Halloween
2011 was progressing just like an ordinary day would, until the evening came.
It brought with it a group of kids out trick or treating. They rang our
doorbell and screamed trick or treat into my face. I of course handed them an
entire box of sweets from the fridge. I mean who wants to get in trouble with a
group of kids?
That same
evening, I met the group coming out of another building in the complex. I'd
gone to fetch something for my mother. This time, having already tricked and
treated me, they stopped and chatted. There was this dark girl with shining
black eyes who was clearly the leader of this ragtag bunch and she made an
impression on me. She told me she loved Halloween. I told her I did too,
principally because I could use my sixth sense well on Halloween to smell out
ghosts.
Her eyes
widened and she blurted out "How can you do that?" I told her I was
born with it. She immediately asked me if there were any ghosts in Sherwood
(Sherwood Estate, Narendrapur where we stay) and was very disappointed when I
said no.
I saw her in
the compound the next day or rather she saw me and introduced herself as
"Coffee". I told her that was the name of a beverage. She replied
that it was also her name. A friendship was struck up and maintained. Coffee
refused to tell me her real name, but she had a brain like a razor blade. We
would discuss Harry Potter, Porcupine Tree and The Beatles on walks around the
Sherwood compound. She could walk almost as fast as me despite being eight
inches shorter.
We became
good friends very fast. I think I was drawn to her intellect. She would give me
life advice that actually made sense, she would pry into my life but do it in
such a way as to not give offense. She told me when her dog passed away, but I
never saw her cry.
She was one
of the strangest, quirkiest and rewarding friendships I had ever had.
And then,
one day she vanished into thin air. She had just mentioned that she was headed
for London. That was all the information I got out of her.
We had
shifted to Asansol and this flat in Sherwood remained empty for three years,
until we came back to Kolkata and moved in here again. I take a walk daily
around the campus and I take the route Coffee and me used to take- starting out
in front of the clubhouse and circling the entire complex from that epicenter.
Coming back here has brought back memories of the friendship.
I wonder
where Coffee is now. I wonder what she's doing. I wonder if she is ever going
to read this and I hope someday I'll see her again. I might be sounding naive
but there it is. Let us see what happens next,and if at all this friendship
resumes.
The Bilge Master
