A Chance

A Chance

He sits across her in the subway. His eyes wouldn’t have fallen on her had it not been the book she was reading. Her face hidden behind the paperback with the title I know you printed in big bold letters.  He in his late thirties is plain, quiet, shy and uneventful. Single and resigned to a life of bachelorhood, he has fought his battles and has made his peace. Now headed home like every other day in the same subway, through the same route, with many familiar faces around him except this one. Except, this person sitting across him because he has never seen someone with a book in this subway before.

A rampant thriller.

No a mystery.

It must be speculative. He guesses.

Romance? Maybe?

He never read romance novels. He wouldn’t even come close to one. Most of them were flimsy and ridiculous.

Well, what kind of person reads romance novels? He wondered.

His gaze moves over to the fingers holding the book. Small hands with neatly manicured nails painted in a nude shade.

Yellow stockings and naughty boys in patent leather. Who wears patent leather? It’s loud and garish. Her legs are slightly plump and he can judge that she is small.  A few heads shorter than his hundred and eighty-one centimetres.

He is curious. He wants so to see her face.

Why? He wonders.

It’s not like he wants to talk to her. He could never be able to talk to a woman again.

Never. Not since her. Not since the day she abandoned him for another.

Despite all his attempts and endeavours to keep her happy, she had packed up one morning and left without a goodbye.

Why then, after three years, is he sitting across a woman and wondering what she looks like?

The subway slows at a station. Elm Gardens the sign reads. The book shuts and he sees her looking straight back at him.

Round and bright, she’s got a baby face. Her lips pout like a sleeping infant’s and are moist and pink. Her cheeks are flushed probably from reading all this while. But it’s her eyes. They’re incredible. Dark and slanting, they’re marvellously arresting. Long curled lashes curtain them as she gazes down.  He realises that he has been staring but he can’t help it. He can’t move his gaze away from her. People rush to get out at the station. She pushes the book inside a cloth bag and stands up. He stands up as well although this is not his stop. As people rush towards the door she disappears amidst the crowd. He gets pushed outside and he realises that in the chaos he has lost her. He stands on the platform of an unfamiliar station and looks for her amidst the sea of faces. He is looking for that one face in a million faces. The doors shut and the tube slides away leaving him behind.

As the tube moves further into the dark tunnel, the white halogen light inside stands out against the growing darkness and he sees her sitting on the seat he left behind. Those dark eyes looking straight back at him.