MATE - Final

There was no such thing as a soul mate, Ria declared and that there were no perfect mates.  She pointed to her story trapped inside the black jacketed device and proclaimed that soul mates only lived inside such devices or within leaves of paperbacks.  Real life did not present ideal mates.  Then as if an afterthought she stated that her beloved, the one she had been searching for at the station was not going to show up.  Her reality was a fantasy.

Simi shook her head, the balls of her eyes staring straight at her travel companion.  Her innocent eyes blinked and politely disagreed with a knowing gleam.  She stated that her soul mate completed her by perfecting her imperfections.  She knew he was not flawless but neither was she and together they became unflawed.  If she was the Ying, then he was her Yang.  If she was the right hand, then he was the left hand.  She declared that she had put all her trust into her heart and firmly believed her heart never lied.  She confessed that she knew nothing of the fictional world but had faith in love, the most absolute of all feelings.

“I was married once”, Ria shared, and continued to share how foolishly she had thought her beloved was her soul mate.  Continuing her story as her gaze travelled to the passing lush fields outside she told Simi how the romance had started out smoothly, the sweeping off feet, flowers every week, travelling to exotic lands to discover new things and each other.  She discovered over time that he was not all she imagined, not the perfect man-god but a mere human with all his short-comings.  She was in love and might even have felt whole with him but they did not see eye to eye.  Their relationship was flawed and so was their belief that they were meant for each other.  Disappointed, she left him and decided to dive into the men in her fictional world, who lived up to her expectations.  “If he was my soul mate, then why were we not perfect?” She challenged.

Simi rolled her eyes and spoke softly.  Her observation shocked Ria and the audacity to profess that Ria did not seem to live in the real world at all.  Reality was not perfect, neither our soul mates, but two imperfects make their one world absolute.  She put her feet up on the berth, put her bag by the window and reclined to rest her head on it.  Her eyelids closed, she said, “I believe.”

Ria shook her head, opened her book and returned to the world of her characters, people who were more real and more perfect, just the kind she likes to get to know.  The train chugged away lulling its passengers to sleep as the light began to fade outside.  With a screech, the train came to a tired halt surrounded by pitch darkness.  Soft glow of a single light pole from a deserted platform entered Ria’s cabin and she stole a glance from her fictional story to observe real life on the station.  A handful of passengers disembarked with their load, some to stretch their legs before getting back on.  She spotted a young man in stone washed jeans, tight black t-shirt over an obviously muscular body climb into their carriage.  A few moments later there was a soft knock on her cabin door.

Simi leapt up from her sleeping form and unlocked the door.  It slid open and Simi fell into the muscular arms of the young man.  He stepped in, stopped to lean outside the door to pick up a large suitcase and lugged that in.  Simi gave a sideways glance to Ria and with a smile she mouthed, “soul mate…I believe.”

The End