(Short Story) The Girl who liked French Fries

The Girl who liked French Fries

By Mangesh Nadkarni (11/04/2010)

Sitting on seat number 36 while returning to Mumbai from one of my recent Pune trips, the bus halted at a food mall midway during the journey. I woke up from my partial doze. The headphones had gone misaligned, and my throat felt dry, which meant my mouth was open during my sleep. I cursed myself yet again for my embarrassment.

I didn’t get up although I felt the need of getting my face washed, to feel fresh. As a policy of my own I spend the first half sleeping and the next looking here and there. I avoid reading as I feel it is a primary catalyst for inducing sleep. Well the ‘real’ reason of not getting down the bus was this pretty girl who sat on the right corner of the two seats front of mine. Never mind I hadn’t drank much water and there was no real need to visit the loo, though sometimes we all do it for our ‘safety’. I sacrificed my ‘safety’ to have a look at her, when her boyfriend wasn’t around! “Mmmm..French Fries for me!” she wailed cutely at her boyfriend who proceeded to get down. I cried to myself why I wasn’t her McDonald.

She hadn’t streaked her straight hair, well that would look cute on her. Her ‘pinch able cheeks’ looked amazing on her not so chubby face. Mind you, the view was from her sideways. I never imagined how luscious one’s lips could look from that view. I cursed the caller who prompted her to pick up her mobile and talk, ruining my view. The call was short, presumably her boyfriend’s, asking “Do you want that extra cheese baby?” I never overheard that, but guessed it so, because of her obvious “no” to my ‘guessed’ extra cheese.

Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day and I so wanted her to be with me!! She looked outside the window and that wasn’t so good for my view. “Well let her look!” I said to myself in my mind. Then she picked up an Auto Car magazine and flipped few pages and threw it on the adjacent ‘boyfriend’s’ seat by force. It looked like she missed Femina or Cosmopolitan, oh sorry, Vanity Fair! Her bottle green top looked fabulous and I was lucky to admire her smooth hands. That was the closest my eyes could get thanks to the rift between two seats. My eyes were shamelessly (I thought about that afterwards!) fixed on her slim stable arm for a long time. Suddenly that fixation broke loose as her arm moved, as it grabbed a brown paper bag with McDonald’s logo. “Darn the delivery boy,” I said to myself.

The next thing I heard was a transition. Her cute voice had apparently gone for a vacation as she shouted, “You’re such a jerk!!” That was for her boyfriend. He had brought only one tiny sachet of ketchup. “You know I need more ketchup. Why do you always keep forgetting?” All other passengers had already occupied their seats and the bus left after the conductor’s checking.

And so the bus started on the conductor’s mark. After that it was all exercise for my neck and eyes. I thanked God for our fixed ears and wished for cat like ears. “Paani doge?” she asked her boyfriend. What followed after that question was lots of gunfire. He repented for having forgotten to buy the bottle. Twenty bucks could have suppressed her ire. Then after a brief silence she murmured, “You never take care of me…”, to which he replied, “I’m sorry Namrata…really I..” “Shut up!” she said in a stern voice, forgetting the fellow passengers around her. “Aah…Namrata” I said to myself looking at the expressway!

I was impressed by the guys coaxing and then began the dreaded public display of affection! They held each other’s hands, trying to find a perfect grip. I didn’t understand how I missed out the part where a fellow passenger uncle lent his water bottle to the guy to extinguish the fire. The chirping of the two sparrows was on and I could see her smile and laugh. “Why do you read such useless magazines?” she asked the guy, flinging the Autocar she picked up, at him.  “That’s because I love cars..” he replied back politely. “Typical of boys…all they like is unusual stuff, and forget about us, what we need” she said in a somewhat harsh tone, tauntingly referring the ‘untoward’ incident happened earlier. Mr. Boyfriend wore a dejected look on his face. “What’s the matter now? I’ve still allowed you to talk!” she pricked him. He kept quiet. “Brownie points for this guy for keeping his cool!” I said to myself!

We zipped past Panvel, Sion, and were now on the Western express highway. “Care to ask the conductor when is Andheri coming?” she irked the guy. Blinking his eyes forcibly, he went up to the conductor. “Few minutes…” he said to her, after coming back to his place. “How many minutes did he say?” asked Namrata. I won’t describe what followed next.

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” she asked him. He kept quiet and looked engrossed in some thought. After a brief moment of silence, she asked him gently, “Would you be my Valentine this year honey?”

“Nope”, we replied. The guy hadn’t uttered anything. Namrata and the guy sprung their necks, looking at me. In spontaneity, I had responded in a low tone, but I tried figuring it out who else shared my opinion. I found myself staring at a pretty girl at the window, sitting next to me!!