COMMON SENSE CO-OP Hsg. Soc.
Building: G
Apartment No.: 709
Flying Road, Clowds (W)
Rayning – 700108
Nautika, Skylayne
“Ha! The address is written. Where’s my note?” A lady searches for the bonded paper in which she typed a short message of four or five lines and finds it on a book with her pen on top it, acting as a paper weight. Folding the paper in three folds she places it in the envelope with the hand written address and stamps it with her seal.
“This is important and it must be delivered quickly and in this age old manner but, I’m forbidden to move outside the given perimeter. Now, that’s an issue.” She keeps the sealed envelope in a book in close proximity and leaves her seat, moves quickly to the door, opens it, goes out, closes the door, shut and locks it. She walks to the main door, opens it, closes the door, shut and locks it too. She then traverses her way to the playground. She spots some youngsters playing in a group and move towards them. Standing at a safe distance, she waves and calls one of them to her.
A youth runs towards her in curiosity, listens to what she has to say, looks at her, calls his friends and announces, “This lady here, wants one of us to deliver an envelope to a nearby society. The thing is that, it should be delivered in thirty minutes. Who’s willing to help her?” Having made the announcement, he lowers his hand and looks at her.
One of the youth speaks up, “Will she be paying us for this favour or is it for free?”
They all look at the lady, she smiled and said, “Deliver it in thirty minutes and I’ll give you a thousand rupees if you reach here within thirty-five minutes”.
They all buzz about saying;
“We can’t get this done with our legs, we need wheels.”
“Who has wheelers?”
“We can use the money for snacks after the game.”
“This is a strange request.”
“What must be so important about it?”
“Why can’t she just send a WhatsApp message or an e-mail?”
“Quiet, we need the money so we can have snacks after the game.”
“Hey you, you have access to wheels, don't you?"
One of the quiet youth looks at the one who questioned, in a ‘I don’t understand kind of a manner’ and replies, “The scooter belongs to my brother. I can get the keys but, I’m not allowed to ride it”.
“It’s alright”, said the other, “I’ll take the risk. The address is just around the corner, I should be fine since, I’ve got a learner’s license”.
“Cool”, having said this the youth returns with the keys in ten minutes and hands it over to the youth willing to do the delivery.
“So lady, this person...” “Wait”, she stops the youth from speaking further saying, “No names please. This is important and highly confidential. Just deliver the envelope. I don’t want to know who will be doing the delivery. It has to be done. That’s all I care about.”
“Okay”, answered the youth. “Wait here”, she says, “I’ll return with the envelope shortly”.
She rushes to her room, retrieves the envelope from the book, looks at it, touches the red seal, holds it in close proximity to her body and heaves a sigh of relief.
It is a white envelope with a golden border.
She rushes to the door and on reaching it, returns to her room picks her handbag with the cash in it and quickly rushes to meet the youth…
These youngsters at the playground wait patiently and enthusiastically to oblige to her. They are only thinking about the snacks which they’ll enjoy with the money.
One of them is already ready on the bike. As soon as this lady arrives he takes the envelope from his friend’s hand, puts it in a sling bag and tightens the bag across his body for extra safety. He starts the bike and VROOOOMMMM he goes. On reaching the said society he signs at the gate, rushes inside the building, uses the lift to go to the seventh floor, he removes the envelope from his sling bag and pushes it through the letter slot of the door and quickly returns to his group of friends.
The leader meets the lady, puts his hand forward saying, “Payment please. The envelope has been delivered”. She removes the cash from her purse hands it to him and rushes to her room, sits on her chair and thinks to herself, “Tomorrow evening at five… I’ll finally seal the deal”. She retires for the day.
AT APARTMENT 709…
The maid notices an envelope on the floor, reads the address and gives it to the lady of the house. She takes it, thanks her maid, looks at the envelope and says, “An envelope with a golden border, who delivers such letters now-a-days? A simple WhatsApp message should suffice but, it looks important. It has a golden border. Hmm…”
So, she rushes to her study, picks a letter opener and before breaking the seal, she places the camera to record her actions. She waves the sealed envelope in front of the camera and using the letter opener she breaks the seal. When she opened the envelope and the bonded paper in it, her eyes widened. She frantically picks her cell phone, calls her husband and speaking into it she says, “We’ve received an invitation for tea tomorrow evening at five.”
From the other end of the receiver he asks her, “Where? And who send it?” He was puzzled.
