Chapter 1: THE UMBRELLA.
**THE UMBRELLA [A Short Story]**
In a city as busy as Mumbai, with signals turning red and heavy traffic, it's raining everywhere. Our girl, dressed in an office suit, is stuck in the traffic of her mind.
Walking down the busy road with heavy, tired eyes and shoulders hunched—as if she has been carrying a lot inside—she walks through the city lights at night without an umbrella. Every piece of her is drenched with sorrow. With her face looking down, the rain suddenly stops.
She looks at her trembling hands and realizes the rain is no longer taking her away from herself. She looks up in the hope of catching a glimpse of a starry night after the rain, but her eyes collided with a pair of green marble eyes which were already looking at her. That beautiful face with pink lips and redness around the eyes smiled at her, handed her the umbrella, held her hand, and made her twirl.
She was mesmerized by his eyes, but as soon as reality hit her, she turned and he was nowhere to be seen.
She then looked around; the actual world, more busy than her thoughts, somehow seemed more alive and beautiful. She realized the rain had actually stopped, leaving a starry sky with beautiful scars of clouds.
She closed the umbrella. There was a price tag on it.
"Oh! So it's expensive! It also has a receipt attached... was it just bought?"
