II. Remeant

A BLANK SPACE

Perhaps, what was meant to be, was not actually meant to be.
-ak 

It was a faint day like any other, but it did have a small twist. He had been counting the days before he could get out of the pickle he put himself in. It was a big mess that he had made, which he was not going to acknowledge. He just wanted to get out of it. He wants it to be a tomorrow problem, like the million other problems which had been rigorously shoved to the later day, week, month or even year. While he was desperate to get out of his home, he was also hoping to get back in one piece. The latter had been a very big mystery for him and it had been kinda eating him up on the inside. Not to mention, there was a lot running on his mind and thought that is nothing new for him, if only he knew how to tune out the million voices. He might as well have some peace of mind, for once.

“Hey”, said the message on his Instagram direct message. He was surprised to have received a message in the first place , mainly because he has been away from social media for a while and this was clearly unexpected. But then again, it could be nothing of much concern, because there have been indeed some bots which keep messaging trying to promote some product or someone’s account. He would ignore most of them but reply to some of them just to see if there was actually a person behind those accounts and if so, have some fun along the way. There never was and also, these accounts would get inactive after a few weeks, probably when someone reports those accounts and they get taken down. Needless to mention, these accounts never had more than a hundred followers to begin with. They are clearly fake accounts or bots or secret accounts. At that point of time, he had nothing better to do, so he did respond back, all the while trying to pack things for his journey. He was not taking much stuff back, but it still needed some organizing mostly because he got these luggage organizers and he was compelled to use them. He was all about trying to optimize so that it will be easier to travel. During the short breaks that he did have, he id try to get to the bottom of the mystery account as to who might the person be behind that profile. While the investigation came to a screeching halt since the account was private, there was nothing much he could except respond and see where that would lead to. And why on earth would he not respond?

The journey back was a long one, with a multi hour layover. He was not bothered about the layover, he was only concerned about getting back no matter what. If something were to happen in transit, that was it for him. He would he stuck like he can’t even imagine. The first thing he had been trying to do is avoid that thought altogether. It didn’t seem to provide any comfort to him knowing what might or might not happen. It just gave a lot more headache than needed. A day ago he had responded to the direct message, not know what that was going to lead up to. He was keeping an eye out for what it had in its store. He made an assessment, given the timing and situation he had cornered himself in. He seemed to have an idea to whom the private account belonged to, but he was not sure. He was hoping that the conversation would lead to more answers than he jumping into conclusions and putting the foot in his mouth, which seemed to be his favourite past time. The layover was one of the hurdle he had to get past. The mandatory COVID test was giving him the much unneeded pressure. It took a little over an hour to get the result back, the duration of which he was very nervous. Not so long ago, there was an incident that sorta kinda turned the world upside down for a short while. A short business trip turned into be a month long confinement to the hospital room, courtesy of COVID tests. He was trying to avoid that situation at all costs. As mentioned, he can not afford any delays or stuck. He was almost at the edge of the cliff. Any wrong move could very well decide his fate. 

The result was negative, thankfully. Now that he got the result, he can now relax a bit. One down, another one to go. He checked his phone again for any messages that he might have received since he had boarded the 4 hour flight. He did see the message he was looking for, to which he had to respond again. He had this weird yet complicated history with texting. He seemed to think that he had to response the moment he gets the message, and any delay in that would mean that the other person would think that he is not interested in talking at all, and eventually reciprocate. It is not rocket science, but this was only when he was talking to girls. We was not yet sure if the person behind the account is even a girl. He had this weird feeling that the person might be a cousin of his and this was one way to figure out what he does when a girl tries to talk to him. He doesn’t have people so invested in him, but what if. He was being extra cautious in his messages. But that went out the window when he started sending the airport photos, after having received a favourable test result. It wasn’t a big deal, but it would be if he was talking to a relative of his, given that he barely or never responds in the group chats. He was on the way to figure that out. The layover was long and tiring. He thought he could hack it, but he was barely able to stay at one place. He walked the whole airport, had a coffee an hour after lunch, walked around a bit more. And still he had a few more hours to kill. The messages were slow for obvious time zone reasons, so he was not checking his phone every now and then. After a while he decided to have another coffee from another store and this time he was looking for something strong. He hadn’t slept the night before, the journey to the airport was quite long and another struggle in itself. He clearly didn’t want to fall asleep somewhere before he could board the flight. “One medium Americano”, he ordered. It was raw,  piping hot, and within a few seconds he burnt his tongue. He was sure he was not going to get any sleep which that burnt sensation in his mouth. Not to mention, the coffee was strong. He could barely drink and threw not before completing only a quarter of the drink. He decided to walk a little more when he saw the huge line in front of his gate. There was still more than a hour left for the flight, but he had to get Iine just to get ahead of another hurdle. After what felt like eternity, he finally boarded and it was time for the next and final hurdle. 

___