Chapter 21: Lesson not learnt – Part I

After returning home that day I kept on pondering over Louis’s goalkeeping abilities… he had some exceptional skills… saving a long ranger was a different thing but saving a penalty was another … I got yelled at by Evie thrice during lunch… she was talking about her exams and expecting me to reply to her immediately but my mind was preoccupied with other thoughts… in my mind I was trying to figure out Louis’s weaknesses… but the more I thought about it the less I seemed to figure out… so I left that thought altogether, I decided to train more with him… and also thought that if I played more with him I would be able to understand his game play and then probably score against him…

“Are you listening???” Evie again started yelling.
“Yeah…” I replied.
“From lunch I am seeing that you are lost in your thoughts. What has gotten into you today?”
“I am absolutely fine Evie, don’t worry…”
“Let me check your temperature…”

Saying that she put her right palm on my forehead and the left palm on her own forehead…

“Your temperature seems to be normal…” Evie said after checking my temperature.
“Leave it Evie, come lets go shopping and then we will dine out tonight…”
“Oh I love shopping! After so many days we are going out together…” the frown on her face completely disappeared.

Girls are strange indeed… they yell, and get angry often without any reason but if the term “Shopping” comes up and if it is brought out along with the words “eating out” then their anger totally vanishes and they become a different person altogether… suddenly they start showing their love and affection… It was the same with Evie… suddenly I became so good that she forgot all my faults…

“So then let’s go…”

Saying that I put my hand forward and Evie held it and we went of the house… hand in hand…

Shopping with Evie was extremely exhausting… she wasn’t able to choose properly… once she chose a skirt and then after seeing another she decided to abandon her previous choice for the new one and the cycle continued… she took more than five hours to buy just five dresses… after shopping we went for dinner in an eatery…

“We finally finished shopping; I am so satisfied with my stuffs…” Evie left a sigh of satisfaction while at the table waiting for our food to be served.
“You took five hours to buy those!! Other than being satisfied what else can you be?!”
“And what about those jeans of yours? We spent two hours over there…”

I was caught off guard but I didn’t give up…

“It was the fault of that old man… whatever I chose he was refusing to give me…”
“It was your fault… you chose things what other people had already chosen…”
“If they had chosen them then they could have carried those with them rather than leaving them in the hangers…”
“But you should have left them and bought other things…”
“But I was right wasn’t I? The old fool didn’t know a thing…”
“Don’t blame the old man…”

Evie was going to say more but seeing the waiter waiting for us to finish our quarrel she stopped. I was embarrassed too… we were fighting like little kids…

“Enough fighting let’s eat now…” I said while putting in a sushi piece in my mouth.

The food was really good… Whenever Evie and I ate out we either took Sushi or Noodles and soup…
We finished our food and ordered coffee… while drinking coffee we talked with each other… we didn’t quarrel anymore…

“Did you like this?” I asked Evie about our evening in the Shopping Mall and the sushi.
“Of course I did” Evie replied.
“Evie…” I held her hands, “It feels great to make you happy…”

Evie started blushing…

“Now let’s go back it’s getting late…” Evie said.

She was still blushing.

“Alright let’s go back now…”

Saying that we left the eatery and were on the streets… we were walking on the pavements… it was some minutes walk to the parking area where we had parked our car… We were talking about the various incidents of the day… I told her about Louis… how he had saved my goal bound shot and also my penalty… she talked about a new girl she met while hanging out in the café with her friends… the girl was Spanish her name was Bella… the coincidence was astonishing… but still I didn’t think Louis and Bella had anything to do with each other… I told Evie about the Old Man and the incident with Johnny and Danny… and we shared a laugh… Johnny and Danny always managed to make every one laugh at their silly acts… They were nicknamed the “Clowns of the fall” in school…

We were at gate of the parking zone… I paid the usual parking fare and went ahead to get the car while Evie stayed behind…

As I got in the car and turned the ignition key the front lights penetrated the darkness and showed Evie running towards my car… She reached the car and entered it and spoke only two words… “Let’s leave” …
She was panting. I could see fear in her eyes…

“What’s the matter Evie? Why are you so worked up?” I asked her.
“After you left me I saw Taylor with a group of goons… they were ruffians…”
“So he is again after you… didn’t learn his lesson then…”
“Let’s leave immediately Miroku… ”
“Alright…”

Saying that I started to drive… in some moments we left the parking zone and were on the road… I looked in the looking glass… a Black Land Rover was behind us… it was the same car… the same car from which Taylor came out THAT night… how could I forget?! I could never forget that night… it was fate that had sent me to Evie’s house or else I would have lost Evie forever…