slept pretty early. How about you?”

“I slept early too”.

The bus was on the highway again & the driver shut off the lights. It was dark inside & both the boy & girl sat in silence for the next many minutes.

“No yeah” she had said.