The Unwritten Beginning of a Chance Encounter
The Colombo sky is never the same. Some days it is an unbearable shade of brilliant blue; other days, it hangs heavy with gloomy, grey rain clouds. Quite like my own heart.
I am Senali. Life, to me, has always felt like an exhausting race. Classes from morning till night, exams, constant pressure from home… amidst all this chaos, I had completely lost myself. No one could see the profound loneliness hiding behind my eyes. Everyone only ever saw the Senali who smiled.
It was a Friday evening. As usual, I was standing at the bus stop, weighed down by an immense exhaustion. My only thought was to get home and crash into bed. A light drizzle began to fall. I reached into my bag and pulled out my black umbrella.
“Still the same old black umbrella...”
A voice, incredibly soft and masculine, whispered from right behind me. Startled, I spun around instantly.
A young man was standing there. He wore a dark blue denim jacket. A canvas bag hung over one shoulder, and with his other hand, he held a small sketchbook close to his chest. His eyes were cast downward; he didn’t look at me. He simply walked away, letting himself get drenched in the rain. I shrugged it off, thinking he was talking to someone else.
When the bus arrived, I quickly climbed aboard. Squeezing through the crowd, I sat down by a window, catching my breath. As the bus pulled away, I mindlessly stared outside.
Through the glass, I noticed the boy in the blue jacket was still near the bus stop. He was busy pasting a fresh, stark white sheet of paper over an old, rusted billboard.
As the bus sped up, my eyes locked onto that paper.
It was a beautiful pencil sketch. It captured the back profile of a girl holding a black umbrella. She was wearing the exact same outfit I had on! Below the drawing, written in bold, neat letters, were the words:
“That smile hidden under the black umbrella is more beautiful than the blue sky itself. Smile, for I am watching.”
My breath caught in my throat. My heart raced, and a strange shiver ran down my spine. I looked around the bus in a panic. No one else had noticed it. It was meant for me, and me alone. This message was entirely mine.
By the time I looked out the window again, the boy in the blue jacket had vanished into the bustling crowd.
An involuntary smile spread across my face. For the first time in my life, I felt seen. I felt like there was someone out there who noticed me in this crowded world. Who was he? And why was he doing this?
That first sketch had already stirred a beautiful storm in my heart.
