The revival

he asked her to take him back to the start

‘I have met someone.’ she said decidedly to her friends over dinner.

Her friends squealed asynchronously. They all looked at each other with raised eyebrows and a variety of facial contortions that could only be considered excitement. They hadn’t expected this news at all. For the longest time, they had known her as an introvert one. They thought that she wouldn’t announce in such fashion but rather disclose it nonchalantly, most likely after she has been with him for a while already. They were all eager to know more.

Once the excitement reached a state of equilibrium, the questions started pouring in. She was ready, comfortable in the knowledge that she knew so much of him. Some he had shared voluntarily, but it was what she uncovered on her that made it extra special.

‘What’s his name?’ one of her friends asked.

‘David’ she said. That was easy.

‘How did you meet?’ asked the other.

That was harder to answer. The first time they met, he was immensely lost. Troubled and mired in invisible pain and a gone cause. But for some reason, she saw through him and saw a simpler soul. One that was clear, destined and of a unique kind. And he had reciprocated. Unraveling, slowly at first, but then letting go, of all his stories and his secrets.

‘At a car dealership’ she said, hoping they wouldn’t ask for more details.

And for some reason, they didn’t pursue. Instead they were more interested in knowing where he comes from.

‘From a small town out west, he carries that proudly. He likes living within his means and doesn’t necessarily believe in excess in most things’ she said. Her friends were certain that she is smitten. They didn’t see her settling for a simpleton of any kind. David must have something about him. Perhaps he is a looker, they thought.

‘Show us a picture!’ they collectively asked.

She pulled out her phone and started to swap through some of the photos. Most of his photos were with cars or occluded by his activeness. She found an older one, in which he was smiling, sitting down, post his track sessions.

They all took turns looking at his picture. There wasn’t a collective ‘ooh’ or an ‘aah’ but nor was there any concealed expressions. That was expected. He wasn’t a looker but looking at him didn’t hurt. David was of medium-built, a serious face, closed cropped hair and an above average sense of style when it came to his shoes. Eventually the phone returned to her, with her David intact on the screen.

‘What do you like about him?’ her closest friend asked her.

She wasn’t expecting that question. They had now been with each other long enough for her to have an accurate list of what his idiosyncrasies were rather than what awed her the first time they met. Yet, she did not have to dig deep. ‘He is terribly consistent’ she said. That wasn’t the answer the girls were hoping for and quickly moved on to analyzing what to ask her next. That is when someone asked her.

‘What does he do for a living?’

She wasn’t sure how to proceed here. These were some of her closest friends. Yet, it wasn’t easy admitting his profession as acceptable. It had taken her a good time to understand herself. David was intoxicated with cars. He had tried his hand at every conceivable job that involved cars but he couldn’t get enough of them. He tried engineering them, selling them and repairing them. But all he wanted to do was drive legendary cars endlessly and never from point A to point B. To cure his addiction, he resorted to chasing and stealing cars. He would then return them back to the owner, washed and waxed, as if nothing ever happened. She hadn’t accepted this as normal, but couldn’t walk away from him.

‘He steals cars’, she said meekly, testing the waters.

Her friends weren’t sure how to react to that. Some looked at her plainly. The others thought she misspoke. The ones that were truly listening said simply ‘what!?’

How was she to ever explain this to anyone? Her understanding of him was unique. His yearning was relentless and real. She hadn’t seen anything so raw. She saw him helpless without his cars. She saw him as her one true partner with them around. That was his only vice. A vice she was willing to overlook but couldn’t y make others see her perspective.

‘Just kidding, He is in the car business’ she half-lied letting normalcy restore itself.