Four Aaanas for Peppermint : Story Two

(For a short introductory note on the theme of the story, please refer Prologue)

All those who wander are lost?

 Tiny drops of rain splashed against the window. Heart woke up excitedly. It was waiting for this day since a long time. Mom had granted permission for today’s brunch at their favourite French restaurant. “Today’s the day, today’s the day! Wake up, Brain, wake up! Today is our brunch day! I can already smell the appetizing aroma of freshly stewed, delicious Ratatouille! Ah, what a perfect day!”, the dreamy-eyed Heart pumped vivaciously. Brain scratched itself and looked around skeptically with narrowed eyes.

The drizzling sky painted a grim picture. Sounds of thunder echoed across the hall like a devil’s wicked laughter. The ominous morning had a premonition of inauspiciousness. Unlit alleys have witnessed innumerable crimes in dark hours. Brain shook in horror as Heart’s excited voice brought it back to reality. “Listen here, Heart!” Brain tried to control its accelerated breath, “The day doesn’t seem safe! We can’t risk our lives just to satisfy some food craving! It's unsafe for a girl to go out alone on such a dark gloomy day. We must postpone this brunch to some other time.” “Postpone?”, lashed out Heart angrily, “Are you mad, Brain? Please stop overthinking! A girl doesn’t need a protector to go out and have brunch at her will! Look! Look, how beautiful the weather is for a perfect long drive. And why do we need to worry? - we just take a cab and enjoy the weather! And then we can have the delicious French brunch we had been drooling over in Zomato since long!”, Heart closed its eyes in romantic bliss. “This is such a bad idea, I am saying!”, Brain muttered under its breath. Heart chose to simply ignore the comment.

“Brain come fast! There’s an empty cab near the gate! And I surely don’t want to be late,” Heart danced rhythmically. “In a minute!”, Brain snapped. It downloaded the detailed map of the location from Zomato and took a print of the same. “Phone battery -check, pepper spray - check, wallet – check, map of the location- check”, Brain went over the list again. “The cab driver knows the address to the place! Come, get in quickly. Yayy , we are finally on our way to some amazing French delight!”, Heart exclaimed excitedly.

The gentle breeze brushed past its face amidst the rhythmic beats of raindrops touching the ground. The fond memories of childhood adventures and comfort swayed Heart away to a distant dreamland. Brain was, however, skeptically alert. It wandered its eyes from one passing store to another, registering every single detail of the journey. “Hey Heart! Listen here!”, Brain shook Heart frantically, “I think… I think this cab driver is taking us to some other location! Look, according to the map, we should have taken a left turn two blocks ago. I can’t spot this path on my map! I have lost complete track of our whereabouts”, Brain panted, gasping for breath. “Brain just calm down! He might have taken another route to avoid traffic. Your map doesn’t capture this road, but it doesn’t mean it’s the wrong way!”, Heart tried to reason. “No, Heart! This seems to be a deserted pathway leading to some unknown location. I am telling you; we should scream for help now! We don’t know where this guy can lead us to. As is, there are very few people on the street in this weather”, Brain started calculating the best way to get out of the moving car with minimal injuries. “Wait Brain, Look he just took a left turn!”,Heart exclaimed while checking the map, “ We seem to be on the correct path now. A right turn from the next corner would lead us to our destination. Uhh Brain, you should just relax! I wish someone builds a map with live location tracking and route guidelines; something that we could share with mom back home. Maybe that would help you relax during road journeys!” “Of course! In a Utopian world!”, Brain replied curtly while texting the cab’s number to mom.

Comments

  1. Thats absolutely brilliant. A little anticlimatic but then not all stories need to be the opposite.

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