Maya was sitting at the window seat with her headphones on. Not the new-age headphones, but the wired-old-school kinds. She looked out the window while she saw the bus halt near a restaurant. The conductor yelled, “We will halt for 45 minutes for dinner. The bus won’t halt again till 5 in the morning.” Maya checked the time. It was 10:45 PM. She had never had dinner so soon in her entire adult life. Sleeping by 12 was an even more unusual thought.
She got herself a cup of tea and sat on a chair set up outside the restaurant. Her headphones tangled, while she kept sipping her tea. She felt someone sit next to her and she took a quick glance. A very sweet girl sat next to her. Maya looked around to search for this girl’s parents. Maya asked her, “Where are your parents?” The girl looked at her, smiled and asked, “What are you listening to?” Maya said she was listening to songs. She asked her again, “Where are your parents?” the girl pointed towards the restaurant where there were many families seated.
Maya ignored the girl started sipping her tea. The girl played with Maya’s headphones. Maya looked at her angrily. The girl smiled, a sweet smile that touched her eyes. Maya couldn’t stop but look at her innocence and asked her, “Do you want to listen to songs?” The little girl nodded excitedly. Maya was sharing her headphone, while sitting on the highway with a total stranger.
After sometime, she saw a few buses leave. She asked the girl, “Which bus are you in?” the girl pointed towards Maya’s bus, happily singing along the music playing in her ears. Maya saw her driver head towards the bus. Maya told the girl, “Go to your parents now, our bus will leave in sometime.” The little girl handed over the headphones to Maya. She said, “I tried many times. They won’t let me.”
“Won’t let you what? Go to the bus?”, Maya questioned. The little girl said, “No! I tried going to my parents many times, but they won’t allow me to. They told me to be here and take care of all those who are trying to give up in life.” Maya looked at her puzzled.
The girl continued, “When you got off the bus, you took your tea and sat here. The first thought you had was, if you jump off the cliff, who would know.” “I am here so that I can distract you. Let me show you that even tangled headphones can be untangled with a little help. Why can’t your life be the same?” Maya promptly looked at her headphones, those were untangled. She looked at the girl again who was gone.
The conductor got Maya back on the bus but when she asked him about a little girl sitting beside her. The conductor said, “Ma’am you were sitting by the highway, playing with your headphones. We assumed, you don’t want to eat anything. There was no girl.” Maya never knew who the girl was. There were never any news of suicide cases on that section of the highway.
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