Two Strangers

 

Moonlight was spread all around us. We were just two there on the platform. The whole platform was empty and seemed like a graveyard. The train still had a long time to arrive, so we both sat on different benches waiting for the train. She was shivering and rubbing their hands to warm them. I stood up the collar of my jacket and concealed my hands in my pockets. Her brownish hair was scattered with the little stronger breeze. Her suitcase lay near her feet and a small handbag hung with her left shoulder. It seemed she was feeling a little fear because of the desolate platform. I picked up my bag, hung it on my shoulder, and headed towards her.

"Hi my name is Azlan, if you don't mind can I sit here for some time, actually I was feeling fear from this deserted spot."

I said to her without taking a breath. She smiled, felt a little hesitant but allowed me to sit there. She had known that I had just come here to give her company because she was feeling afraid. A few minutes passed with complete silence, she kept looking ahead across the platform, though there was nothing to see because the complete darkness was there. 

"Where are you going?" I said suddenly she wasn't expecting. She boggled "hun…I…I'm going to Multan." She completed her sentence difficulty. 

"But why are you traveling alone on this freezing night?"

She told me she was not alone, she was traveling with her uncle but he had to go back due to an emergency so next journey she'll have to do solitary. Her uncle left her in the afternoon, but because the train was late, she has been sitting here for almost six to seven hours. Then she told me about her in detail, such as her name is Saira and she lives in Multan. She came here to meet her uncle's family, he is the younger brother of his dad, and she is a salesgirl in Multan, working in a clothing brand shop.

One thing that I noticed was her nervousness. I felt that she must hide something and tell a lie. Every three or five minutes later she would gaze at her wristwatch. I thought maybe she felt fear because she is sitting in the deep, dark, cold night on the mysterious and desolate station with the stranger.

We had been talking for a long time there. Presently one or two more people also came on the platform. The darkness that stretched far in front of us was just a moonlight trying to take over it. We were sitting in the large lobby where a single tube light was lightning. After that, gradually more people started arriving and finally, the train came too. We stood up and rode on the train. After a little while, the train whistled its whistle and moved ahead.

The compartment in which we were sitting was just a little bright but mostly it was dark. Largely people slept on their seats. Outside the train, it was extremely cold so all the windows were closed. We had been talking for nearly the whole way. When the destination came near we both were silent. We couldn't talk even though we wanted to, I tried to speak but she stopped me and said,

"Do not speak further, we should stop here, and shouldn't forget we're merely passengers, just coincidentally our paths have met with each other, but our destinations are different. We met just for a short time."

Her station came and she got down without listening to me and I had been thinking,

Of course, we met just for a short time but when two strangers meet each other for a short period then sometimes they realize each other a lot that they don't remain strangers. Sometimes their paths are such that meeting each other, so that their destinations have to be the same, is essential.