“Come home, I’ll show it to you”, she responds looking at the letter and the envelope feeling all the more puzzled.
The husband reaches home after work, rushes to the study where his wife works saying, “Show me the invite”.
She looks at her husband, shows him the envelope with the golden border and the bonded paper and reads from it,
Hi,
“It’s been a long time since we’ve met.”
If you remember this sentence meet me for tea tomorrow at five in the evening, latest by five thirty at:
RAINSTREET LOUNGE.
The manager at the lounge will guide you from there.
Just me
The couple looked at each other, each giving questioning glances to the other but, playing safe.
“Let’s wait till tomorrow and speak after”, said the husband. The wife agrees and they spend the rest of their time in pin drop silence.
THE NEXT DAY – IT’s 15:00 HOURS
The lady rummages through the clothes in her dresser and chooses a mauve dress with lovely red heels, a red custom-made hat and a white belt with a red polka dotted bow. She picks a dark green hand bag, her sunglasses and says, “Everything I need is kept ready. I should be getting dressed by four to leave by four forty-five. I can’t be late for my own date now, can I?”
She rushes to her kitchen and chomps on a sandwich as she’s clearly nervous.
IT’s 16:00 HOURS
“Honey, I’m home”, said the husband. “I’m all excited about that invitation. Ooh the tea.” He looks at his wife and says, “Oh! Your all ready and ‘My Word!’ You look gorgeous. The invitation has its consequences”. The wife snicks and returns to powder her face in front of the mirror and responds, “Yes, I’m excited too… I wonder who sent that invite? Curiosity revives the cat. How do you like my little idiom?” “It’s good. My wife can’t get wrong”, buttered the husband, after all, even he’s wondering who sent the mystery invitation. He’s got to play cool and safe till they reach to the truth.
IT’s 16:45 HOURS
The lady is all dressed and ready. She calls her driver and asks him to drive her to RAINSTREET LOUNGE. She enters her car and as soon as it stops outside the lounge, she thanks her driver and walks towards the manager. She whispers something in his ear and sits at a cosy corner overlooking the newly built fountain.
The couple all dressed and ready leave for RAINSTREET LOUNGE.
They are still sitting in their car when the husband asks his wife, “What’s the time?” “Its. four fifty-nine”, replies the wife. “Okay, we better hurry it’s not good to keep a lady waiting”, says the husband. “It’s not good to keep a lady waiting?” shouts the wife, “What do you mean? Do you know IF we are meeting a lady? Do you know her?” Her husband caught in his words replies, “Hey, just a minute. Your looking all gorgeous how do I not know who is it that your all dressed for? It could be another man?” The wife scoffs and says, “Wait a minute. Let’s move in and then we shall decide who will win this argument.” “Okay, Okay. Fair and square. You wait for me at the reception area, I’ll park the car and meet you there”, replies the husband. The wife opens the car door a little harshly, knowing too well that she has to control her temperament till the final show. She walks to the lounge entrance door, opens it, enters the building and waits for her husband. The husband parks the car and returns to meet his wife at the reception area.
“Let’s go to meet the manager”, says the husband. The wife nods in agreement, removes a powder pack from her bag look at her face, smoothens her chin with the cotton swab in it, looks at her husband and stands up. They walk towards the reception area and ask for the manager. The receptionist nods, picks the speaker end of the phone and calls for the manager at her desk. She asks them to take a seat and wait for the manager while he comes. The couple walks towards a nearby sofa, look at each other and sit down. Both are anxious as their caught in their own words.
The lady looks at her wrist watch and says, “It’s five-ten, the date is supposed to arrive not later than five-thirty so, I have another twenty minutes to marvel at the beauty of this fountain. It’s sculpted so well, the basins through which flows the waters are so greyish blue in colour. It pleases my eyes…”
In about 10 minutes the manager walks up to the couple saying, “Good evening Sir. Good evening Madam. I believe that you’ll wanted to meet me?”
“Yes”, the husband responds and continues, “We have received an invitation for tea between five to five-thirty this evening at this lounge. All we have is a typed message in an envelope with a golden border.” He asks his wife to hand over the envelope to him. She fishes it from her bag and gives it to her husband who takes it and shows it to the manager saying, “We’re really curious about this invitation and more than the tea we want to meet the person who sent it to us”. To which the manager frowns because the person who is supposed to be here should know who he/she/they would be meeting. Looking at the envelope, the seal, the bonded paper and the message he knows that they are the ones who received it and it’s genuine so, he folds the paper, retrieves it in the envelope looks at the couple and says, “Follow me”. They look at each other even more curiously and quietly follow the manager. The receptionist looks at this situation in confusion. A call at her desk bring her to pay attention to her job.
