Batman told me in December of 2012 that 2012 itself was a
very bad year. He was waiting for 2013 to come and sweep him off his feet. I,
on the other hand, disagreed with him. I believed that you can’t really blame
the year for being bad and that it was all in our hands to see that we have a
good time. Now that it is April of 2013, I have to be honest and say I do agree
with him. For me, 2013 was a year of change and it seems to be getting better
with each passing day!
I started writing this to talk about the first of April,
2013, not to talk about myself. So, without further ado, let’s get down to it.
This day was a Monday, a working day for all of my friends and myself. In the
morning, I get a hurried call from one of my best friends, Wonderwoman, who
came down to Sri Lanka about two weeks ago from Male. She says she’s catching a
plane back to Male on Tuesday and that she HAS to meet us all in the evening.
Typical. So, I shoot a few calls to my friends and a threat or two later,
everyone agreed to meet that evening at the Supercafe, around 8.30 pm. This is
where it all began.
Scene 1: Dinner
with friends
I hitched a ride with Batman, and I was late, as usual,
ensuring that both of us arrived at Supercafe about fifteen minutes past the
agreed time. Supergirl was already there, fuming. She had come there right on
time and had been waiting for us. Superman arrived about half an hour later, by
which time the rest of us were gulping down Frappes and Shakes. Wonderwoman,
our protagonist, was still not there. When I called her, I was told by someone
that she had left her phone at home. Now we started to get worried. We all knew
very well how she wasn’t very fluent in Sinhala and would probably get lost if
she was coming there in a three-wheeler without a mobile phone with which to
contact anybody.
All our worrying was a waste because, what do you know, she
comes bursting inside, an hour past the time we were supposed to meet and gives
us hurried apologies and kisses. She’s always doing everything in a hurry, as
you may have noticed. That’s because she’s never on time. Her clocks are synced
an hour past the real time and she tells me she’s learnt her lessons and will
be better the next time, every time.
After dinner and a session of gossiping, we decided to head
over to Torrington square. That’s where the real horror starts…
Scene 2:
Torrington Square
Torrington is usually a very nice place at night, you see
people jogging all over the place, maybe a few families sitting by the ponds.
There are trees planted along the walkways and lamps lit on either side. When
you are there, you can hear a steady murmur of people talking amongst them, the
patter of their shoes on the concrete roads and you can feel and sometimes even
smell the heat radiating from the stone blocks and the road all around you.
There will be little moths flying into the lamps and a slight breeze and the
atmosphere is such that you could just sit there and talk with a few friends
and have a good time.
But, that Monday, it was pitch dark when we got there.
Superman parked the car on a side, and in the white glow of a street light, you
could make out about 2 other cars. All the lamps were switched off and we
couldn't see a soul in sight. It was creepy, but since we were there, we
decided to make the most of it. The five
of us walked into the grounds, the trees casting dark shadows all about us and
stopping any of the street lights from lighting up the paths. So, we walked in
and decided to make things spookier for us. The setting was perfect for a
horror movie. One of us was the psychopath who was going to gruesomely murder
the rest. The trick was to guess who it was because the suspicion was cast on
one of us, then another and back again to the original person. It was very fun.
There were large garbage bins where one could hide the bodies in. The ponds,
which usually are lit up, were now pools of dark water that hid the dead bodies
of countless people who would suddenly crawl out and stagger towards us
menacingly. From the flag pole hung a dead body, not a flag. The half moon
shining brightly in the sky helped make things a tad bit spookier.
Suddenly, a bunch of people started jogging in the dark.
That was too much for us. Since none of us were black belt champions or secret
ninjas, we made a dash for the car. In fact, we literally ran for our lives,
screaming, and I made it first, and was stabbed five times by Batman. After I
died dramatically, we all got in the car and thought we should go to Galleface,
where it would be more fun.
Scene 3: 2 fast 2
furious
Galleface is where everyone goes. To eat, to get drunk, to
sit and romance, to let your kids play, you name it. When we got there, it
looked like the aftermath of an apocalypse. There were one or two people
walking about. The wade shops were closed. There was a stage of some sort being
pulled down, maybe from a musical show. Well, this sucked. We walked onto the
pier at Galleface and sang a few songs and some movie themes. It was beautiful
out there though. The black waves kept crashing onto the shore and the pillars
of the pier, sometimes splashing our feet with sea water. The moonlight lit up
the waves and the white Sea foam. We could see the lights of distant ships on
the horizon and the sky was strewn with stars. It was a clear sky and I could
make out Orion clearly standing out amongst the other stars.
Supergirl was having a mini tantrum; she wanted to leave
this place and go have ice cream. We were also making fun of her because she
used to believe when she was a kid, that people had babies by holding hands.
