I am waiting at the pedestrian crossing for the walk signal, and I start walking as fast as i can in my 3 inch heels. I am trying to keep my pace as there are thousands of people trying to get out of the Tacoma dome. I keep my gaze fixed on the road reaching out for my phone. I unlock my phone and look for your number, I type C..H.. and just when the the wind blew against my face and my hair covered half of my face. I realize your number doesn't exist in my phone anymore. I deleted it few months ago, it was one of the hardest decisions to make but I had to.
A cold shiver runs on my spine even though the weather is strangely warm for a late night in Seattle, I have a thick jacket on me but all that doesn't matter when you realize that all I wanted was to dial your number and say hello. I doubted if you would have received the call after many rings because it was daytime in India, I would assume you would be busy with household chores or sipping your second cup of chai. I would ask you excitedly - Guess where I was and whom I saw?
And you would make many incorrect guesses because you know me so well, I could be excited if I met a interesting stranger the same way if i had met a famous celebrity. So how could you tell. So after playing around for a bit, I would scream my lungs out "I saw Michelle Obama...". I would then be quiet for few seconds to hear your next question, which would be - "Did you see Barack Obama too??". Maybe I would have said yes, just to make you a little jealous or maybe not. Well, I know how much you admired him.
I would then go on to describe what an amazing show it was. The way Michelle spoke not just moved my soul but thousands of others in the dome as well.. I would end up explaining every detail of the event right from beginning till the end. I would try and remember the jokes i laughed hard on, I would tell you what an impressive host Jimmy was. I would explain how I could relate to almost everything she said. I would discuss the situations she explained and ask your views about it. I knew you would always say something meaningful that which I might have not agreed at that point but in future it would be a advise or a lesson. Like i learned everything else from you. I would have turned on my car and kept talking to you via bluetooth audio in my car, you would have insisted to call me once i reach home, I would have denied that, I would lie saying there is no traffic and keep talking. I would tell you how inspired I was when she said "Each one of us has a story just be authentic and share yours, you don't have to be Michele Obama for that.." I would tell you how the largest crowd of her tour, 18,000 people cheered and screamed at every single opportunity they got. Being the hopeless romantic that i am, I would have definitely reiterated, repeated the story of how Michelle met Barack for the first time.
I would then go back to the beginning and describe how she spoke from somewhere backstage and the first question she asked the crowd "Who are you becoming??"
I would then try and explain what Becoming meant to me and then stop and divert the topic because i would feel i hadn't still figured out what it exactly meant to me. I would go on and try hard to repeat and be as witty as Jimmy Kimmel, was a perfect host for the evening.
I would have laughed, We would have laughed at the same time..
I would just not want my thoughts to get diluted so i would keep talking. You would listen keenly and paint a picture sitting thousands of miles away from your beautiful big brand new house in Chennai.
I hear a light honk, which woke me up from my reverie. I have reached home after 46 mins of drive and for god knows how long I am parked in front of my neighbors house blocking their driveway instead of parking a few feet ahead in my own driveway. I realize I didn't call you, I had deleted your name and number, The irony is that i still remember your number by heart fresh in my memory but I still did not dial it, i could not dial it, i didn't want to dial it.
If I would, the number no longer exists and so do you.
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