Two Strangers, One rainy night

On a rainy night in the winter of 1996, a woman with a yellow coat and velvet dress with a green umbrella kept walking in the pouring rain.

The sky gazed at the glorious mess of her colors and the trees witnessed the depressing sadness in her eyes.

3 miles and a few yards away, a man in a black tuxedo with a black tie and an incredibly white shirt with a dead phone was struggling in the pouring rain, trying to fix his broken car in the middle of the bridge.

In a few hours there, both lives are going to change in a way that seems almost magical.

The woman kept walking in the rain, as a leaf gliding in the wind. Slowly and with grace. Her fine curves were highlighted by her pink high heels. Her mascara was smudged all across her cheekbone and her dry lips were visible from her faded maroon lipstick.

1 mile away the man was still struggling to fix his car. He tried towing the car to the side but the slippery bridge road made it impossible. He loosened his tie around his neck and removed his collar button and sat down on one of the railings facing the river drinking his wine from the bottle. If he was having a bad night, he might as well not remember it.

The woman came in an hour later and stood at the edge of the railing and threw her handbag into the river.

The man in the impeccable tuxedo which was now completely drenched saw the woman threw her leather handbag into the river and couldn’t stop himself from saying “If I were you, ma’am, I would throw away the coat.”

“Yeah, well you’re not. So drink up.” She said.

Next, she threw the umbrella. He saw the smudged mascara, the faded lipstick, and her brown sad eyes, and the little mole above her lip.

“If you don’t mind miss, may I know your name?”

She shot him a careless glance and said “Rose”

“Like the flower?”

“No, like the poem….

O Rose thou art sick,

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night

In the howling storm…

It’s by William Blake.”

“Sure it is ma’am. Nice to meet you.” He paused for a moment, took a sip from his bottle “My name’s Dylan.” He said offering his 1974’ Chateau Margaux.

“Like Bob Dylan?” she took a few steps towards him and took the bottle.

“No, ma’am, like my grandfather’s retriever Dylan.”

“You were named after a dog?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“That’s stupid.” She said sitting beside him.

“With all due respect ma’am, I’m not the one trying to jump off the bridge wearing a yellow coat.”

“I get it, you’ve got a problem with my coat.” She said taking a deep sip.

“Yes, ma’am. It hides the light from your eyes.”

“Is that flirting?” she said handing him the bottle.

“No ma’am.” He laughed.

“How did you know I was going to jump?” she said taking the wine bottle from him.

“It was a lucky guess ma’am,” he said.

They drank wine in silence for some time.

“If you don’t mind ma’am, why were you trying to jump?” he asked.

“Boy! That’s a long story” she said

“I got all night ma’am”

“Okay. You’ve got to stop calling me ma’am”

“Sure miss, whatever works for you”

She laughed snatching the wine from him.

And that’s how their story began.

You have 2 new messages Rose’s voice machine-read.

She played them.

“You are a bitch, you know that!” his ex-husband’s voice “Why are you even alive? Do the world a favor and kill yourself,” he screamed again.

The second message was from him too “The 3 years I spent with you was the worst time of my life. You ruined my life bitch, you ruined it! I wish I’ve never even met you.”

I wish I’ve never even met you? Rose stared at the voice machine for as long as she could remember. She called him up last night to tell him — no, request him to give their relationship one more chance.

You ruined my life. The words rang in her ears hurting her everywhere. She remembered the night she told him she was pregnant. He punched her in the stomach so hard that she started bleeding.

You’re a selfish bitch. She remembered the day he took all her money to buy a car which he “lost” the next day to a game of poker.

Do the world a favor and kill yourself. She curled up on her couch, crying until her stomach hurt. Maybe he was right. Maybe she should just kill herself and end all this pain and suffering.

As if in a trance she got up, took her coat and umbrella, and stormed out of her house. She thought of calling him one last time, to say goodbye but she doubted if he’d even care. So she just stuffed her phone in her coat.

She walked in the pouring rain with an umbrella and she almost laughed at the irony — she was going to jump off a bridge into the river and she didn’t want herself to get wet.

She walked slowly as if to savor the few minutes left of her life. It took her forty-five minutes to reach the bridge. she felt her body shake under all the layers of her clothes. She started to have second thoughts. She looked for any signs that suggested her otherwise, but as she didn’t find any she climbed over the railing ready to take her life.

She saw a man in a tuxedo sitting against the railing drinking wine from a bottle and she cursed under her breath. A person means a witness. Well, I can at least give it a try she thought. She first threw her wallet to see if there were any rocks or any slab underneath.

If I’m going to take my own life it might as well be without any pain.

The man made some comments about her coat and she told him to back off.

Then she threw her umbrella to see how strong the wind was.

The man asked her name and she told her. He started to make a conversation.

God! He doesn’t even let me die in peace!

She asked him his name and he replied it was Dylan. He was named after a dog!

She got intrigued and joined in the conversation.

I mean, if an unknown man is interested to talk to her even when she looked like shit, it is sure as hell a sign to stop her from jumping right?

Dylan gave the best-man speech at his friend’s wedding. He felt like his heart was crushing looking at his first love Lily marrying his dear friend.

After the wedding, he walked around looking at everyone. His dad was talking to the groom happily. His mom was drinking wine peacefully looking at the sunset.

It should have been me he thought. It should have been me up there telling the vows, telling her ‘I do.’

Unable to see the girl he loved to marry his best friend he decided to get away from that place. Just as he was making his way out he heard his friends calling him. He grabbed the nearby wine bottle and told them the groom’s parents need the wine to make a toast. He made sure he was out of their sight and ran to his car started it and went as far as he could go.

As he drove along the highway, all the memories flashed before his eyes. The prom night, the sleepovers they had, the late-night talks everything.

He wondered when they fell apart. they were close until high school, and then slowly life got in the way. He got busy with college; she got busy with her life. He thought of getting back together once he was out of college but he got a job offer he simply couldn’t refuse.

And by the time he was ready, she announced she was getting engaged.

The car jerked a little and came to a halt in the middle of a bridge.

It had to be now huh? he said to the car. You couldn’t have broken down in the city or something? Where I could get some help? He kicked his car.

This is the worst day of my life.

He struggled with it for some time but he found it was no use whatsoever so he grabbed his wine sat on the railing and started drinking.

He just attended the wedding of his first love and his best friend — he was entitled to get drunk.

An hour later a woman with a yellow coat, pink heels came walking and he couldn’t help but think So this is what the physical embodiment of a glorious mess looks like.

He knew at once she came here to jump. But he saw that she was frightened. She threw her wallet first and he tried to divert her attention, so he made a comment about her coat which he felt was atrocious.

She told him to back off; clearly, he got her attention so he asked her name. She said she was named after William Blake’s The sick Rose. Obviously, she was not. Nobody names their kids after a depressing poem.

If a woman came in the pouring rain to jump off a bridge, how worse his day can be?

After some introductions, Rose took another sip from the bottle and squirmed “God, this wine tastes awful.”

“Then why didn’t I see you complaining all this while miss?” Dylan said slightly offended, but he knew she was right. The wine tasted like rotten grapes.

“Hey! I was about to jump okay, I would have drunk it even if it was a toilet cleaner” she said

He laughed and he somehow knew that one of the most beautiful nights of his life had just begun.