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| Source: www.businessinsider.com |
Richard hurried down the sidewalk
almost tripping over when his right foot got caught in a crack in one of the
numerous grey flagstones that stood stiffly in line all across. Catching
himself in time, he glanced at his watch, he was running ten minutes late for
the most important meeting of his life. He kicked himself, silently cursing
under the breath when he realized that he had already wasted enough time to
make it to the Tribune Tower, the workplace of his dreams.
If he had to make it to the
city, he usually used the CTA bus or train service but today that would mean an
additional twenty minutes from Terry’s condo on 53rd Street. In case
of a delay Terry had suggested he use the bike center service that stood two
minutes away from her apartment. He had taken the Red Eye from LAX Airport but
had landed an hour late at O’Hare and missed seeing Terry before she left for
work. She had left him a tiny note on the table with a Lucky Bamboo plant
sitting pretty next to it. It was her way of wishing him luck for his
interview, the one that he had waited for ever since both of them had graduated in
Journalism from UCLA.
He smiled thinking of the bamboo
and the freshly brewed coffee that he had found waiting for him. It was just
like Terry to do something like that, he thought. It was one of the many
reasons he admired and appreciated her so much ever since the day he had
fallen in love with her, the day he had first laid his eyes on her.
“I wish I could have seen her
before she left” he murmured as he covered the last few steps to the
center, making an old lady sitting on the bench near the door sit up in alarm
and look around wondering who had spoken.
It had been six months since they
had last met. Terry had come down to celebrate Christmas with her family and
him. He had been in a dark mood all through her two day stay; his job hunt had
left him feeling insecure and unwanted. That she had landed the job of her
their dreams had made him behave cold with her, something he had never done
through their yearlong relationship. She had taken it without uttering a word,
making him feel all the more bitter. Two days had flown by and they had hardly
spoken. He had dropped her off at the airport in cold silence and had regretted
it the moment he had seen her disappear into the departure terminal of United
Airlines.
Oh how he had kicked himself and
waited for the day when he could meet her and make amends. That day had come
today, after a six month long wait. He felt the tiny box in his pocket as he
rummaged in it for the two twenty dollar notes he knew he had stashed there. It
made him smile; he had wanted to go on one knee with the box open when he had
landed but the delay had thrown water over his plans. Once again he glanced at
the watch, the tiny hands ticking dangerously towards the disaster that awaited if he spent an extra second in the company of his thoughts.
Quickly he pulled out the
wrinkled notes and handed it to the burly guy behind the counter, grabbing the
helmet and walking over to the comfort bike that he pointed at.
“How long will it take me to
get to 435N, Michigan Avenue?” he called out as he adjusted himself on the
bike.
“It should not take you more
than fifteen minutes if you take the Lakeshore drive route. Park at the Wabash
Avenue Bike Center, from there it is a six minute walk to the Tribune Tower. The map is
tucked under the seat” yelled the man.
“Bless Terry for suggesting a
bike” he thought pedaling out of the bike center and marveling at how
easily the man was about to identify that the address he had asked for was of
the Tribune Tower. It made him resolve all the more to make it to his interview
on time.
Heading onto Cornell Dr, Richard
increased the speed and adjusted the breaks as he neared the exit, he knew he
had to ride faster if he wanted to get to the office on time. Just as he sped
around the turn onto Lake Shore Dr, he saw a familiar looking old woman
nervously step onto the road to cross. Quickly he swerved to the left to avoid
hitting her.
A deafening crash followed by sirens
was the last thing he heard before losing his consciousness. The blue velvet
box slipped out of his pocket and rolled a few meters away before it clicked
open.
***
Heather let out a bloodcurdling scream,
screeching her bike to a halt behind the bus that had abruptly stopped in front
of her. It had been just a few minutes since she had picked up her rented bike like
she did every day from the Bike Center on 53rd Street.
She saw people rushing past her
and moving towards the front of the bus. It made her forget her scare and
wonder what had happened. Quickly she pedaled her bike alongside the bus, her
heart skipping a beat when she saw the sight that lay in front. The entire
facade of the bus was dented and what looked like the seat of a bike lay
dangling from the broken headlight.
