Hovering memories

While most of life speeds by at blink-and-you’ll-miss-it speeds (no, I don’t mean the long boring hours you spend in office every day), some moments make you stand and stare, not exactly at the same moment, but awhile later it comes back to you, and you can’t get it out of your head no matter how much you try.

This is based on two such memories:

 

Scene 1: It was Christmas time and I was on my way to meet a couple of friends for dinner, but stuck in the traffic and cursing it. So I was waiting for the signal to turn green, and the auto to move, when along comes one of those street-vendors who had these toy - bikes and cars. Like most of these vendors do, he stuck the bike in my face trying to sell it to me. Now, I’m not normally rude (If you laughed reading this, well, I’ll deal with you later), but the bike made a really annoying noise and I told him that I wasn’t interested. The auto driver however, had a different opinion. He enquired about the bike, wanted to see it “ride” on the road, checked for more of the annoying sound and finally asked for the price. I don’t remember what it was but it was obviously more than he could afford. He tried to bargain, but the price he offered was too low for the vendor. He went so far as to say it was or his little son at home, but the two couldn’t agree on a price. I was almost about to take some money from my purse and buy the boy (I won’t pretend it wasn’t just so I dint have to listen to the whrr-whrr of the bike), but the signal turned green, and vehicles all around started honking and we left.

 

Well I did manage to reach the restaurant on time, but needless to say some of the Christmas cheer was lost.

I wonder if the kid got a gift, I wonder if he had a Christmas miracle…

 

 

Scene 2: It was one of those days when I had to wait back late in office, one of those high work pressure days, when you’re literally at the edge of your seat getting work done, when coffee breaks don’t mean 30 minutes away from your system, where there’s no time for games to be played. Luckily for me, I got done with my work to take the last cab home. I was almost halfway home when the driver’s phone rang. Now it was only a one-sided conversation that I could hear but I got the gist of it. It was his daughter, calling to say she was feeling unwell. He asked her if her mother was around, asked to ensure that she ate her food, and asked her to go with her mother to the doctor. He told her to tell the doctor that he’d come by to pay him the money later, and to just take the medicines and come home. Like any child, she asked her father when he would be home. He answered that he still had a couple of shifts left and wouldn’t be able to make it home before midnight. I couldn’t hear what she said, but judging by his replies along the lines of ‘I’ll try and hurry as much as I can’, I guess she was asking for her father to come home soon.

He disconnected the phone, but drove the cab just a little bit faster, and you could see he meant what he said.

 

Don’t’ you remember when you were little and fell sick, don’t you remember calling your parents at working, pretending you were almost dying, asking them to hurry, but also asking for something to be bought for you? If they weren’t able to come home as soon as you wanted them to (and God-forbid without what you wanted), don’t you remember bringing the place down with your tantrums?

 

I hope the driver got at least one more of his pick-ups cancelled, and could make it home earlier. I hope his daughter got well quickly, but most importantly I wonder if she was able to forgive her father for not being able to come home immediately.