A fictional Doctor #7

Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, a timescale I simply cannot get my head around, and here we are celebrating the 12,022. Well, that’s the calendar I like to follow. So, anyways, happy New year, folks; we made it here.

My new year’s Eve would mostly be ‘ME’, lying on my bed reading Kindle and welcoming the new year by sipping a cool drink. Yeah, it sounds boring, but that’s how it’s been, and I enjoyed every bit of it. So I call it ‘ME’ time.

This time my friends from dance class had planned a trip to the nearest resort, and Roonie was going to join the party, so I signed up immediately. What else could make someone happier than welcoming the new year with a particular person beside you?

It takes a 2 to 3-hour ride from our place to reach the resort. We counted 20 people, assembled at our dance class and divided them into three cars. Roonie sat next to me in my vehicle. It’s just a day trip. So why are they bringing bags of luggage? I wondered as they loaded tons of luggage on top of the car.

“I am famished. Do you have anything to eat?” asked Roonie.

“Oh, Yeah, I got some fruits and snacks”, I said and passed the apple.

“You know what they say, eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, she said, taking a bite.

“Oh, is it so? In that case, let this Patient try it, Miss. Doctor”, I said and leaned forward and crunched a bite with a vicious smile.

“Ahem, Ahem, I am in the car, guys, please no PDA”, said Kavya, our dance classmate.

“Sorry, let’s start”, I said and roared the engine. Roonie and I stared at each other, controlling our laughter.

Road trips are no real fun without music and tons of chips. We played Anthaskhsare and took turns to showcase our lousy singing skills. Roonie passed me a bite of chips while I drove. I found love in these little things and have a heart for them.

We took turns driving along the trip. Roonie is one hell of a driver. She overtook the Heavy Loaded vehicles like a voluptuous snake navigating in tight spaces. I would love to offer a ride for all those so-called masculine asses to watch my girl drive and break their stereotypes.

We reached the resort after a 3-hour drive. The resort seemed like a massive palace from the sets of Chandramukhi. It wasn’t in the best shape, but when you were with the best people, all that didn’t matter.

The resort has this horse shelter, a swimming pool, indoor stadium, outdoor cricket practice pitch, and an old canteen-type dining hall shown in Malayalam movies.

As soon as we occupied the rooms, everyone pulled out their laptops to wrap up the work and send the EOD mail. You know how it works right, the WFH thing and time zone clients sucked the most out of us, can’t help.

“Oh, such boring engineers”, Roonie mocked us.

“That’s very inconsiderate of you, Miss. Doctor, anyways please stay a bit far, else I can’t concentrate on my work”, I said.

“Oh, in that case, how about this close,” she said and sat on my lap, pulling my laptop away.

“Uff, the breathing space is killing me; for now, please let me finish the work task”, I said mischievously.

“Ok, Mr Patient, finish your work. I will go and get something to eat for us”, she said and left.

We wrapped up the work in the next half an hour and got fresh up to crash the party. The DJ was on, and we started to dance with total energy. Our dance master must be shell shocked to find us all with this dynamite bang; we are like lazy seals at the Antarctica shore for the rest of the days.

Oh, Booze is here; for the record, I am a teetotaller, like the one guy you see in every other gang who socialises with a sip of orange juice. But, on the other hand, Roonie is a gem in handling alcohol levels, good enough to mingle, nothing more, nothing less.

Next, we switched onto the Truth or Dare game. Now, this gets interesting as we are all kind of strangers to each other, yes, we attend daily classes, but we hardly know each other except for that one hour.

Everyone had three options to pick, two times truth and one time dare when their turns came. Unfortunately, the truth is not that exciting personally because it’s like Schrödinger’s cat. You will never know whether someone is telling the truth.

I was left with a dare option in my third turn, so my dare went like this. First, I had to stick the cream on my nose and pass it on to the person I liked in the room by the nose to nose contact.

You might have guessed who I might choose to share my dare with but sorry to disappoint you folks, and I picked Kavya to share my dare. The reason is Ronnie, and I pull each other’s legs quite often, the possessive game we call it, and this time it’s my turn.

Annoyed, Roonie pinched me, damn she squeezed hard, but I couldn’t shout in front of everybody. But, of course, she later apologised for it and promised a hug in return. I have a secret count for that.

We had dinner, and the clock ticked past 11:00.

“Where is your Party outfit, Miss. Doctor”, I enquired.

“I brought one for the eve… but..”, she paused.

“Oh come on, Doctor, I wish to remind you that you don’t care what others think and moreover you make your patients happy, so please at least consider the latter and go dress up”, I said confidently. she smiled and left to change.

Roonie has a vibe check with her fashion choices. She wore this western outfit, every fabric of it wrapped around admiring her body like a weaver bird would weave its shelter, so crafty, exquisite, and of course, it’s enough to slay hearts and pull all the new year vibe eccentric to her.

“You look gorgeous, Miss. Doctor,” I complimented.

“I know, my dear Patient”, she winked.

New year parties are a bit of a strange electron phenomenon; one time, you are dancing with your friends, and in a moment, you will be dancing with a couple of strangers, like an excited electron hopping on the energy band levels. So, of course, I am making rounds eccentric to my neutron, Roonie.

We had the best time at the party, and the clock was about to tick. So we formed a circle around the campfire set in the park centre. Roonie and I held hands and welcomed the new year counting down to 12 clocks, the moment that will be etched in my memory forever.

After the party, my doctor and I took a walk and started to talk. What began as casual turned out to be the endless conversation I had with someone. We spoke until morning Five.

It made me wonder in the grand scheme of cosmos, we have stranded humans on this tiny blue dot if any event had happened otherwise, we wouldn’t be here, and in that uncertainty, I found her or hopefully ‘US’.

Having a conversation like this with her is a remarkable event to me as a human being. It is this bond that any human could be grateful for.

“I think I should go to sleep now; else the hangover will kill me”, she said, yawning.

“Yes, of course, but before that, please settle my hugs-debt, Miss. Doctor”, I asked pleasingly with child enthusiasm.

She laughed and hugged me tight, a platonic hug turned out to be an unexpressed romantic expression, and neither of us was ready to loosen the warmth. So we held on for a while in this early morning dew with chirping birds around us, ready to welcome the new year dawn.

“You said you wanted to sleep.”

“But I wanted this moment to last,” she said and held closer.

Maybe this mutual comfort we find in each other brought us closer, I wondered. It felt like we had known each other for years. But, of course, it is crazy to process that thought in the first place. So I tried not to answer those questions for now and floated at the moment.

Image credits: <a href='https://pngtree.com/so/Silhouettes'>Silhouettes png from pngtree.com/</a>