Against the cold winds of the winter Hitesh stood, trying to pull up the collar of this jacket even further to protect himself from this onslaught of winter at its peak. The street was visibly empty, the intense cold wave had been making its rounds for the past two days and the weather report said it would continue to do so for the next three days as well.
Hitesh brought his left wrist up to look at the smartwatch he was wearing. Its screen stayed blank till he tapped on it with the index finger of his right hand, but it still did not wake up and only after a series of tapping and twisting the wrist did it show the time.
‘Maybe the cold has hit its nerve too..’ thought Hitesh as he looked to the far end of the road where he was expecting the lights of the bus to appear with the rest of it following.
‘Did I miss the last bus?’ thought Hitesh, who was almost never this late from office. He followed the principle of never working late hours after suffering a debilitating mental breakdown at his last workplace. It had taken a whole year to recover from mentally and physically.
There had been a lot of work to be done at the office recently and at such time one of Hitesh’s colleagues in the same department had come under the grasp of seasonal cold. Hitesh had to cover a partial amount of work for her.
Hitesh did not intend to sit on the metal seat of the bus-stand; he was tired from sitting at his desk and it was also an attempt to avoid the unpleasant feeling of the cold the metal contained. The advertisement with backlit panel shone with its white background, on it was written a single line in big black coloured letters, ‘What are you waiting for?’, in the right corner was the logo of a company which offered holiday packages. Recently these advertisements had been appearing everywhere near office buildings in an attempt to allure the tired and worn-out minds of the employees who had almost forgotten what the outside world was like.
“So..” said a female voice and Hitesh noticed a young woman sitting on the far-right seat of the bus-stand. He had not seen her before and neither had he sensed her arriving. The woman did not say anything further as if waiting for Hitesh to understand in completion what his eyes were seeing.
“Hello” said Hitesh, “can I help you?”
“No, you can’t,” said the woman
“I am sorry?” said Hitesh suspecting the woman might have consumed something which might have led to elevation and confusion of senses
The woman smiled, “I mean I am waiting for my driver to arrive with the car, so you cannot help regarding that.”
‘Definitely not in her senses’ thought Hitesh ‘maybe overworked’
“I’m sure your driver will arrive soon with car,” said Hitesh and began to turn his face away from the woman
“What if your bus arrives before, you will leave and I will be alone,” said the woman with her gaze wandering off into a thought
Hitesh did not say anything and a long pause pursued. Then he decided to break the silence feeling something tense seeping in.
“You work around here?” he asked
“.. used to,” said the woman
“Back for an interview?”
“Not really”
“Last day?”
The woman looked at Hitesh and smiled, “Let’s just say I am here for the force of habit?”
‘Looks like another victim of cut-offs. But given that she has a car and driver, she has done pretty well for herself or she might be from a financially well-off family’
The woman’s eyes focussed upon something past Hitesh and she spoke, “There is your bus.”
Hitesh looked and at the far end of the road he could see the bus slowly approaching. He recalled what the woman had said before.
Hitesh turned to the woman and said “If you can drop me at the train station….”
“No.. you should go,” said the woman smiling
“Are you sure?” asked Hitesh with a shade of worry spreading over his face
“The worse had already happened, nothing more can happen anymore,” said the woman with her smile slowly fading
The bus came to a stop with the sound of compressed air being released and the next second that Hitesh took to glance at the bus was the one in which the woman disappeared into the next brush of cold air and Hitesh stood for four breaths looking at the emptiness before climbing on the bus.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
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