Her socks were starting to get wet as she walked down the alley. The boots were old and they made little squeaking noises each time she took a step ahead on the wet road. Rhea normally loved rain. Not today.
She looked up at the sky in desperation. They were beautiful—the clouds. If only it weren’t raining like cats and dogs, she would light up a cigarette and take 10 minutes to admire the sky and the empty road. But drenched as she was, inside a yellow raincoat, the only thing she could really use right now was a person who’d be able to give her directions to the guest house. Her first day in California, and she was lost.
Cars passed by, but they never stopped. The silence of the road was almost creepy until she heard someone tapping their feet (to some music, probably) and walking towards her. She wasn’t scared exactly, but something inside her told her not to turn back. It told her to walk straight forward and yet she did not. Instead, she held her hand out to the figure and called him. The guy stopped, turned back, and after ascertaining that it was really him who was being called out, he walked a few more steps, took out his head phones and asked, “Do you need any help ma’am?”
Rhea stared at him for some time. He had a scar near his left eye; one half of his pair of beautiful grey eyes. Those eyes did not suit his pale, sunken face. A face that looked mysterious, and dangerous. The face was a thrilling kind of scary though, the sexy kind.
“I think I’m lost”, she said, and laughed. Suddenly, it was all very funny!
“Are you a tourist?” he asked. Her accent must have given that away.
“Well, yeah”, she said. “I keep travelling. I might be a tourist on a short visit; I might decide to stay for a while.”
“If I could see your address, maybe I could help,” he said. Rhea showed him the tiny piece of paper with her address on it, and started walking down the road with the stranger who had offered to take her to her place.
“You look like you really know the place”, she said, trying to start a conversation.
“Yeah, been here all my life. I grew up here.”
“California, all your life huh! Some lucky jerk you are!”
“You do realise what kind of neighbourhood you are in,” he laughed, as if giving out a warning about himself. Rhea felt a gush of fear.
“I didn’t know California ever slept. Isn’t this supposed to be one of the most happening places in the world?” she said, changing the subject.
“Well, it is ‘happening’ downtown. The valley takes its time to get used to. Where are you from?” he asked.
“Nepal. But I keep travelling. Been to most parts of Asia. Loved Singapore. Was in London with my parents the past few months. Maybe it was my parents, or just London. It got boring. So I left.”
“Wicked!” he said.
“What brings you to California? And this neighbourhood?” he added, after an awkward moment.
“Well, after a few boring months, you seriously need some crazy adventure. And this neighbourhood, because I am broke. Like, seriously broke!”
“So that’s all you do? Travel? And spend your parent’s money and call yourself broke?”
“I don’t live off my parents. I take up boring jobs for a while. The money sustains me for the rest of the year. What do you do?”
A smile lit up his face. “I got a job,” he said, “Just recently last week, in a tattoo shop a few blocks away.”
“Man! How cool is that!” she exclaimed. “I want one on me.”
“Sure!”
“Where do you live?”
“A few blocks away from your guest house.”
“That’s kind of far! Do you always walk?”
“Oh, no. I just take my wretched car otherwise, but it doesn’t really like me when it’s cold and raining.”
“I like walking in the rain,” she said, as she stretched her hands out to catch raindrops.
He laughed, “How are you not tired?
“Oh, I didn’t really do much today. I slept half the day after the jet-lag and took a walk in the evening. Then it started raining, and me being me, I started getting excited and lost my way,” she said, giggling.
“No, I mean..tired of...never mind.”
“Oh, come on!”
But he just put his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and walked faster. Rhea took a few steps faster to catch up.
“Why don’t you have a raincoat? You’re sick drenched,” she said.
“Well, so are you! And I wouldn’t hide behind rain coats if I claimed to love the rain,” he said, and smiled.
“I love the rain even more when I’m drunk.”
“You drink?”
“Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who think girls shouldn’t do alcohol.”
“I’m the kind of person who thinks no one should do alcohol.”
“Says the guy who was into drugs in his teens?”
He gave her a nasty look. This time, it sure was scary!
“Sorry,” said Rhea, almost in reflex.
“Just an advice. You shouldn’t jump to conclusions you know. Might get you into trouble,” he said with a cold edge in his voice. One could easily see he was not very happy.
“You think I’d be walking this lane if I was the kind to be scared of trouble?”
He said nothing.
“I’m not judging you or anything. Just saying cause you look really mysterious you know! I’m a traveller. Nothing is hidden from me!” she added, in a joyful tone.
“Really? People in my new workplace call me a monk though,” he smiled.
“They don’t know how to see,” she said, a bit seriously, “You’re like this big fireball inside, but you try to be calm on the outside. And man! You really try!”
He gave Rhea a crooked smiled. “You have no idea. And you don’t want to know.”
“Try me. Come on! I am this lonely girl who fills up the hole inside her by travelling and calling it her destiny. Maybe I can use some really cool life story.”
“You don’t know the first thing about loneliness.”
“I never got to live with my parents,” she said, drawing a circle with her boots on the road.
“I lived with my foster parents till I was 12 and then I ran away.”
A bit speechless, “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Yeah. They were in it for money anyway.”
“Where did you go? Is that why you have that scar?”
“I managed,” he said as he ran his finger through the little scar. “When I was 15, I got into a nasty fight and went to a juvenile detention centre for six months. I thought I was tough,” he laughed.
“This comes from the toughest person you will ever see on earth, but you’re strong enough,” Rhea said, with a mocking expression.
“Then after, I came back, worked hard, got a girlfriend and saved some money. One bad decision made all of it go away. I had to spend nights on streets. Neighbourhoods worse than even this one.”
“I’m sorry.”
He smiled. “Don’t be. I got a job and I’m climbing up. Few months, a year if I have to, and I’ll have a better house, a wife, a family.”
Rhea smiled. She had not seen hope in its deepest colour ever before that day.
“I’m happy for you. I really am.”
“But yeah, the fireball and the rage inside me go crazy sometimes. Loneliness is one sick joke God can play on you.”
“You can choose to not be you know! Just keep throwing that smile of yours every once in a while and you should be good to go.”
“You’re a really cool person you know!”
“Yeah, I get that a lot.”
They laughed.
“Here is your guest house. Stay safe...”
“Rhea.”
“Stay safe Rhea. I’m Finn by the way.”
“Thanks a lot Finn.”
“Oh, don’t mind. The place was just on my way.”
“No, not for the walk. For sharing. Letting me into your reality. And I thought California was all about sunshine!”
“And you got greeted by rain the very first day.”
“I told you, I like rain!”
Finn smiled and walked away. Hands in the back pocket of his jeans. And Rhea just stood there. Toes pulled inside her wet socks, hands clutched tight and wishing she could do something about her sinking heart.
- Rajina Shrestha
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