Dreaming a Dream (Part II)

Read Part I here

He first smelled the intoxicating perfume that drifted in the air, and then he looked up and ... just kept looking. Twas the most beautiful face he had ever seen (at least in real life). A beautiful round innocent face with perfect skin and no makeup at all (Jeeeez... He hated when girls put excessive makeup), with beautiful flowing silky black (slightly brown) hair all the way down below her shoulders. Her eyes, the hazelnut colored eyes full of eagerness were the best feature by far. He kept looking at her. She put on a frown and started speaking. He suddenly jolted back to reality when she patted his shoulder again. He sheepishly took out his earphones and mumbled an apology and got up to let her in. She smiled and sat down. She took out a book and started reading (confessions of a shopaholic). He was looking at her and was thinking of saying hi, some conversation to kill time during this boring journey, but it didn't look like it would work out. He sank back into his seat as the train gave an unusually big jerk as it moved. He slipped and she slipped. He put his hand on the armrest just as she put hers onto his and held on tightly. As the train moved on and she removed her hand and apologized. This was his chance.

'No, not a problem. That was an unusual jolt. Did it scare you?'
'Yeah, that was unusual.' She seemed embarrassed to admit she was frightened.
It sure scared the hell out of me' he said.
'Yeah, I was a bit shaken too. Hi, I'm Urvi'.
'I'm Dhruv. Do you travel by this train every day?'
'Why do you ask?' Gosh this girl. What 'll she lose if she tells.
'I travel by this train everyday but I've never seen you before. So.'
'Sorry, I didn't mean to be "mean", but I'm new here. So just was being cautious.'
'Oh, where were you before here?' He saw a frown on her face and said quickly 'It's OK if you don't wanna tell. I won't mind.'
She smiled. 'Did you hear about the accident today? Do you know anything about it?' she asked changing the subject.
'Yeah, I saw the message in the station before the display broke. The ticket collector didn't have much info other than that the train derailed'
'Derailed huh. I wonder what could cause a train to derail'
'I wonder too. May be we should google it later.' he smiled.
'Google. The answer to all the questions for us software engineers.' she exclaimed.
'Sorry, but am not a software engineer.' he replied.
She turned a light shade of red 'Sorry, I assumed.' She began fumbling with the book but then looked up as asked, 'Where do you work then?'
'Oh I'm a writer.'
'Wow, that sounds interesting. I've never come across a writer before. Have I read any of your books?'
He smiled 'probably not. 'Coz I don't write books. I'm a feature writer for a couple of newspapers and magazines in town.'
'I stopped reading magazines after coming here. Maybe I'll start again, with your features.' She smiled and went back to her book.
'You are new here, so how do you like the place so far? Have you been around town yet?'
'Naah, its actually been only a couple of weeks, and I was pretty busy unpacking stuff and shopping for the apartment mostly.'
'So you are staying alone huh'
'Yeah, I kind of always have wanted a place of my own where there's no one to tell me how to and how not to do something. This is my chance.'
'Same reason I wanted to have a place of my own'.
'Hmm, another reason, I'm new here and I don't know anyone, and I don't want to be living with a complete stranger.'
He was about to answer her when the train rocked violently again.

Dreaming a Dream (Part I)

Hey guys. I'm very sorry for no updates at all for a long time. Had been preoccupied with lots of work, and just wanted to relax on the weekends. Anyways, here I'm finally. This here is a short story, its my first stint at story telling. I hope you'll all like it. Please let me know if you feel I can improve in any specific part. Now read on and enjoy.

There was water below his feet, a river, perhaps an ocean, he didn't know. He was sitting on a ride, and there was a girl beside him. He couldn't remember her face, but could remember that he wanted her to be there, with him, holding his hand in hers. The ride was about to start, he heard a loud thud and then he opened his eyes. He looked around the room and could feel the rays of sunlight falling over his face through the narrow slits in the blinds. He looked at the time with groggy eyes. It was 7:15, yeah that was his friend leaving for work and he was probably late today. He switched off the alarm which was yet to ring and decided to wake up. He thought about the girl, who was she again? He couldn't remember her face but she definitely was someone he knew. Or did he?
An hour later, he was on his way to work walking the now very familiar path with music blasting in his ears. Such a wonderful invention, the MP3 players, he thought. Twas a beautiful sunny day, but the breeze was chilly. He held onto his jacket tightly. There were two thought going on in his mind. His weekend plans and his early morning dream. He had made plans to go to the six flags. And on which ride was he in his dream? Too bad, he couldn't recall. He passed the lake on his way to the train station. The endless lake was as big as an ocean (his eyes couldn't see the end) but for the waves.
He entered the station humming some old hindi number and sat down at the nearby bench to wait for the train. It was late today. He looked at the flashing sign which read "Southbound train delayed due to an accident". Damn. He heard the lady at the ticket machine cursing loudly for gobbling up her change. He smiled. He knew which machine was faulty when you used cash. He was just wondering what else could go wrong on this perfect day when he heard a guy firing a flurry of curses at the birds above. He looked in his direction and smiled. He knew where not to stand. He looked back at the flashing LED display only to find that the messages were all scrambled. He was starting to feel a little uneasy. Was it really a perfect day? Nothing has gone right till now except for the weather, but even that could actually change its face in an instant in this particular part of the globe.
Finally the train came in, almost in time. It looked ominous and he had a very bad feeling about it. He walked towards the last carriage and just by chance happened to a few wires hanging. He got onto and asked the conductor about it but he shrugged it off. He went ahead and sat down just near the door on the aisle seat. The train started and he drifted back into his music with a book in his hand, deep into its plot. The train stopped and a few people got on but he was so immersed into the book and didn't notice anyone until he felt a hand on his shoulder.