“That seat is just like mine” she
thought in horror, forcing herself to look to her right where what was left of
the bike lay in a crumple. The tires had bent into two and the handle had been mangled. She did not want to know what had happened to the
biker but she could not stop herself from looking a few steps away from the bike
where a crowd seemed to have gathered. She saw an ambulance come to a halt just
next to the mob.
Gingerly she walked the ten steps
that took her to become another scared face in the crowd, looking down at the unfortunate
biker who lay in the center, his face covered with cuts, one of the eyes
smashed out of its socket and one knee folder under his back. She winced as she
took her eyes off the biker not waiting for the paramedics to confirm what she
already knew.
“Poor guy, he must have been
on his way to work” she thought; noticing the now brown blazer, white long sleeve shirt that
was splashed in red, the black trousers and the dust coated shoes which
revealed a tiny shiny spot that had escaped the onslaught of the collision.
“What a way to start the day”
she thought, thinking of the candidate who was probably waiting nervously for
her to arrive and conduct the interview. She glanced at her watch and realized
she was running late. She enjoyed biking to work, it was the only form of
exercise she could boast of in her otherwise busy schedule. But today had been
different, not in her wildest dreams had she imagined witnessing an accident on
the exit to Lakeshore Dr. It was not an accident prone zone. “The biker must
have been rash” she thought, noticing an old lady sitting at the bus stop
on the turn, shivering in shock.
For a brief moment, Heather
wondered if she should check on her but the thought of the candidate waiting
made her drop the idea. Just as she mounted her bike, she noticed something gleam
from the corner of her eye. Getting off, she walked to the edge of the road,
spotting an open blue velvet box lying covered in gravel. She saw its contents
resting next to it and realized what had caught her eye.
“Did it belong to him?”
the thought fleeted across her mind as she mounted her bike a second time.
Something made her hesitate and look back. “Maybe I could place an ad in
Lost and Found” she thought picking up the box with the contents and
tucking it into her bag pack.
With one last glance at the
Ambulance that was now speeding away, she resumed the rest of her journey
towards 435N Michigan Avenue.
***
Terry was excited. She had really
wanted to meet Richard when he had arrived in Chicago but it had not been
possible for her to stay back. She had a deadline to meet that day and cover
for another section, the in-charge of which was out sick. But that had not
dampened her excitement one bit. She knew he would love the Lucky Bamboo she
had kept on the table waiting for him, with the steaming hot coffee just the
way he enjoyed drinking it. Letting out a sigh, she looked out of her window
which overlooked the Chicago River.
It had been a dream come true for
her, to work for the Chicago Tribune. It had been their dream and not a day had
passed when the guilt of it had not weighed over her. No more she thought with
a smile, in a few hours that remorse would be wiped away forever.
Feeling happy she wondered if
Richard had made it to the interview on time. He had texted her when he had
arrived that morning; the hint that he had weaved in not escaping her notice.
“Is he planning something?”
she wondered, a different kind of happiness surging through her. She had known
the day they had met that he was the one she would want to marry but his
behaviour when she had last visited home had made her doubt her own feelings.
Momentarily. Things had gone back to normal once again and she knew Richard had
regretted his cold attitude towards her. They had put it all behind and now he
had hinted at something big; the something that she had always wanted from him.
She could hear an Ambulance wail
in the background. “Must be an accident somewhere”, she thought.
A sharp knock on the door made
her turn behind.
“You are managing Connie’s
section today right?” asked the head that popped in through the door. It
was David, the intern from the Arts section. She nodded, taking the packet he
handed over to her.
“Heather is running late for
an interview, she asked me to hand this over to you for putting up” he
said, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared.
“She must be talking to
Richard right now” she thought nervously reading her boss’s scrawny
handwriting on the envelope.
“Run this in today’s Lost and
Found”
Curious, Terry carefully opened
the envelope and pulled out a dusty velvet box. Clicking it open, she gasped as
a beautiful engagement ring stared back at her. It was a sparkling diamond, encrusted
on a bed of tiny peals and set onto a platinum ring. Just like the one
she had shown Richard on the window display on their first anniversary hoping
that he would get the hint.
This was a sign, she thought happily just as her phone began to
ring.
