Ah! the queue. That's where I saw her. Actually, that's where I saw them. They were part of the line parallel to me. A group of four girls who were barely out of their teens. All chic and suave. It seemed to me that they were having a serious discussion. They chattered, argued, consoled and finally arrived at a conclusion. Instead of the entire group, one of them would stand in line while the others waited at the far end of the hall! Fair enough, I thought.
The chosen one was soon left alone between two older men and the rest of the group scrambled. She moved sideways, a bit out of the queue, apparently not to get sandwiched between the men. I looked over the shoulders of the person standing in front of me to the front of the queue as if in exasperation and tilted my head in mock disgust at the slow-moving queue and stole a glance at her.
She wore a black cotton shirt ,cut at the right measures so as to hug her trim figure and a polka-dotted skirt. I shifted my position. It was no more a glance now. My eyes were scanning her unabashedly. Now, there is something to be said about this skirt. And it is not about the displacement between the medium sized dots printed on it. The skirt barely reached her knees. It might be nothing new, but you don't get to see too many of that variety in this part of the Country. It loosely hung from her hips and swayed back and forth as she shifted her balance onto each leg. Soon she moved a bit ahead of me, thanks to a middle-aged woman who caused some delay at the front of my queue, and I was able to take her entire frame in my eyes without straining too much. I leered at her shapely legs and trim waist.
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After placing my luggage under the wide seat inside a reserved compartment, I sat down near the window and stretched my legs. My fellow travellers were a bulky couple who sat face to face and two other men perched on single seats close to the other window. A bit strange, I thought. Usually the Train is more crowded on a Monday morning. What the heck, I thought. It was quiet in here and there were three and a half hours left on the inside before the Train reached its destination and I could help myself to a nap. I closed my eyes.It was the loud babbling, laughter and the feeling of feet and baggage shuffling around me that caused my rouse from slumber. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was 'polka dots'. They seemed to sashay in front me. I sat up and my eyes adjusted with the surroundings. The couple had moved sideways and three of the girls, including Polka Dots, were occupying the part of the seat opposite me and one of them sat by my side. I looked at my watch. I might have slept for 10-15 minutes. I pretended impassiveness. Frankly, I was pondering over a few things. Were these girls wandering all this time for a nice quiet place? Did I miss them on the platform while I was in a hurry to board the train? I cast my gaze casually at the group. I was certain that they were from my Hometown despite the fact that neither of them adhered to conventional looks. All of them were pretty in a way. All of them, except her.
I got to take in her full frontal view, for the first time, as she was gesturing in an animated fashion accentuating something she said in part-English, part-mother tongue. She had a chiselled face, lean eye brows, high cheekbones and slender arms that suited someone who was into modelling. She wore large ear-rings, the ones we might get confused with bangles. Her medium length hair was pinned to the back with a few strands hanging loosely on the side of her face. The wind caused her skirt to move slightly for an instant and I saw a flash of milk-white thigh. That did it. I wondered what she was wearing underneath those evenly spaced dots. Was her panties a hipster, bikini-cut or even thong? Black, red or any other less sensuous colour? I dreamed about running my hand up her skirt. I just hoped that the massive erection that was straining against my underwear and tight fitting jeans was not noticeable. I moved forward, covering my crotch with my arms during the process. The bulky couple was collecting their luggage, apparently to alight at the next station. That would leave me and two other men at the far side, within the vicinity of the girls. I looked outside through the window.
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"Bro." I turned my head and saw Miss. Polka Dots looking at me. Her friends who sat on her either side too were watching me intently.Me? Bro? Before I could get over with my bewilderment and conjure up a response she shot a question towards me. "When does this...." I cut her off and told her my name. She smiled. I had to admit to myself that it looked genuine. It was different from those smirks that had appeared on her face whenever her friends cracked mean jokes.
"Okay", she said and addressed me by my name. The smile did not fade away as quickly as I had anticipated.
"How much more time"? She leaned forward a bit.
I bit my lower lip and glanced at my watch.
"A couple of hours maybe. Since we are running late by about half-an-hour, it might be close to noon when we reach there," I said as I tried hard to keep my eyes from wandering away from her eyes.
She thanked me and turned her attention towards her friends. Mine turned towards her, again. I sat back and enjoyed the show she was putting up. She talked with vigour and passion about their plans upon reaching the destination. A wide range of expressions traversed her face and her body writhed accordingly. She let an air of seriousness around her and she was convincing too, I thought. Not even for once did she let her eyes do a quick dart towards me during those three minutes. But, she knew very well that she herself was at the focal point of my vision. I had trouble concentrating. The sleep was really getting into me now.
