A day in summer continued

Only social connect he had was his ‘friends’ on the island. For him, they were new faces everyday, for them, he was an old friend. Though even they didn’t know much about his past, apparently he is very private and secretive person. He wasn’t trying to be so today. Some days, an odd friend would comment something about a girlfriend from past, on other days, the ‘other’ friends won’t have a clue. Vic has made a ritual everyday to keep track of his friends. He would go to his Dive shop every morning, it hopefully being in the same place every time. Take out the employee register and check all the names, so that he at least know his employees you name. For the rest, he would call them champ, dude or bro, whatever short slang he could muster then. He had become an expert in guessing people’s vocation by just looking at their attire. Another social connect he had was with the tourists, many coming to his shops late mornings to book an afternoon dive. He would at times spend evenings with them, even nights on some lucky days. He was much more relaxed with ‘strangers’ as they knew as much about him as he knew about them. He could forget, without worrying too much about remembering.

One fine day, it was another warm 12th of July 2016. Vic was up and ready to receive new tourists at 9:30 in the morning. A group emerged from nearby resort on the opposite end of the beach. A couple of cute looking girl in them. They stopped by the shanty across the dive shop to grab breakfast. Vic was expecting a few customers as his register read an appointment at 10 AM. He could see them looking across towards his place and figured this could be them. One gaze particularly caught his attention. This girl, one in a white sundress, she was staring with a kind of familiarity. Vic had learnt to identify such gaze, it helped him figure who on the island were his friend. But he had never seen this in a tourist, is she a local guide, her dress doesn’t suggest so. Who is she, and why is she staring at him like that. The group gets up and starts walking towards the shop. “Okay, let’s see”, Vic gets up and gets ready to greet the incoming customers as they come close.

“Vic, is that you? God, I haven’t seen you in years. So this is where you had disappeared,” It was a long time since Vic has had a startling sensation. The element of surprise had become a bit redundant in his life. But what was this, was it something he had been waiting for all this time. A sign, that he wasn’t in some god forsaken purgatory. An evidence, that he has a real life as well. But what does this evidence leads to. Why he is in this situation, and how does it actually works. All these questions suddenly came back to him. Why now, and what is this ‘now’?

Author: Vikash K Thakur

I'm a pilot by profession. Always loved reading stories, so decided to write some too. Flights give life to fleeting thoughts, and to land those thoughts, I've made this runway. View all posts by Vikash K Thakur