Inspirational Story – A Lonely Street
Photo credit: czbrat from morguefile.com
Leaves rustled in the gentle breeze that blew on the cold Friday night of November as she walked past her apartment gate and onto the main road. An array of thoughts swirled in her head, all of which she put away in the farthest corner of her mind. Pulling the stole around her firmly, she increased her pace to get warm.
A stray dog stood silently and gazed at her from a bend in the road. Turning her attention to the streetlights on her right, she walked past it carefully, sensing it’s eyes on her back and hoping it wouldn’t follow. Once assured of the stationary dog, she looked around herself. It was a cloudless, clear night and she could smell the fresh mud that had accumulated near the pavement because of the rainfall earlier in the day. She looked at the trees and took in the beauty of the stars. Her eyes glistened in the bright moonlight as she walked on.
Slowly, when she was half a mile from home, she let her thoughts come back one by one. Memories of her mother flooded her head and her ever-smiling face materialised before her. She thought of the way her mother would tilt back her head and laugh with her as a best friend, the way she stroked her hand and gave comforting advice as a guardian, or the way she played with her grandson as a kid. She missed an always helping hand, a shoulder to cry on, a constant source of inspiration. She missed her mother.
Life had moved on in the last two years, everything had changed. Her dad now stayed with her sister’s family and she, taking a conscious decision about her career, had moved to a small apartment in the city and the corporate life had absorbed her completely. Everything was going as per the plans, everything was exactly the way it should have been, but everything was not enough. Her life was monotonous; it was boring, quite like the lonely street she was walking on. Except, here was peace and she felt more complete than she’d felt in a long time.
She took a turn towards the locality park and slowed down as she neared it. She opened the creaking gate as slowly as she could and entered inside. Tiny splashes of water hit her feet as she walked on the wet grass and she cursed herself for not wearing socks. She sat down on the nearest bench and rubbed her hands together. The air was getting even colder and she wondered what time it was. Looking around in the darkness, she let her mind drift off to the pile of work she had to do on the weekend.
She had been working hard for a promotion for a little over eight months now, even though she was already at a very senior position. Long conversations sealing business deals on the phone, preparing and presenting powerpoint presentations, working upon new ideas for the company were the only things that kept her occupied, even on weekends. Most of her old friends now rarely bothered to ask her for an outing and making new friends here seemed next to impossible, thanks to her tight work schedule and her lack of interest in having a social life. Sometimes, just sometimes, she would feel like hanging out with her colleagues, but before she could gear up the courage to ask them for a get together, a tiny part of her brain would always manage to give her second thoughts.
She sighed and lay down on the bench, trying to steer away her thoughts. One.. Two.. Three.. Four.. She counted the stars above her, pointing her finger towards the sky like a kid. She counted up to a fourteen and then strained her neck to look for more. Smiling, she got up and walked around the park, gazing upwards all the while. After locating two more, her pace picked up as she went around in circles, squinting her eyes towards the heavens in search of even more. With each star, the smile on her face widened, marvelling at those tiny, but bright sources of light. Finally, with an aching neck, she decided to settle for a reasonable count of twenty two.
Feeling satisfied, she came out of the park, closed the gate behind her and stood looking at the street. A number of cars lined the slip road near the resident complexes. She noticed the security guard to one of the apartments dozing off in a chair. She listened to the vague sound of the wind against her ears, which were now numb with cold. Not being able to decide whether she wanted to go back home already, she shuffled from one foot to the other, breathing in the fresh air. She thought of her best friend who’d flown out of the country for a vacation and was now scheduled to return in two days. She was her soul sister, her partner in crime, her support bank and it was always them against the world. Even though they had been staying a six hour drive apart for a little more than a year now and they hadn’t been able to spend as much time together as they would like, with her she could always take up things from where they had left off the last time.
Making plans in her head to catch up with her friend as soon as she returned, she set upon her return journey towards home. The wind was picking up and the temperature seemed to drop 5 degrees at once. She started singing to herself, hoping it would prevent her from shivering with cold. A gust of wind blew away a plastic bag that was lying on the road and her gaze followed it till it was out of sight. Suddenly, she seemed to be enjoying everything around her. Clicking her fingers and nodding her head to the rhythm of the song, she moved along, looking down at the pebbles that lay scattered on the side of the street and the tall trees that lined the sidewalk. She stopped to look at two branches, and the smaller needle-like underbranches that emerged from them, stemming out of one of the trees in a peculiar manner. They seemed to look like two stick figures that were joined together at the feet. Capturing the strange sight in her eyes, she continued on her way. The spot where the dog had been was now empty and she crossed it without hesitation.
At last, she stood facing her apartments and turned back to look at the street once again. This time, however, it didn’t seem to be lonely anymore. Smiling to herself, she entered the apartment gate ready to embrace a new dawn.
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