**********************
I looked up as I heard my name being called out. She was looking at me intently.
"Sorry," She continued. "Sorry to trouble you again. We need some info on train timings".
"No sweat". I said. "Shoot".
Her lips curled. She suddenly seemed at a loss of words and looked over at the girl who sat next to me.
"Okay". I cut in quickly. "Are you girls returning today"?
"Yeah". The answer was a bit of a chorus.
"So." I kept my gaze steady at Polka Dots. "When is curfew"?
She laughed. I drew parallels with her previous smile. This one too was brimming on the verge of verisimilitude. Only the girl who sat facing me joined in the laughter. The other two from the quartet weren't either amused or the phrase did not register with them.
"Nothing like that". She replied, grinning. "I don't want to keep my folks waiting till late night".
I gave her the details about trains leaving the City around late-afternoon and evening. She listened patiently whenever I spoke, her face expressionless, her body leaning closer to me. She wanted to know about some parts of the City though she had been there a few times. My answers were matter of fact and to the point. But I felt an uneasiness inside me. It was not there when the conversation started. The twinge in my chest was growing stronger by minute now. I doubted what she was thinking while masquerading under that serene look she sported. I just hoped that my facial contortions could deceive the nervousness I was feeling inside.
**********************
Inside the toilet, I looked into the mirror. Like all individuals who were not born with fine facial features, I too had tried to hone whatever resources I was left with. But, my wrinkles, buck tooth, balding head and dark skin tone would surely defy anything that had gone into grooming. I couldn't even dream about qualifying for a spot in her nth string boyfriends. Still, there was no Option C. Either I had to forget the whole thing or I had to do it my way. I knew that my hands were trembling, but there was no way she could spot it once I went back to the seat. The train was running at a much higher speed now.
**********************
I walked into to the compartment and found that certain changes had taken place with the seating arrangements while I was gone. Ms.Polka Dots had moved to the spot preoccupied by me. The other three sat on the opposite side. Some kind of a joke was doing the rounds and they were laughing. I walked towards them with an air of uncertainty.
"Oh. I hope you don't mind". She said looking up at me.
I shook my head and sat down near her.
My phone rang. I exchanged the obligatory courtesies in a few words with my colleague. Then, to his absolute horror I asked him to send me some long pending documents. In crisp and measured words I requested reports on certain trivial stuff that would not definitely enthuse a professional in Computer Networking.
"So, what do you do"? She asked, a minute later, her face turned towards me. That confirmed that I didn't sound pompous.
I'm not a person one would call a conversationalist. I don't open the floodgates of verbosity unless I'm in the company of people I know very well. But I didn't want to remain tacit this time. I turned sideways to face her a bit and fixed my gaze on her eyes as good as my posture would allow. Sometimes I had to look at the floor, at her friends and at the lush greenery outside.
I picked my words carefully and told her about the nature of my work. As a person very well aware of his own shortcomings, I wanted to avoid sounding inquisitive and I left to herself the freewill to say whatever she wanted to divulge. And in exchange for some of the things she said, I gave her an insight into my education, my blogs, my fetish for vocabulary, and lot of other stuff. She was much more vocal and expressive this time around. After all weren't discussing trains here. When the chat stumbled upon the inevitable topic, it was as worse as I had expected. I was convinced that she was seeing someone, the moment I saw her in that queue, but now she nudged forward the topic as something of an offshoot of my singleness. I gave a momentary thought about it. All I had done was to maintain diplomacy throughout the discussion. It wouldn't even serve as one among the basic tenets for friendship. It was only natural that she didn't want to talk about her relationship. The pain came back to my chest. I fidgeted. I looked over to the far side. The two single seats were empty now.
She said something which felt incoherent to me. I turned towards her. There was a sudden rush of blood to my head.
"I'm sorry". I said.
She paused midway, her mouth slightly open.
To her friends I said, "Forgive me for this. I just can't help it".
She was looking at me astonishingly. I leaned over quickly and placed my lips on hers. One of the girls let out a shriek. One of them stood up. I didn't notice the third. Polka Dots was stone-faced and dead-still. She was too horrified to move or speak. I told the girls to calm down. A man came into the picture out of nowhere and looked at the group quizzically. Everyone remained still and silent until he walked away.
Her friends were talking frantically in a toned down volume now. There were a few questions directed at me and her but neither of us spoke. Finally, she got up and moved towards the walkway. I followed suit.
