Graceful Fall

☄

The phrase, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, is well said. And only those who are willing to seek it out, find it. In this ongoing fast world, there are some things that catch the eye, but again, they are only found by those who have a keen eye. Who are flexible to change, willing to adapt yet reminiscent of the old. For them, the fast world slows down.

Kai could have sworn out loud regardless of the place he was at. Scorching heat, fine dust, noise, everything that would hinder his otherwise constantly reeling and filled with thoughts, mind. That was why he liked the quiet of the night, the murmurs of the dawn, the constant coffee machines’ buzzing.

The regular was what he liked. The usual. It was calm and came with no surprises to give him any jump scares. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that he was like a bubble that wandered until it could no more.

But that didn’t mean that he had a meaningless, purposeless life– or a life that wasn’t worth living. No, and that’s because he had a unique perspective. He saw things, read them, and appreciated them. He found them curious, wonderful, and to understand them, he wrote. His inspiration was driven from moments of the past, from his day to day observations, from memories he cherished – from the life he lived.

Though, he could only work in peace and in the calm of his apartment. He never had any sort of inspiration out and in the hustle, for the anxious world and its suddenness made him start up, beat his heart like a war drum, ripping him apart from his own self; the one he found hard to describe, hard to talk to. The one that was in his works, but only unconsciously… He never knew who he was, he was never able to discover himself. So, he simply settled with the idea that he was complicated, like many, and still developing.

But that certainly did not mean that he didn’t want to, he did and so he preferred being alone, to learn about himself. Surprisingly, he was successful to some extent. He found out that he was happy being on his own and loved to have no one around him. Kai was content with just reading from afar and writing about it later, while wearing cloaks of critic, analyst, commentator, or just an observer. He didn’t need anyone, and he never would – or so he thought.

Until then. When he looked, then saw her, on his way to his apartment.

Kai’s feet came to halt just when his hiding eyes spotted her. Hunched over something, a paper perhaps, as her hand glided a pencil over it. She had it placed on the bench, while she herself sat on her bent legs. She might have thought that she could write better that way.

A small child stood beside her, and snuck glances at what she was doing, before he made a face and said: ‘It feels incomplete.’

By that time, Kai had reached the hearing vicinity. He could hear them. When did he get there? He didn’t know. But it seemed that his body had grown a pair of legs, guts, and some audacity.

The movement was involuntary, something he was not accustomed to. It was foreign, like something new, and it made him curious about many things. But the leading thought was that nothing like this had ever happened to him before. It reminded him of his feelings, his thoughts that were chainless, bottomless, heavy, free…

He took a few more steps closer, and he could see the small frown on her face. Waves of light brown–black eyebrows slightly scrunched, and he thought it was the cutest thing he ever saw. But then she fluttered her eyes at the boy by her side, and he realised how unjust the word beautiful was. He was a writer, yet he could not, for the life of his, find a word to describe those eyes that were caged behind straight bars of lashes. But he noticed something and thought:

“They were endless, like

a desert; empty, like a dried up well, like

a hollow vessel.”

She wasn’t beautiful as per the definition of the word. She was common with brown–black hair, the same colour as her eyebrows, and a wheatish–pale complexion, with undertones of red. A small pierced nose, and colourless lips demanded no second glance. She was the crowd. If one crossed paths with her, he’d forget her in a blink.

But that made her beautiful. She was usual, natural, and reminded him of what peace felt like; she reminded him of warmth, and the regular that didn’t disturb. She was beautiful because she made him want to sit by and never avert his eyes. Breathe in her sight, and learn the map of her face until it was etched in his brain and engraved on his heart.

The sun glared at her, and in her honey dew eyes, making her scrunch her brows more. She tried to shield her eyes with her hand to stop the giant ball from shining bright in them, when she began to feel dizzy. Black dots clouded her vision as after effects. She could picture her energy being sipped away and sucked out. It was so hot!

‘How so?’ just when she asked, Capria felt a little cool, as if the sun was no longer breathing down her neck. She found a figure blocking the dazzling white globe. He held an umbrella in his hand, and faced away from her so that she could only see his side profile. His face remained hidden behind his umbrella even then.

She thanked him, internally of course, thinking of making the most of how long the man decided to stand there. She had to be done with the drawing before she went to work. Her lunch break was almost over anyway.

Adjusting herself under the cool shade of the man and his umbrella, she turned back to the kid and saw him shrug in response to her question. That made her take in a breath and look back at the drawing. ‘Now that you say, I think I know. I’ll just have to figure out what it is.’ she chuckled before baring a set of straight teeth at the boy who pouted.

‘Ayy, don’t be like that. I think I know what I can do with it. I’ll have to bring something next time I think.’ Capria didn’t want to tell him that she was clueless. She only said that to not spoil his mood.

Guess, the drawing cannot be completed today.

She didn’t like it when things didn’t go the way she planned. But she always accepted the changes as they came. Life had her learn that lesson the hard way.

Holding on to the handle of his umbrella, Kai strained his ears further to hear when that next time would be, glancing behind him discreetly.

‘Really? What?’

‘I’m not sure. But, I’ll get there.’ she teased the kid before going back to the drawing. The five or so–year–old, wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeves. He threw another sad pout in her direction, before he noticed the shade on her. His eyes led him to the figure on his left, right by the bench. They connected gazes.

A quizzical look overtook his features as he tried to connect dots. Out of embarrassment and good heart, or rather guilt for his overlooking, Kai held out his hand to block the sun from beating down red on the boy’s cheeks, who only gave him a toothy grin and addressed the lady. ‘I hope I can draw like you one day, Capria.’