The Tickets

Many a times, Charlie had thought why he had so much affection, respect, and love towards Reema, but he struggled a lot to find out a proper answer for the question raised by his very own conscience. Charlie and Reema did their graduation from the same college. Charlie initially, found her at his college’s canteen, that too three times on the same day. He then decided to make her his partner forever as does every movie hero. While our hero was an innocent yet bold guy, he accidentally found out that Reema was from his adjacent classroom. That was a green signal for Charlie, as he can now see her at each and every interval, and try to start a conversation with her. The problem was that he saw Reema at the verge of semester exams appearance.

He then decided to confess his love to her on their last semester examination. As he planned, he executed the same. He boldly went on to her and confessed his love, saying that he had tried several times to speak with her but didn’t get a chance to, and said those three magical words that every boy would wish to say to their loved ones. Reema feared, she feared of this sudden proposal of love from Charlie. She didn’t give a proper reply that day, she was just afraid, and left the place, by shrinking her eyebrows, and nodding her head in an adorable manner. Reema was a very soft, innocent, and a sweet character. Charlie didn’t get a proper response from her, but his heart was filled with happiness, by just adoring at her cute nod. All the hostellers were instructed to vacate the hostel campus as a break for one month was about to begin. Charlie packed all of his stuffs, and was ready for his train scheduled at 10 in the night. He wasn’t fortune enough as he got only an RAC ticket. Charlie waved his roommates Hrithik, Raj, and Raghav, a temporary goodbye, and left the hostel campus.

He was at the railway station, waiting for his train. Everything he saw, reminded him of Reema. He was on platform number one and his coach was the seventh, and Reema’s birthday was on 17th of July. His mind exaggerated these small coincidences, as a very humongous one. His train arrived, and he boarded the train smoothly. As he got an RAC ticket he can’t lie on the berth and have a nap during his 8-hour long journey, since he had to share the berth with another passenger of the same ticket.

The train was on its verge of leaving the station, and at that time, suddenly someone from his coach pulled the chain to stop the train, so that the person who was running towards their coach could board the train. The alarm rang, and the train stopped. A masked girl out there on the platform, was paying the fine amount to the railway officials, and then boarded the train. She headed towards Charlie’s seat. Charlie was surprised, seeing the masked girl. He looked into her eyes, and immediately found out that it was Reema! He was astonished, his pupils expanded, and at the same time, Reema’s pupils expanded to a greater extent in shock, finding Charlie over there. They both were now together, to share an RAC ticket on the train, for a freaking 8-hour long journey!

Reema didn’t get out from the shock after seeing Charlie over there. Charlie was literally smiling with sigh and shy, and it was an overwhelming moment of joy for him. They both frequently had eye contact, but the train hadn’t even crossed the first stop of its journey. Charlie prepared himself mentally, to start a convo with Reema. However, both of them weren’t able to avoid each other, as it was a quite long journey. Shockingly, Reema was the first to start the convo! She apologized to Charlie, for not responding to him properly, when he confessed his love to her.

Charlie was mesmerized and had an internal melted down listening to her voice. Charlie replied her that he had no issues with it, and in fact, it would have made a greater impact if she had said something harsh.

They both started speaking to each other, somewhat better. They still managed to not to cross their limits of sharing, that may lead to oversharing with a newbie. Though Charlie was ready to share every single sign of happiness and his struggles to her, and wanted to rant to her, a lot. But he was best at controlling his mind, so resisted himself from being shitty to this girl. After lots of fun talk between them, as usual, came a sudden period of awkward silence. Both of them bent their heads, put over a smile on their faces, sighed, looked again into each other, and again bent their heads in shy. Reema’s eyes were red, the time was 2 in the early morning, and she gradually started to sleep. This was Charlie’s most magical moment that he dreamt of several times. Not kidding, it was literally his dream girl, just sitting in front of her, resting on the window and sleeping, with her messy hair over her face. Charlie felt the masculine urge to move her hair away from her face smoothly using his hand, and did the same. He was actually screaming a lot from his heart, but remained silent, smiling with shy.

The sun rose, it was the verge of the dawn’s arrival, as well as the train’s arrival to the final stop of its journey. Charlie waked up Reema, she woke up seeing Charlie’s adorable smile. The final stop arrived, all the other passengers from their coach got down, and even these two souls, were about to get down the train. They both looked into each other’s eyes, surprisingly, Reema walked towards Charlie, and they both, had a gentle hug, waved their hands as a sign of temporary goodbye, and left the train. Charlie stood still for a minute, even after Reema left the train. He was totally shocked, surprised, his cheeks were blushing, and at the same time, he was filled with complete happiness. Then he too, left the train.

Suddenly, Charlie’s legs got stuck in the gap between the platform and the train on the track. He was so afraid, was unable to pull his legs out of the gap. He then opened his eyes, got into a shock, and realized that his legs were get caught in between the gap of his cot on which he was lying and sleeping in the hostel. He then said to himself that “Whaaattt the fuckkkk! Was that all a dream?!” He then started to realize that Reema was already in a relationship. As we humans, all over the world, adore the moon in spite of knowing that we can’t get near to it, the same way, Charlie adored and admired at Reema. That was one of the most memorable dreams Charlie had! .....

Cover Page Credits: Sathya Pramod K S