The couple walk behind the manager following him.They pass through a small corridor that leads to the tea/coffee/ reading section of the lounge. They marvel at the beautiful marble flooring, the beautiful glass ceiling and the flowering plants placed at certain places through the corridor. As they reach the cosy corner selected by their host they stop and gather themselves. The manager politely speaks up saying, "Good evening ma’am. Your guests have arrived”.
The lady is still looking at the fountain marvelling at its beauty and faintly hears the manager and replies, “The guests have arrived. That’s pleasant news. I was almost lost in the beauty of this beautiful fountain. Let them be seated.” The manager looked at the guests, motioned his hands to the sofa seats and says, “Madam, I’ll take your leave. I’ll send a waiter in approximately fifteen minutes. If you need anything else I’m happy to be of service”, saying this, he bowed and left them. The couple sat on their seats staring at the lady and gave each other a confused look but, didn’t say a word. The lady dreamily continued praising the fountain while repeating the words, “The guests have arrived. The guests have arrived. Wait a minute GUESTS with a S not GUEST but G-U-E-S-T-S.” She turns to look at the couple and hold her mouth in surprise saying, “A couple and who is it, my extremely close friends. How did you’ll get the invite? It was supposed to be a single person.” The wife holds the envelope and shows it to her with the seal and the bonded paper. The lady takes it from her hand, looks at it carefully saying, “Yes, this is my seal, my bonded paper and my envelope with a golden border. This is definitely the right thing and my handwritten address. But, it was supposed to be delivered to…” She reads the address and gasps thinking to herself, “Oh, the letter near the Building at the address section looks like a J. Oops!”
She looks at the couple and smiles saying, “An invitation, is an invitation. So, I’ve invited you’ll for tea and biscuits.” They said, “Yes, that’s what your letter reads”. They look in amusement at how their best friend decides to invite them over for tea in such a fancy place, in a fancy manner while the lady looks at them and thinks to herself, “Why did I use fancy lettering? My deal will have to wait. Me and my fancy presentation but the address had to be hand written for authentication. What a mess? I can’t involve friends in deals. How am I supposed to deliver this pattern in confidentiality? Oops and now it’s supposed to be tea and play along smoothly with them.”
The waiter arrives just in time to save her from an awkward situation saying, “Ma’am if you need anything I’ll be at the corner to your right”. She looks at him in relief saying, “Yes, I would like you to bring us the best tea you’ll have to offer with a Bundt cake and double chocolate chip cookies in abundance. We’re having our fill. Old friends catching up and all.” The waiter bows and leaves with the order. Her friends spit out the question. “We know that we weren’t supposed to be invited because why would you send us an invitation like this? How can you afford this place? What’s your deal supposed to be? We can help. Biscuits in abundance… Whatever…” She responds in composure “It’s all cool. I wanted to surprise old friends for all your kindness to me over the years. I’m guessing that you’ll aren’t happy about it”. “No, no, we’re pleased. It’s just that it’s a surprise that’s all. We'll make a deal for old time’s sake, we want to split the bill among the three of us”, the husband responds. She looks at them bewildered. It was her invite and they had no right to take reins over it but, she wasn’t prepared for a couple at her planned tea surprise and more so, they’d be her old friends and she was a little surprised on seeing them. A little happy and a little irritated with herself for the hand written error but what’s done can’t be undone or it’ll get more embarrassing for all of them. So, she giggled and returning to her chirpy self, entertained her guests and had a wonderful evening to remember.
Before leaving the lounge she says to herself, “l’ll try again”. She looks at the manager and signs him for a next round. He bows and moves away. Her driver waits to pick her up. On reaching her society she notices the same group of youth playing on the grounds. She thrusts her hand in her hand bag, removes a few notes, calls one of the youths, handing it over to them she tells them to enjoy snacks after their game. They run along in joy while she hurries to her desk, takes a white envelope with a golden border, writes another address, folds the bonded paper, placing it in the envelope, seals it with her seal, looks at it and walks towards the door…
***THE***END***
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