Never Ending Journey

“Why do you look so sad?”

I heard the melting voice and turned my left to see her. She was standing near me. Her dark, deep and lovely eyes were waiting with intense curiosity.

She tilted her head little and asked me again “why are you so sad?”

I was sad, but was it so obvious?

“And why are you not dancing?” she asked me another question.

How could I answer her? I was so tired from my restless, sleepless days on the road. I had crossed the sea and reached this beautiful island just to spend this night, the night which was suppose to give me one of the best experiences of my life, only to discover that it was nothing like I had imagined.

It was past midnight and I had a few drinks. My eyes were heavy. My legs were tired. I was hungry. The music was loud and thousands of people were dancing around me. Yet I found myself alienated and lonely, but cherishing these hours of solitude in the crowed. How could I dance?

My friends were dancing and I was just standing nearby with my hands folded on my chest.

That is how she found me.

She hold my hands with both of her hands and started to dance. She moved closer to me. She was smiling, yet I could see the sadness foaming into her eyes. She touched my face with her hand and said to me, “You should smile.”

She could love a complete stranger, become a companion of a never ending journey. She could learn the secrets of heart with one touch, and that knowledge would become a fragment of her heart. Her affection seeks not only the laughter, but the tears as well. May be she learnt that on the road, from months of travelling alone. But I like to think that she was like this forever, long before she left home.

I wanted to be with her, but I could not. I had to leave before the sun rises. I have traveled thousands of miles and still have hundreds to go. But I did not return as the same man as I was at the beginning of the night.

As my boat speeded through the calm waves and the cold wind of the Gulf of Thailand, sadness overcame my heart. I don’t remember the last words she told me, nor the words I told her as I left her. How would you depart from someone so beautiful and loveable without suffering? My mind was filled with her memories, knowing that she will not be forgotten among countless fading memories.

Now I know how to love a stranger.