Chicken Chowmein

After a few whiffs, he saw her heading towards him. Immediately he threw the half lit cigarette and crushed it. He was mesmerized by her attire and attitude. She was dressed in a light reddish kurti and pale yellow palazzo. A white drape stubbornly refused to fall off from her shoulders. She hugged him and smiled; her perfume dominated his senses as he started taking in her body odour. In the meantime, her unruly silky hair rolled down over his shirt's button.

"Ma will kill me."

"I'll be home late again."

"He is never on time."

"It is only me who is crazy about him."

As these tirades ebbed in her mind, she yelled at her boyfriend over the phone, "You're coming by 5 PM!"

'Oof! This girl, she's so stubborn, dominating and unruly… of course!,' he murmured and disconnected his call.

Minutes later he parked his bike near Reboti Chat House and checked his phone. 15 missed calls, 5 text messages! "Who does this?" "She's mad!" Her endless text messages read-

'Where are you?'

'I know you're always ALWAYS late.'

'Come soon!!'

'I seriously loathe you. This is over between us.'

'Are you coming or not? Should I go or wait? Tell me. Tell me. Moron!!'

Restlessness is in her blood he concluded.

He dials back. Her phone rang. She yells into it ...

"Where have you been?" "It's 5:35 now!"

"Hello!"

"I reached", he replied politely.

"Wait there, I'm coming", she said. "Do not move an inch."

He knows that she is lazily strolling in her favourite spot _ 'Papyrus'. The book shop in Panbazar and that she will make him wait another 20 minutes now intentionally.

He lit a cigarette and wondered.... What must be her mood like now? And her attire? After a few whiffs, he saw her heading towards him. Immediately he threw the half lit cigarette and crushed it. He was mesmerized by her attire and attitude. She was dressed in a light reddish kurti and pale yellow palazzo. A white drape stubbornly refused to fall off from her shoulders. She hugged him and smiled; her perfume dominated his senses as he started taking in her body odour. In the meantime, her unruly silky hair rolled down over his shirt's button.

The two melt away into each other's arms.

"He simply did not answer my calls and my messages. I am mad at him." Stuti whispers to her best friend, Neha, in the classroom. "Why does he do this?!"

"Come on! He'll surely get back to you. He must be busy with a lot of things," Neha assures.

"A week?" A week of busy things?" "Alright!" "But....Stuti persisted, "Why would someone disappear? He just disappeared like smoke."

"Not a single 'Hi' from him yet." As she finished her voice was feeble and tears started welling in her eyes.

In love, the taste of void is more miserable than betrayal, she silently concluded.

That evening Stuti went to purchase some books from the Papyrus Bookstore. She walked through the pavement near Reboti Chat House and suddenly noticed his bike parked there. She was intrigued.

'Is he here?'

'Where the hell has he been?'

'Let me dial him.'

His voice intruded her thoughts.

"Hey love", he said.

"I have been calling you. My messages, all seen and yet no replies to me!!"

"Why?" "Where have you been?"

"What is wrong with you?"

"Are you in a relationship with someone else or do you have any second thoughts regarding us? Tell me!"

"SShhhh!"

"How're you?" He asks her politely. And she smiles.

Both could not resist staring at each other and the warmth of their love made the evening seem mellower. He can calm her down. Stuti knew this. They walk together and cherish their meeting until he drops her home that night.

"Ma, o Ma I am sorry. I promise, I will not repeat. I will be home in time, I will be careful."

She slept off like a baby in her mother's lap.

"I will kill him", she vents her frustration again at Neha. "A week?"

"See, Neha", "Again the same story he is not answering me."

"Why would someone disappear like this?"

"What's wrong with him?"

Neha understood how much despair Stuti was in. She comforts her and advices her to confront him and end this or resolve it for good.

"Whatever! Do it Stuti." Neha said.

Stuti never stopped calling him. She kept sending enormous messages and emails. She spent uncountable nights prophesying he may revert to her calls or messages, or sobbed till next dawn.

Her weeks turned into a month and months turned into more months. Finally a year passed by but no replies. He had not replied to a single text message or call.

Perhaps it was another sunny day. She was driving through the adjacent street near Reboti Chat House and to her surprise she saw him walking through the pavement of Don Bosco School.

"Ayush…"

"Ayush."

She shouted at the highest pitch of my voice.

Stuti keeps shouting his name and the passer-bys stare at her with surprised expressions. She couldn't stop her car immediately in the middle of the road because vehicles were queued behind her.

Finally Stuti found a parking space by chance and parked her car. She just jumped off the car and rushed to Ayush. 'He smiled and hugged her and then without saying a word he just walked away.'

'Strange!' she thought and stared at him.

But this time she decided to follow him and confront him. He had crossed the road to Reboti Chat House and was staring at her from the other side. She crossed the long queues of vehicles that flooded the road to reach him. And the moment she reached the spot, he wasn't there.'

'As if, he just evaporated like…'

It annoyed her greatly. Not knowing what must have happened or how exactly he had vanished, an eerie thought started shackling her.

She opened her phone gallery to zoom out his picture and asked one of the men who worked in that eatery. "Da! Did you see him? Where did he go? He was standing right here!"

"Suwali, tumi pagol hoisa neki?" ("Girl, have you gone mad?") He said annoyed.

"Why?" Stuti queried.

"Nobody stood here. We opened the shop an hour ago and are accepting customers now."

She argued with him. She insisted she had seen Ayush standing right there.

Another man who also worked at the chat house came to her and asked; "Show me the picture again, lady?"

Stuti showed. He was shocked and said, "Oh! This boy, this boy." "I remember. He died in front of us. Do you know, a year ago he met with an accident here."

"He was an avid frequenter for our chicken chowmein."

Stuti's tears rolled down and the last vision she had before falling unconscious on the pavement was of the large pot of chowmein.

Reboti Chat House

Panbazar

Papyrus Bookstore

chicken chowmein

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