It was getting late in the night. I was out on journey to countryside in search of adventure since morning, as I drove my red Porsche boxster Saw some light at distance. I scrutinized from the distance and found that is was some busy country inn. I think after such a long drive it’s just perfect to get some booze and rest. I parked my Porsche Got out of it and walked towards the bar in the inn.
An owl was hooting on the top of a leafless tree. The moon was on zenith. The surrounding was filled with terror of night. The zephyr from the west was the only familiar thing to me on this land.
There stood an old man in a cowboy attire by the bar’s door. He looked at me in an undue admiration. He lifted his cowboy hat and gave me a bow with a sly, toothless, gummy smile. Certainly it was not often that he gets to see a carefree city girl having an adventures side. My leather jacket and denims gave me a punk look. He seems to have had an admiration for punk and Yankee. Or perhaps he was just drunk like rest of the people around.
The bar was filled with just few people. An old country song “Lucie” was being played. A fat woman was sitting in a corner table all alone, six people were playing cards in a table nearby, rest of the crowd was seated on the bar stools, drinking and chatting.
I sat on an isolated place from the rest of crowd and ordered for beer!
“Hey you!” said a riffraff country boy as he sat next to me and sipped some lacquer from his bottle.
“Hello” I replied
“Never saw you around, new to the place huh?” he asked with a smile.
“Yup I am!” I said almost avoiding any further interaction.
“I live in the nearby village. My name is Cassinin my folks just call me “Cas”. I am a cowboy I work in my farm! What do you do for your living?” he asked
“I am Karnika. I am a blogger! I write for my blog and apart from this I am an engineer in search of adventure and inventions” I said proudly
“Ah! Blogger sounds creative! What do you write about?” he asked as he got quiet impressed by it!
“I write fiction and random stories about my adventurous journey on my blog “The three dimensional living world”. You might have read it. It’s quite popular!” I bragged
“How do you expect me to read it when you are currently writing your first fiction?” he demanded.
“How do you know?” I asked in shock.
“I know! I know a lot. This incidence is going to be your first friction. In this story I am the one who listen to all your heroic deeds in the country, get impressed and fall for you. But you evidently reject me as you get to find out that I am scared of even rats and really coward! So I don’t match your carefree sprit…” he kept on his blab.
“Hey! You are not suppose to revile the story like this!” I said to hush him.
“Now that you have already broken the on tenterhooks, I will have to change it. So now you are just another stupid crazy country boy who come up with a raunchy pick up line and is hitting at me!” I announced proudly.
“Sounds great! I am single country man there is nothing wrong in just a little flirting and trying my luck…”he said and sipped his beer.
“No you are not single then. You have a beautiful girlfriend” I said.
“Beautiful girlfriend! Why would I hit at you then?” he asked with the taste of sarcasm.
Now this guy was testing my limits, I took a deep breath and said “because you are a country Casanova! And you are already cheating on your girlfriend as you are having an affair with the dancer in the bar!”
“What sort of story is this? We never had any dancer in this bar!” he asked out of confusion.
“We do have one now. I am the creator of the story! Remember?” I said
“That’s a pathetic story! What kind of start was that by the way? I would never hit at you as I have a beautiful girlfriend and an affair with the dancer! Who is there in the bar only” he said
“I can always go back and change how it starts. Now that you are pressing on it your girlfriend is ugly and wears braces!” I said out of reigning.
“You wore braces too!” he laughed.
“You are writing this just to make yourself appear like a hero as you are self obsessed! But it is not a hidden fact that no one will hit at you” he said with sarcasm.
“Let’s not get personal! “ I said as I got up and started walking towards the door.
“That’s what I meant to say when you portrayed me as “Johnny bravo”!” he shouted as I passed slamming the door.
I leaned to my car and stood alone for a while. As Cassinin came out of the bar’s door. He said to me acrimoniously “see! You hurt her too! You are so haughty!”
“Who?” I asked out of surprise.
“The lonely woman who was sitting in the corner, you called her fat. She is crying uncontrollably in the washroom” he answered.
The old man standing at the door joined cassinin and complained “she even made me look like a dumb drunk man, with toothless, gummy smile”
He turned towards me and asked me out of rage “You could have mentioned that I had dentures of artificial teeth, but you wanted to make just yourself look pretty and heroic and rest of us look like fools.”
He continued “I felt more honored when Paulo Coelho mentioned me in the alchemist, he respected me and never said that I ogled! at anyone unlike you did.
“Hey but I never said that you ogled!” I said out of shock
“But you meant that. Didn’t you?” he accused me.
“Holy f*** you were in the alchemist!” cassinin asked the old man.
“Yeah! I was. That is where she took me from and manipulated me to her own soppy character” the old man said.
“But I never mean you ogled at me. What I said was that …” I tried to give them my clarification.
But I was interrupted by cassinin “well! You are writhing about the countryside and you must understand the difference in their culture, perception and interpretation as you write.”
“Yeah! We are country men we believe in male domination. How can a young girl of your age out roll our men? And how come you possess a porches and I don’t get even a horse?” added the old man.
“Oh that’s pathetic you are acting as chauvinist!”
“No you are being excess of feminist, you got this porches and we don’t even get horses. And apart its countryside you are writing about that’s not fair” Cassinin rebuked.
“Enough! It’s my story I may write it the way I like” I made clear and walked away.
As I walked I heard a strange voice of hoot. The owl sitting on the top of the leafless tree was calling me.
I looked at it. He called me again and said “Hey you! Why you have made me sit on this leafless tree? Why u didn’t make me sit on tree with leaf. It is sort of thing makes the readers think that owls are scary and sleepy and lonely ….. That’s not fair...”
PS Did you just thought “owls can’t talk.” what do you mean owls can’t talk?
THIS IS MY STORY I MAY WRITE “WHATEVER” I WANT AND IT’S MY FICTION…..”
PPS A special thanks to Mr.Aseem Kaul.
