The Souvenir

As is not my routine, I went for a walk in the park this morning; a rather funny morning I’d say.
For the first time ever, I didn’t bother with fixing beforehand, the number of rounds I wanted to complete. I walked, with Sam Smith plugged in my ears and my thoughts plugged into some other-worldly television set. The strange thing was not that I was the only person walking in the anti-clockwise direction, but that the singer hit me exactly where he always does, but couldn’t render me aching as is usual.
I walked and walked till I could feel my legs no longer and then I sat down on a bench. I was tapping my fingers to some peppy number and wondering why my legs weren’t hurting, when a girl, 20-something, came up to me and asked if I would mind sharing my seat. I scooted closer to my end of the bench.
I was sure I had seen her before. She lives somewhere in the neighbourhood but I have never been social enough to know exactly where. She had this spectacularly attractive pair of eyes, always a bit distant but never too cold.
A few minutes later, as I put the headset in my pocket, not before turning it into a tangled mess, the girl turned to me all of a sudden and said, “Why do you think leaves turn yellow and then fall down?”
I won’t deny that I was taken by surprise. I didn’t even know her name.
I thought for a while but couldn’t come up with anything better than “May be because they grow old?”
“Possible. But look at those leaves on the track; the ones from that same tree”, she pointed towards the largest tree in the park, whose name I do not know. “Aren’t some of them really tiny in comparison to the others? Do you think they are too old? The tiny ones?”
She was right in a sense. You could see, the smaller leaves didn’t seem old enough to wilt. I felt like I should ask her what she thought about it, so I did.
“I think they grow wiser and so turn yellow. They learn how a certain detachment, developed willingly and by choice, is sweeter than is often anticipated. So they choose to fall down.”
I didn’t understand a thing to be honest. But I was pretty sure it will stay in my mind till and after I comprehend it. I looked down at my legs and realised they were still there after all, only numb with the cold this time. But it didn’t feel bad at all. Funny morning, I tell you.
By the time I looked up, which is no later than a minute, she had left and if it were not for the souvenir on the other side of the bench, I would have believed that I was only dreaming.
A bunch of flowers.
Two dried, one wilted.

– Deepti Nair

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