A cold dark night, almost pitch black if not for the existence of a few street lights. A silhouette of a man was visible walking down the road. His shadow was patchily clear as he walked passed intervals of street lights. All along he could hear only the whistling of the wind and occasionally a creek or two. The fallen leaves were swirling and moving graciously along the side of the road. It is as if the leaves were performing a harmonious tango with the wind. He had admired it for a short while, yet this display failed to capture his full attention. Something did catch his attention for he had momentarily stopped to have a better look. It was just the nearby branches waving eerily at him, seemingly to beckon him to come closer. He continued walking. It was quiet almost deserted because cars don’t use this stretch of road anymore. It was closed several months ago to make way for an upcoming construction project. The only announcement given to the local residents was that once the new construction project is completed the road will eventually be re-opened.

He pulled up his collar higher as if his action could block the cold wind from seeping onto his body. But it doesn’t matter, the wind tonight would not affect him nor the cold that seems to envelope around him. Despite the slapping cold wind, his anger was burning deep down within thus numbing him to the coldness that surrounds him. He can still feel the searing pain on his face, the place where Jenny had slapped him. He moved his jaw & rubbed his hurting face. He is not sure which one hurts more, his face or his ego.

The only thing he has on his mind now was to reach home quickly. It has been a long night almost bizarre come to think of it. His feelings & thoughts were so jumbled up that it’s difficult for him to think straight. He quicken his paced as he realize that he would soon reach his destination. Michelle had chosen this route as a short cut to his apartment tonight. He had to get back home as soon as possible. All he need was a hot shower and sleep. He kept on repeating to himself that tomorrow when Jenny had cool down, he would go & apologized to her. Make her see that he still love her. That it was all just a mere misunderstanding. He will win back her love, her trust.

No matter how much he tried not to think about what had happen just now, cruelly, his mind is replaying the scene over & over again. It’s as if tormenting him brings some kind of sadistic comfort to his hurt.

‘It’s just ridiculous’, he thought. The fact that Jenny had angrily shouted, ‘It’s over Michelle. Over! You hear me! I don’t ever want to see you again!’

‘Why? Why had he been so stupid?’ he thought.

He cursed himself for not telling her the truth in the first place. He had always known she was the jealous type. Always wanting to know where he had been and whom he had hang out with. She would occasionally call in the pretense of missing me and then throughout our conversation, she would enquire my whereabouts. Most of my close friends had disapproved of our relationship. He still recalled what one of his friend, David had said, “Man, how can you live having to report to her constantly. This is not call dating, it’s like you are in prison and she is the prison guard or something. We can’t even hang out and watch football anymore….” and so it goes. Most of my buddies echoes similar message. As usual I stood to her defense saying things like, “It’s not reporting…. If she don’t love me she would not bother what I do…. And so on”. I had never felt that our relationship was a burden. Well, I guess that’s what people mean by ‘Love is Blind’. But never in a million years had I thought that she would use such a petty reason to break up with me.

But then he wondered, if he had told her upfront would this misunderstanding, this argument happened? But…Nothing had happened.

‘Can’t I have friends anymore? We could have talked this through if it wasn’t because of her friends. Those bitch. What do they know except for picking up all kinds of gossips and twisting and turning the plot themselves’ he thought angrily.

His thoughts were brought to a halt and suddenly he was acutely aware of his surroundings. He could sense something was not right. He recalled those news pasted on the bulletin board in his apartment warning the residence there not to use this short cut as several cases of mugging had happened in the past few months. Well, it’s too late to regret his route decision now. All he could do was to pray for safety.

(To be continued....)