The Holiday
Written by: Amrita
As she stood on the bridge a gust of wind blew the hundred or so flags in her direction. The yellow one flew over her face and blocked her vision. It was a beautiful yellow, a shade she liked. She hurriedly removed the piece of cloth from her face as if she could not miss even a single second of gazing at the wonderful expanse of nature in front of her.
She could do nothing but marvel at the beauty of nature. It was serene yet in way so strong. She loved it so much that she could spend every single day of her life here, in the middle of nowhere. It was a place that she longed to be in, where she had no worries, no one to please but herself.
If only life were that simple, if only life were that uncomplicated. If only all that she had to ever do was stand here and look around.
Oh well she thought I might as well enjoy it while I’m here. She was so glad she had decided to come to Manali all by herself. At first her family was appalled to say the least by the idea of a single woman travelling so far away from home. After all she came from a culture where single women were supposed to be depending on someone to take care of them. They were not supposed to come to Manali just to be themselves. That’s what her father had thought.
It took enormous amount of persuasion to get her family to understand what she meant by being “herself”. Finally they gave in and let her go.
“Hi I’m Jacob”
She was startled at the sudden interruption in her thoughts.
“Oops I didn’t mean to scare you, Sorry”
He had hazel eyes, and sharp features she noticed.
“I’m Renu”
“You a tourist too?”
“Umm well…” Don’t talk to strangers beta, and don’t let anyone know you are alone. Her father’s words started ringing in her ears.
She shut off the voce irritatingly and said, “Yes a tourist, like everyone else here” and could feel herself smiling.
“Oh that’s great; I was wondering what you were doing here all alone leaning over the edge like this. For a second I thought you were going to jump off” he said a smile forming at the edge of his lips.
“Nah, I’m just this far from being that frustrated” she said gesturing with her finger and thumb.
He laughed almost a musical laugh. She liked the twinkle in his eyes when he did that.
“How did u know about this place? Not many people know about this bridge?”
“One of my friends told me I had to be here if I was Manali, soI asked around and after getting lost twice here I am”
“Oh well then I’m really lucky to have met you here eh?” he smiled that smile again
Don’t trust anyone. Her father’s voice again.
“Well if you say so” she felt the blood rush to her cheeks, and embarrassed she turned around to look at the beautiful expanse of the valley.
“You seem to know this place quite a bit, do you know those woods on the other end, they say are haunted”
“Ah! Yes they all are, aren’t they?” She giggled
“I’m serious there’s a legend of a whispering ghost out there he is said to have taken peoples souls away just by whispering into their ears.”
“Yeah right, and I’m the spirit of the first woman he killed and I’m going to have to do much less than whisper to kill you” she retorted sarcasm heavy in her tone.
“I can prove it to you, I’m a researcher on the subject and I came here after hearing numerous such incidents all the way from London”
“What kind of crazy people have the time to research on such things?”
My kind of people, and I don’t look crazy do I?
“Can’t say much we’ve just met”, she shrugged her shoulders.
“Hey look I’ve got a lot of gadgets with me too if you can’t be convinced.” He hurriedly took out weird look machines and wires and sensors of some kind from his backpack.
“And you think that would make me come out in the woods with you”
“I was hoping it would” he said it in a barely audible tone
“Oh well alright what’s there to lose, I’ll come along”
Was she a bit too trusting of this man? She pushed the thought away. He looks alright to me.
They stared walking towards the woods. She was stealing glances towards him all the while. His eyes were beautiful, so was his face.
As they were walking a sudden gust of wind blew the hundred or so flags in their direction. The yellow one flew over her face and it went right through her as if she wasn’t there.
She looked around; the guy with hazel eyes was gone.