There was enough fodder for us to laugh and make dumb jokes for the rest of the
night. Since Supergirl wanted ice cream so bad and wouldn't let us sing the
Lord of the Rings theme because everything about the sea at night depressed
her, we left for Baskin Robins. We were all in a great mood, and Supergirl,
Wonderwoman and I had a good time going “Woooo!” every time we took a slight
bend. It was 11.00 pm.
When we stopped near Baskin Robins, it was closed, that was
when Superman told us he thinks the white hybrid behind us had been following
us from Galleface. This was fun, and scary. We decided to have some fun and
circled the roundabout near Odel twice. They did the same. Now, it was time to
lose them So, Superman sped through roads and by roads, the white Hybrid
chasing us at our heels, and we finally came to Galle road. We had lost them.
Since all the ice cream shops were closed, we thought we
should go to Pillawoos and have some iced Milo. I have never been there, but
the guys insisted it was great. Hurrah! A decision was made and we were
blissfully driving towards Pillawoos and what do we see about 30 feet away from
us? The white hybrid, of course. To make matters worse (remember, none of us
were trained assassins or boxing champions), Superman overtook them and we were
back to square one, with the hybrid on our heels.
Pillawoos was brightly lit with white fluorescent bulbs and
there were a few vehicles parked there. The hybrid parked behind us. Well, we
ordered the drinks and stayed in the car. This was a very hot, dry spell in the
country, and in no time we were sweating and steaming in the car, with the air
conditioning switched off and the shutters rolled down. It took about 15
minutes for the iced milo to finally reach us, by which time the guys in the
Hybrid got sick of waiting and drove off. Hurray!
Our stomachs full and our minds on a strange state of high,
none of us wanted to go home at that time. That was when Wonderwoman suggested
we all go over to her apartment and hang out on the 9th floor terrace. Why not?
Scene 4: Midnight
Swim
The streets were deserted. You could see one car cruising
past you if you were lucky, but other than that, the alleyways were dark and
ominous while the street lamps only served to make things scarier by casting
various shadows. We stopped at Wonderwoman’s apartment and went straight up. The
air was hot and humid downstairs but on the 9th floor it was slightly cooler.
On one side, you could see the entire city from up there, and from the other,
you can see the beach. All the lights in the houses were switched off, so there
were lights from street signs, street lamps and from a tall building
construction a few blocks away. You can see the cranes and other equipment just
lying there, cold and dead in the night, as the people slept on.
A few more stairs up, and then you see the swimming pool. With
eager eyes we looked in to the dark blue water, as it invited us. A part of us
said it was crazy. It was exactly 12 midnight, we all had to go to work the
next day and to top it all, we didn’t have any swim wear. That was what
Wonderwoman was there for. She was more excited than any of us (and the rest of
us were really excited, so you can imagine…), and pleaded with us to take a
swim. And before we could even agree (we were going to agree anyway) she ran
down to her apartment to get us some clothing.
She comes up with a bag full of clothes and towels.
Hurriedly we changed into them and like mad people, we sneaked into the pool.
It was pure magic. The water wasn’t too cold and we started off by splashing
ourselves like fools. Then we just relaxed and looked at the inky black skies…
there were wisps of grey cloud floating past, hiding the moon at times. The
stars were blinking down at us. Some of the tiles at the bottom of the pool
were broken and cut our feet. But we didn’t care. We screamed, we laughed, we
acted movie scenes and we jumped around. I don’t think I can quite explain our
euphoria at that moment but, it was one of the best nights of our lives. In
that single moment, we had let go of our fears, responsibilities and any
feelings of hopelessness we had or may have had. All we could think of was how
happy we were and how wonderful everything in life was, and will be.
This went on for well over an hour and it was Supergirl who
brought us back down to earth. Someone should always be there to do that
because, having a good time with friends will take everyone to a place where
they don’t want to come back from. We got out of the pool, unwillingly, and it
was very cold outside. Supergirl, Wonderwoman and I shivered our way towards a
corner where we changed clothes after threatening the guys to not come to that
side, if they valued their lives.
We were all pretty emotional after all this so, we did a
group hug on the terrace and I made a speech about friendship and how
Wonderwoman, with all her quirks, was in fact the instigator of fun in our
group. She was leaving for Male the next day, so we said our goodbyes. It was
time to go home.
Scene 5: The end
That Monday was an epic day for all of us. The next day was
normal, so I will not talk about it. We all went home tired, but in an elevated
state of happiness. It gets you thinking, we need more of this in our lives. We
need more happiness in our lives. And it gets back to the theme with which I
started writing, about how our happiness lies in our hands. I can safely tell
Batman, that I was right as well, maybe even more right. ;)
