An adidas Story

After a long tiring day, she slumped down into her seat on the public bus for a one and a half hour journey back home during the peak hour. She made sure she was among the first to board the bus to ensure herself a comfortable window seat. As she prepared herself for the one and a half hour nap she always takes on the bus, a young guy slid down onto the seat beside her.

The bus was very crowded, it was not surprising to have someone sitting beside her, she had already expected that, but she didn't expect a guy to sit beside her. Usually, as she noticed, a seat occupied by a girl would instinctively attract a girl to sit beside her and a guy would attract a guy, maybe it's the conservative nature around her that she've seen. And that was her first thought, "Why is this guy sitting here?"

As the guy slid in the seat beside her, she took note on him, his looks, his dressing, his manner. But before she could notice anything about him, the bag on his lap attracted her. "Why is this bag so familiar?" she thought. As her sights drifted to her own lap, she saw sitting on her lap the same adidas bag. Only that his was brown with orange trimmings and hers was red with white trimmings. She stared over at that guy again, acting as discreetly as possible, she saw his white adidas jacket with green trimmings. Anybody wearing this many adidas stuff was instantly attactive to her. Suddenly she felt a sense of affinity with this guy she's never met before.

She discreetly looked over at him, saw his time table. He's a year two mechanical engin student. He was reading a copy of Today, he intently read the all the serious articles, so she guessed that he was a serious person. She tried to observe his features, but it was almost impossible to do so without making it obvious. So she could only gather that he was of average height, slightly lean built, tanned, from the side of his face, his right earlobe was not pierced. He should be a decent guy, not too flamboyant, more average, or maybe a bit to the studious side. But he was also well dressed and properly groomed enough not to be too geeky.

Somewhere in between, she saw something of him that trudged up her past, a walk back down memory lane. There, on his right hand, at the back of the hand was a brown patch, a birthmark. She had seen something like that before, on someone else's right hand, at the exact place, of the exact same colour, and the same size. But where was it?

That burned her mind and she slowly drifted to sleep. She was supposed to take a nap in the first place. Her nap wasn't a sweet one. She woke up once, at a popular alighting stop, she thought that perhaps that guy might alight there, but he didn't. She got to see a little bit more of him, she got to sleep a little bit more beside him. From somewhere, perhaps her past memories, she suddenly felt a sense of comfort sleeping beside that guy she had only met half and hour ago.

She woke up again at another popular alighting destination, he was still sitting beside her. Having had enough sleep, she didn't drift back to sleep, but continued observing him. He wore a red and silver watch on his left wrist, but it was covered by his adidas jacket so she couldn't see which make it was. But she managed to get another look at the birthmark again. Where had she seen it before?

She remembered, she once had a friend who had a scar on his left hand, at the back of the hand. She remarked to that friend that she once had a friend who had a birthmark on the back of his right hand, she told him that he reminded her of him. But who was that friend? Why was she unable to recall it?

That guy finally alighted at yet another popular alighting destination, which also happens to be the place someone she knew lived, someone who was very influential in her life. But she dismissed that as a mere coincidence.

She thought about the birthmark and about that guy again. She thought that perhaps he was from her past, but if he were from her past then he wouldn't be staying at that place, but if he were someone she knew from recent times, that might explain him living at that place, but the problem was also that if he was someone she knew from the recent times, why wasn't she able recognise him or remember that friend with the identical mark.

She thought about it again.

"Maybe he wasn't staying there at all?" Maybe he was there just to transfer to another bus or maybe he was there to visit someone else, there were many other probabilities in life.