Chapter X: A Meeting with Unknown

I tried to look as fine as possible. I cleaned my eyes with both of my sleeves. But, I could not remove the swollen part of my eyes. I can’t think how I looked at that moment. He slowly plugged out his earphones and politely began to speak.

“Hello madam? Is everything alright?”

I gave him a forceful smile and in broken words, “I am fine. Nothing is wrong here. Thank you.”

“I see that something is not really going good with you. Your eyes are swollen. You had been crying for a long time”, he insisted again.

“It’s nothing. Just a family problem. I had to cry. I am sorry, I look terribly bad here”. I began to stand and walk towards the school. He followed me.

“You are a teacher here in the school right? Glad to know you today”. His voice followed with his footsteps.

“Glad to know you too”, I replied him without bothering to look back. He kept following me.

“Where are you going? Sorry to ask though”, I asked him.

“I have a friend there in your school. He is also a teacher there”, he answered.

“You can go ahead”, I told him offering him a long path ahead.

“No! It’s okay. We can go together. I am Wangchuk by the way. I am studying there at Lovely Professional University. May I know you please?”, he asked me again.

I was shocked and frustrated to walk along with such kind of person. He was looking for a corner in circle. He introduced himself although I didn’t ask him to. I told him to walk ahead of me but he denied. Finally, I had to force myself introduce myself to him.

“I am Lekyuen. I am a new teacher here in the school”.

“Thank you so much madam Lekyuen. Children might be so happy to have a new teacher in the school”, he giggled.

He was getting into my nerves. I turned back towards him and said, “Why?”

“What?”, he keeps on smiling.

“You told me that children might be happy to have a new teacher here in the school. So I am asking why?” I asked him again.

“Well, they have a new teacher to teach them”, he teased me again.

“Every teacher is responsible to teach them. There is nothing to be happy about me teaching them. That’s normal”, I tried to defend my stand.

“But madam, do you know? Rukubji is a remote place. The winter is freezing. Not a single person wants to come here. Few years ago, there was a shortage of teachers. I heard that even the Office Assistant had to teach children”, he explained to me as if he knew everything about the school. I had to agree. The winter was cold as he said but I didn’t know about the shortage of teachers. For a moment, I had forgotten my grievances. I was listening to that irritating person.  He kept following me.

I began to hesitate. So, I asked him, “I am going home now. Please can you go to your friend’s house? Thank you for your company”.

“I am sorry that I will be following till your house. My friend stays next to your house”. He denied again. Is it an excuse? Or he has a friend? I wondered but I continued walking without bothering about where he was going.

After reaching the door of my house, I picked my keys from one of the flower pots. Flower pots are my favourite place to hide my keys. I didn’t look at him. I started unlocking the door.

“Madam Lekyuen, I leave you here. It was nice to walk with you till here. Take care”, he told me before he returned to the same way.

“Why are you going back? You aren’t going to visit you friend? May be he stays in one of those buildings”. I pointed my forefinger to a Teacher’s Quarter.

“No! I am not going. I don’t know any of them there. I just wanted to accompany you till here. Well, see you again”, he told me

“Hey! What do you mean?”, before I got an answer, he ran away at the fullest speed.

About hundred meters away from my home, in a diminishing voice, I heard, “Chat!…you!…evening!..”

What! I thought. How would he chat with me in the evening.