Ella

The audio file on his phone remained unopened. He stared at it for a while not knowing whether he should open it or not.

It had just been weeks since they’d met and it was at a frightening pace they hit it off. The connection seemed immediate and fascinating. He had never ever connected with anyone the way it seemed with her.

Happily married is an oft misused phrase. In reality it describes perhaps. a certain state of limbo where there are no obvious or major hiccups in a relationship of two individuals. Happiness hardly plays any role in the scheme of things. He had been married for nearly two decades and was blissfully suspended in the same state.

Till he met her.

To most of his friends and colleagues he seemed like the happiest person to be around. His cheerful optimism more often than not rubbed off on people near him. He always had a smile and a helping hand. If ever there was a problem, he seemed to have the solutions. What most people didn’t know was the effort it took from him to clear each and every hurdle life placed in front of his journey. He almost always kept his ego and his happiness aside as he went about life trying to bring happiness to all around him.

He met her at a Christmas party at a common friend’s place. Although there were a lot of people there that day, the chances of bumping into anyone he didn’t know were slim given that they were almost all from his church. But there she was.

My sister goes to the same church she said when he asked her.

I don’t go to church

This one you mean right?

No. I don’t go to church. Any church.

Really?

Yes. I simply don’t believing in bargaining with anyone for my happiness peace or success. I know I’ll get my share anyway. Whether I pray or not

He didn’t know how to answer that, as he stared into her eyes, fascinated by how brown and sparkling they were.

She smiled warmly as she caught him staring at her. Like what you see she winked and laughed at his embarrassment at being found out.

They exchanged numbers and the next few days frantic messages and conversations flowed. Everything from religious beliefs to moral standings, renaissance literature to beat poetry, Ella Fitzgerald to Taylor Swift were discussed. And debated. He soon found out she loved to argue, or “discuss” as she’d like to put it, on almost everything. And invariably she did not seem to go with the conventional flow of things on almost anything. At times he felt she was deliberately provocative just needling him to get into a debate. Soon he realised that’s who she was.

You think we should meet again? Or will you be gaping at me like last time? I am sure you must’ve seen my DP at least a hundred times by now, she loved teasing him and stumping him for words.

So you love flattering yourself I know, but you know what? Let’s meet and let’s find out if I still do gape or whether I am “over you”. His quick and sharp reply took her by surprise but she also enjoyed it.

Challenge accepted she typed back, in a hurry, as she smiled

The coffee shop was unusually empty. Despite the pandemic, he would see it mostly filled up. It was a favourite jaunt for young people who really had stopped bothering too much about the situation and were meeting openly. To see just a couple of other tables occupied on a lazy weekend surprised him. He waited for her at a corner table by the window. He stared at the beautiful view of the sea from the window from time to time. But mainly his eyes were at the entrance waiting for her to arrive.

Ok so she’s not the punctual types. That’s a bummer. He thought to himself. He was “extra hyper” as his wife always said, about time. He would rather reach an hour earlier than be late by even fifteen minutes. But then that’s who he was.

And surely she wasn’t.

He sipped on his espresso, his third of the morning as his impatience grew. He was not used to waiting for anyone this long. It had been well over an hour of the decided time to meet. He felt peckish and ordered a cream roll for himself. Maybe my hunger is angering me, he reasoned to himself.

His messages to her did not seem to be reaching her. Maybe she’s in the underground making her way here, he kept trying to justify her absence.

Eventually he left the coffee shop after a couple of hours. He felt angry and disappointed. He was really excited about meeting her again and if the truth be told she had initiated it. So he saw no reason why she stood him up. He was seething more at the fact that she seemed to have received and read his messages but not bothered to reply. Or show up.

He was sitting alone by his window listening to an old Ella Fitzgerald record. His wife and son were out of town for a couple of weeks and he enjoyed being all by himself for a change. Ella on a Saturday evening, as he sipped his single malt seemed like a perfect day. Except for the morning disappointment. That seemed to have affected his mood. Maybe a tad more than he would have liked it to.

The beep of a new message was perfectly timed. Just as Ella finished Dream a Little Dream of Me and was about to begin Wonderful World. The hiss and crackle of the old vinyl was drowned by the phone beep.

The audio file on his phone was there. He stared at it for a while not knowing whether he should open it or not.

For reasons unknown to him, he got up and out on his headphone before he pressed play on the audio file.

The gentle strums of the ukelele took him by surprise…and then came the golden voice…

“Don’t know much about geography

Don’t know much trigonometry

Don’t know much about algebra

Don’t know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two

And if this one could be with you

What a wonderful world this would be”

The evening sun painted a gorgeous orange brush over deep blue sky, as her song seemed to seep in his soul like a painter’s brush into a glass of water.

He wasn’t listening to Ella anymore that evening.

Copyright (c) Pratik Majumdar, 2020. Any article, story, write-up cannot be reproduced in its entirety or in part, without permission. URL links can be used instead.