The Teen-N-Ties Lovers - Chapter 2- First Approaches

First Approaches

Senior and Junior were both, as yet, unaware of the other’s loss of heart. Each had received a signal from their girl, of some kind of mutual interest. All Junior had to and read was “She likes me too”. He had pulled a silly face as his signal and the girl had NOT mimicked throwing up or an expression of disgust, but a given a mischievous smile and pulled a massive squint-eyed face as she sipped her drink. It was so exaggerated that her mother had asked her - “What is the matter with you?”

For Senior, obviously, such tactics would not work. He and his ‘girl’ had a more sophisticated signalling protocol. The woman understood that a decent bloke would not look long enough for it to be classified as a stare or make her uncomfortable. He could also not pull monkey faces and hope to attract a mate. He would want to know if she was available and interested. All she had to do was to look at him just long enough to let him know she had noticed him and paid attention to him. Her smile was meant to convey that the result of her attention was - she liked what she saw thus far and would favourably consider getting to know a bit more about him before deciding if she liked him at all. It also confirmed that she was not already ‘taken’. If her stare at him had lasted a fraction of a second more or less, or if the expression following it had been even slightly a bit different, it would have conveyed entirely different messages, ranging from ‘OK, you think I am pretty, but move on’ to ‘Don’t you even dare think about it’, to ‘Sure, I know I look good and you don’t look too bad yourself, but -Sorry! I am happy where I am, not interested.”

The two smitten males now planned their first approaches to make contact and some kind of connection, hoping it was something that could be pursued.

Junior was, without being aware of it, burdened with a lot of issues that Senior did not have to worry about - the vital importance of appearance of ‘coolness’, the need to mask his fear of rejection by making it a joke and the fact that parental approval was still essential for anything to have a chance of working out, wondering what kind of girl this was, could he ‘afford’ to woo her etc. So, Junior worked on a rather convoluted method of trying to get the essential exchange started - Name and Number (phone number).

Senior had no such issues, but different ones. He did not feel the need to appear ‘cool’ always. Neither he nor the lady would worry about rejection as much as they had faced a lot more in life than that. They both were secure and confident enough in themselves and financially. They knew they could ‘afford’ to woo each other. Senior chose a more direct and simple approach.

Junior got up and went over to various shop counters, begging around until he found a pen from the assistant. He tore off a flat piece of the carton he got his food in. Then with exaggerated motions and repeated looks at the young lady of his attentions, he seemed to be sketching a picture of her as an artist would. She could not fail to notice him doing it, almost a dozen people noticed him doing so, even Senior, who was not aware of his situation. The girl giggled looking at him from a distance, in between eating her meal, striking various poses for him to sketch without letting her mother become aware. Junior ‘finished’ his sketch and then moved his seat closer to the nearby rubbish bin kept in the food court. Then he pointedly set the piece of carton face down on the table in front of him. He then moved over to the next seat with his food. He kept making silly faces and his antics made some little kids next to him laugh. He was, lucky for him, sitting behind the mother so that she could not see him.

Senior and the mother exchanged another quick look at each other. She quickly averted her eyes downwards as she saw he had caught her looking at him. She smiled barely and it seemed to him that he could see her blushing right through her ‘face paint’ as he usually called it. Senior opened his backpack and took out a pen and little notebook. That is one of the big differences between the teens and the ‘ties. The old ones carry a pen and notebook with them in their handbags or backpacks. That is their definition of being cool, as opposed to the young who would not want to be caught dead with a pen or notebook on them. They do not realize the limitations of their smartphones. Men and women have been making ‘first contact’ for over a million years, long before smartphones and this new generation might be the one who might lose this valuable basic instinct! However, as I write this, I hear that they are coming up with ‘apps’ that will help the next generation use a smartphone to mysteriously ‘sniff out’ interested potential mates among total strangers within a range of a 100 feet! Sounds scary to me!!

Senior smiled to himself as he wrote down his name, phone number and a little note on it, knowing that ‘she’ was watching him. He looked up half-way while writing and saw her looking at him directly. She covered her mouth to hide her wide smile and she averted her gaze towards her food. Senior then tore off the sheet of paper, folded it over twice. He left it on the table in front of him.

Soon, the ‘mother’ finished her meal, picked up her tray and came over towards Senior. The lady was headed towards the rubbish bin that she could see behind Senior. She approached him smiling, looking at him, as she intended to pass him by. He quickly got up and moved to the aisle, blocking her way as if he too was headed towards the rubbish bin. She stopped in her tracks, holding her tray, still smiling.

“Hello! I am R_. It is nice to meet you. Sorry to be blocking your way. Excuse me just a second,” Senior said. He picked up his little note and dropped it in her tray. He then sat back down, clearing her path.

She walked by smiling. He could hear her laughing behind him. He knew she had a choice, whether to read his note or dump it in the bin. He turned around to see her put the tray on top of the bin, pick out his note, thrust it in her pocket, empty the tray and stacked it. Then she took out his note from her pocket and read it and laughed again.

“Nicely done! I am K_. I will call later.” she whispered as passed him by on her way back to her table.

While this was playing out, the daughter took the opportunity to ‘finish’ her meal and dispose of her meal tray in the bin near Junior. As she approached him he reached out and turned his work of art face up. The girl saw it. Surprise and shock was evident on her face. Her eyes widened. She could not stop smiling. As she came close to the table, she leaned over to look at the artwork more closely. Then she burst out laughing.

“Do I really look like that?” she asked

“You did to me,” Junior replied cheekily.

She put away her rubbish in the bin, stacked the tray and turned around. She deftly picked up the piece of carton and tucked it in at her side. She pulled and stretched her long T-shirt over it to cover it from view.

“Call me if you dare!” said Junior.

“Or if I care,” she teased.

Both Senior and Junior were still so focussed on their own eye-candies that they did not notice what was going on in the other’s life.

Later that evening, the mother and daughter were at home, each lying on their bed alone and looking at the notes from their suitors.

The mother had a simple, neatly written note, in clear handwriting that said -”Hello! I am R_. It was nice to see you and to see you seeing me. If you consider it appropriate, please call me or write to me. I would like to get to know you if you too are interested. I am in my fifties and you don’t look a day over 40. I look forward to hearing from you, you gorgeous creature! - R_ <phone number and email>”

The daughter had a piece of food carton with a stick figure sketch of a grossly squint-eyed girl with devil-horns, sipping a drink, standing next to a tree from which a monkey was dropping her a note with Junior’s name and phone number written on it. The phone numbers were apparently trailing off the note in a line and some were still falling behind it, suspended in the air. The sketch of the girl bore a recognizable resemblance to the daughter while the monkey’s expression bore an equally recognizable resemblance to Junior. The monkey had a little shirt with the number ‘18+’ on it with a lit candle on top and the name ‘E_’ underneath the candle.

Both mother and daughter laughed.

Note that teenagers want to be treated as adults and try to push up the perception of their age in others - anyone from thirteen to nineteen can call themselves a teenager, but most of the youngsters will try to pass for the top end of the scale so that they can do all the things adults are allowed to.  Anyone from forty to forty-nine can still claim to be in their forties. The '-ties' agers - in their forties, fifties and sixties will try to pass for the lowest end of the scale. If they are actually fifty, they will make sure they pronounce the TY clearly and let others know there is no other digit after that. Once past fifty-five, they can keep referring themselves as in their fifties until the day they turn sixty.



Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2016
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