Prelude: I and my thirty-five old self, set a challenge: if I say yes to writing before midnight then I continue writing, else not. He somehow can go to my consciousness (I do not understand how so much happens in fourteen years). Battleground: My conscious, my plot, my place. He succeeds and I fail. I do not understand to date.
I was fairly confident, that he would never have the slightest idea of me spending time inside a bar. Well, to be honest, it was more of a restaurant, and less of a bar, but yeah, there was a bar component to it. I decided I would stay here till midnight.
I sighed a relief before opening the door. I took a quick peek behind my back, I saw no familiar faces, and I just went in. It was quite silent compared to what I have imagined. I was tensed. I saw each of the tables occupied, except one in the corner of the room. A vacant chair and a gorgeous lady, what more is needed. I said, "evening sorted".
I walked slowly towards that table.
"Is this seat taken?" asked I with utmost politeness.
"No. You can occupy" replied she. The voice was beautiful, can't complain. I slid the chair slowly, adjusted myself with the least amount of noise.
"You are alone here?" asked I cleaning my wet face with a handkerchief.
"You seem to have quite a run. Did you run all the way to here?" she shot a question at me, instead of answering. I asked the wrong question, I believe.
"Yeah, I did. I am going through a rough time"
"You do look tense. What's the story?"
I cleared my throat. Looked at her, and asked "You must have heard of time-travel. Do you believe in the concept?"
"I have seen a number of movies on time-travel. And have read some stories also. I find the concept fascinating!"
Beauty with brains!
"So, let me tell you what's going on with me" she nodded, I continued. "I am being chased by a guy, aged 35, with the name of Siba Smarak Panigrahi"
"Why is that name familiar? I have heard that somewhere... Ah! I remember, he is the author of that blog ...uh, 'Within My Mind'? I have read a few stories. Dear Crush, right?" said she.
"Yeah, absolutely true. Have you read his final story? Swan Song? Without that, there is not much of a context to talk."
She paused me there. Opened her mobile. Went to the above story and read it. It was a great feeling to see her reading the story in front of me!
"It ends there? What's next? Where is the next story? This leaves with a lot of questions!" she was not satisfied with the blog ending there.
"Now you are a part of what follows next in the story," said I with a smirk.
She gave a confusing look. Glanced at me for a moment. She went to Facebook, searched me, and looked back at me. "It's you, right?"
"Yeah" and I smiled.
"Man, I wanted to meet you so bad after reading Dear Crush! I almost messaged you. I am really glad that you ran here (a short elegant smile). My name is Vanessa. I am from France."
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute! You are from France? What are you doing here?!" I was intrigued, surprised and elated.
"Well, I am here to meet someone. And you showed up instead of him. (A brief pause) Let's hear, you were saying something about your future self?" she ended with yet another beautiful smile.
"Yeah. I almost forgot. So, he is chasing me, and I came here, cause I know, I would never imagine myself here. Now, after my thirty-year-old self left me, we were on a different timeline than the original. And with the arrival of thirty-five-year-old me, we changed to another timeline.
Now, he wants me to continue writing for some concealed reason and says that the bad phase in 2030 is quite small compared to what he is enjoying because of the blog. He is now trying to convince me to continue writing. The condition is that the stories would be approved by him... so that the order of story release remains the same, and that aspect does not change in this new timeline! But I want to be true to 2030 myself."
"That's confusing as hell! I did not get anything about it." she sighed. I re-iterated as much slowly as possible to her with hand gestures.
"Well, I believe you should continue writing. Obeying your older self to break your promise does not sound that bad" I thought for a moment and said 'yes, absolutely!'.
At this very moment, I heard a noise, a screech. Someone entered the bar. She stood up. Came near me, whispered into my ears, "Sorry". I looked back. There he was, thirty-five-year-old me. Fingers snapped.
I saw him standing in front of me in the basement. A wide smile. I did not understand what happened.
"I guess you won. You made me say 'yes' to continue writing." said I defeated.
"That's what our challenge was. You say yes before I leave, you continue writing. Just to make it firm, I never was in control. It was you, your conscious, your plot, your place. I was merely a manipulative creation of your conscience. (A small pause, as he made himself ready to go back to the future) So 'Gorgeous Lady'?"
"Yeah sure." I murmured as he disappeared: "I should have realized, it was all too good to be true"
As I sat down to write, I realized he made and approved the first story of the second season.
Siba Smarak Panigrahi
(Dedicated to Siba Smarak Panigrahi in 2035)
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