THE DREAM GIRL

-Tausif Choudhury

Part One

With darkness all around me, I lost track of how long I have been sleeping. I read my mobile screen. 5 missed calls from Gia! She hardly calls me in the morning. I immediately caught her call in the sixth time. During that brief conversation we had, it felt like we were born to share our hearts together and raise ourselves to happily live, be it our last moment on the earth. Her each word was singing to my ears and it felt like I was the one playing the flute to it. The moment she hung up, I began to miss her. Lying in the bed I smiled like a magician, playing a secret trick over the world and making people stunned every single time. As I was well into my daydreaming, my Dad screamed from the next room, “Is your morning drama over?”

Oh God! Every bit of this was just a dream. It came to me in my closed eyes and walked away when I opened the door to reality. Fighting a stubborn laziness not willing to let go of my body, I pulled myself up from the bed. My morning class starts in an hour and Gia will be there. Feeling butterflies in my stomach I smiled unconsciously, thinking, “It takes only a day for a man to realize his dream in terms of the reality.”

Gia was the new girl of our class, she joined the University last semester. We only do Literature class together and if I did not fail in my second semester in this subject I would have never had the chance to attend the same classes, sharing the same room. I drove my way to varsity and every single detail of my thought was conquered by the same subject, Gia. Her face, the way she smiles to open conversations with people, eyes that make me drawn every time they catch my sight. Frankly, she was one wonder of the world that makes me surrender in ways I didn’t know before.

I rushed into the class. This was possibly the first time of the year I had reached my class before the teacher arrived. It’s a self-achievement itself for a late Latif like me. In class, I instantly saw some students cheering their heart out, as if they were enjoying a drama performance live on stage. In the middle of it all, was a shy and quiet one, the girl of my dream, Gia now embarrassed and quieter than usual. 

It did not take me long to grasp the whole situation. My friend Safkat proposed her and everyone was waiting, breathlessly counting the passing moments for her response. Some boys were even shouting “Yes, yes, yes” to make it even easier for her to answer. I thought deeply what can be done to stop this whole thing. It’s a moment that separates me from staying hopeful rather getting lost in endless hopelessness. It’s just one single minute of time that will decide whether I get a to be relieved or drowned in the sea of dead and crushed dreams. ”Can I be a baby and act crazy!” like climbing the tables or inventing some silly drawings on the whiteboard or do anything to steal the spotlight. After all, I was a grown man and all I could only do was pray for our teacher to come immediately and ruin everything that was happening in class.

She blushed, then nodded with approval and that slight movement of her was enough to make me completely devastated. I felt suffocated in an air-conditioned room and felt how at that very moment my whole body was run over by a bunch of fully loaded trucks. She looked directly at me and smiled. It was the first time I saw her smiling at me. Alas, for a moment I thought she could actually see the sweetest of meanings and ways she lived inside me! Then she paused and smiled again, as if this time she wanted me to replace her with someone else and color the rest of my days, but little did Gia know that she was and will always be living as a painted art in my heart. She still lives in my dream and will be there every day; she will be the shadow of a dream girl giving me company in every step I take in this journey of life.

Part 2

In that tiny little French restaurant, I had all the time in the world to recollect the memories of life. My thought of being a writer, conquering the world using my own imagination and wordplays, has gone away with the wind. My contribution to writing has been limited only on Facebook, in people’s likes and comments and only extended to some discussions with friends. I realized how unconsciously my life has been suspended from my dream and how I have always lived in shadows and never really reached the peak of living in what you know as ‘the spotlight.’

Presently living in Paris with a sustainable job, a wonderful wife and a three-year-old daughter can cover up all elements of a happy life. But I always feel a spark is missing from my world and that my life has been deprived for a long time from something special which it did deserve to get. With these thoughts which were working quite well to make me feel bitter, came the unexpected reflection from the mirror I least anticipated here or any place else in the whole wide world. ” It’s Gia, the girl from my university days. Ever since that moment I saw her till today she easily stole a glance in my mind at least once a day. I rubbed my eyes, blinked a couple of times and discovered it was not just another dream, everything was real and happening right in front of my very open eyes.

Gia has not changed a bit. Time has come and gone, changed the world in millions of ways. But it failed to steal a spot on her beauty. In big shades, a black shirt and high heels with a stubborn walking style one thing was very much visible, her confidence. With her appearance, she looked like the Queen of the world, who was free to do everything and had no reason to regret about anything in life. With a surprised stare at me, she shouted at the top of her lungs almost instantly “You!” I was already glad that she recognized me in such an unusual beard and a physique that was resistant to work out for a long time. I smiled and responded,  “It’s been ten years. How time flies!”

I felt more energized than ever as if a welcome breeze touched me with its blessings. I told her to join me at the table. She seemed excited, ready to know every bit of the way my life changed from the last time we met. I thought to myself, “How can an honest man add charm in the story of his simple life?” Without telling her much, I became a curious listener of her instead. She told after our semester, her university life also ended. She felt studies did not make her life interesting.

Suddenly my mobile rang. The ringtone sound felt quite louder than the normal. It’s a call from home. How could I take the call and interrupt our time together? I switched off as quickly as I grabbed my seat in all my five fingers. She gave a pleasing smile, appreciating me for giving her all my priority. I heard her ever so attentively. She came to Paris in pursuit of her lifelong dream to be a singer. It did not take even one big request to make Gia sing out loud in the restaurant. Well, her singing was horrible! It did not take much time for me to realize after all why she never got to flourish herself in the music industry. But whatever she sang and however she sang, it touched my heart and I felt being on the top of the world. It’s the magic of the moment that made me fly without wings.

My cake was ready. A call from the salesman pulled me back to life. But I remembered something very important that I was just about to forget on Gia’s presence. Today is my fifth marriage anniversary. I have been planning to celebrate the day with my wife and daughter at home. I reluctantly strolled myself to the counter and as I opened my wallet to pay, the first thing that captured my eyesight was my wife’s smiling face inside it. She actually meant everything to me, my life even though she was not Gia, not even close to her. I turned around, saw Gia picking up her bag and thought the longer she stays with me, the graver the mistake becomes.

 I came closer to her than ever, meaning to say something crucial to my heart. Surprisingly, for no good reason, it just occurred to me that her eyes looked ever so similar to those of my daughter. We did not talk, nor was there any blink in each other’s eye. Then I hugged her tightly, as I hold my daughter when she first came to my lap. Within a moment everything of her memory came and roared inside me with a thunderous bolt. From the very first moment I laid my eyes on her to the one we were having then, together, Gia gave me a look as she truly needed me the most in her life, but for some reason that cannot be possible in this world. My last words to her were-“Gia, if we meet again, I hope to see that beautiful smile of yours.”

Through the spotted window glass I just looked outside and saw the evening sun tracing her light footsteps.

People come and go. Days dissolve as does time. The moments that create sweet memories are those which forever live inside us in very special ways. Gia never knew that my daughter was named after her. I refused to note down any information that could have helped me stay in touch with her. Gia is and will always remain a dream girl to me, a dream too short to end in one lifetime and a world not wide enough to cherish.

I reached home after midnight. My wife’s silent treatment made it very clear that I have done something that would take more than arguments to solve.

Little Gia looked concerned, asking me, “Papa, when Mommy called, why was your mobile switched off? I was worried.”