The Teen-N-Ties Lovers - Chapter 3 - First Call

The mother and daughter were good friends too. They shared and confided in each other. It had been many years the mother had been left single to raise two children by herself. The older son had moved out a couple of years ago and lived across town with his young family, in their new house. Now that the daughter had just about finished high school and the mother was scaling back her work outside the house, they both had some time to devote to the task of finding a partner for themselves. The mother had encouraged her to meet and get to know some boys outside her usual circle as well - not that she thought her daughter’s male friends were not good enough, but so that the daughter herself would have a chance to meet boys from a wider circle and then get to choose the one for her. Later, she would not have regrets at not having had the chance, if she took up with someone she already knew.

They looked out for each other and shared ideas and tips to make it a safe and sensible process. It was good that they got along so well and could easily work out disagreements without rancour or drama.

The daughter went to the mother’s room and showed her the cartoon sketches on the carton. The mother looked at it and laughed, “Who sketched this? It is interesting.”

The daughter told her how she had met the E_.  The mother then showed the daughter the note she had received.

“Mumma!! Who wrote you this?”

“Well, it was a gentleman. At least he looked and behaved like a gentleman who finds me attractive,” said the mother, “We will need to plan if we want to call them back and if we want to meet up and chat with them in person. It is best if we first give them a call and see how it goes. Even if we decide not to pursue these, it will at least put them out of their misery, just waiting without knowing.”

“Ok, I will call later tonight and see how I feel about him,” said the daughter.

“If you decide you want to meet him, it is best to meet in a public place. Let us make both our meetups the same day and at about the same time at the mall.  Say, this Friday evening around. 7pm. Make sure you have your outgoing callerID on the phone, turned OFF, when you call,” said the mother with her typical cautious approach.

“Who first?” asked the daughter

“Let’s meet my man first, about 15 minutes before yours so that we can both get to focus and pay attention to each,” replied the mother feeling that it would be a good thing to have an older man to help check out the younger one as well.

Later that night, Junior’s phone rang.

“Hey! Who is this?” asked Junior as he was chewing some food.

“Hullo? Is this the monkey-boy named E_?” asked a girl’s voice wondering why the voice at the other end sounded so strange and a bit choked.

“Heeey!! So it is you, Squinty Girl!!” managed Junior.

“I am normally not squint-eyed,” laughed the daughter, “And my name is P_.”

“Nice! So tell me about yourself, P_,” asked Junior.

“Well, I was hoping you will tell me more about yourself. I guess you are older than 18. I am eighteen too. Look, I am not desperate to hook up with someone, but would like to get to know more people as friends before getting serious or committing to one. I liked your sketch. It is funny but good too, Monkey-boy!” said P_.

“That is cool. I liked your face Squinty and thought it would be nice to get to know you,” said Junior, trying to appear casual, cool and not too eager. He was however, thrilled to hear from this girl.

They went on to chat a bit more, gradually easing into a friendly chat as the young can, by talking about the common things they liked and disliked, in the common vocabulary and slangs that let the other know that they belonged in the ‘cool’ crowd as well.

Somehow, with many short, ungrammatical, incomplete sentences going both ways, liberally interspersed with the word -‘like’ as in ‘I like said’, ‘and she is like “I am not happy” and so on, the two somehow communicated essential, useful information about each other. He was just out of high school, lived with his parents, worked a job as a paid apprentice with a motorcycle mechanic and while studying full time. The daughter revealed that she worked at a local supermarket part-time and was looking to study to be an accountant.

The youngsters also expressed a desire to meet each other and made an appointment the following Friday at 7.30pm at the same mall they had first met, in the food court. Junior asked for and got 7.30pm instead of 7.15pm as P_ had first suggested. This gave the impression that he was not too eager and also gave him time to show up well groomed. Junior got off work only around 6 pm and he wanted to go home, shower and make himself presentable with the carefully cultivated casual look, before he showed up.

Meanwhile, the phone rang in Senior’s house as well.

“Hullo! Hullo-ji, Yeh Kaun Hai (Who is this)?” asked Senior as he could not see any caller-ID.

“Hello! Is this Mr. R_?” said a sweet, woman’s voice.

“Haan-ji, Main R_ hoon. Kya Chaahiye (Yes, I am R_. What do you want)?” asked Senior, not recognizing K_’s voice and thinking it was perhaps a telemarketer calling.

“Oh-ji, Main tho aapki, Gorgeous K_ bol rahin hoon,(Oh, I am your Gorgeous K_ speaking),” replied K_.

“Oooh-ji, Namaste! Namaste! Aaap ho! (It’s you!) Good to hear from you,” said Senior, suddenly feeling a bit nervous, like he used to in his days as a young school boy. He sat down at his study desk. It helped him focus properly on one stream of thought and not get distracted by the things around his house.

“Accha-ji (Good), So is this a good time to talk? Or should I call you later?” asked K_.

“No problem. This is a good time. I was just about to sit down and watch the news, but it can wait,” said Senior, “I hope we can get to know a bit more about each other.”

With complete and mostly grammatically correct sentences, the two confident but slightly shy adults communicated essential, useful information about each other. He was semi-retired, working casually, helping his grown-up children with their businesses and their very young children. She worked part-time now as an office assistant at a nearby doctor’s office. She was now starting to find a bit more time to herself, as her daughter was growing more independent and learning to drive around by herself. The mother still was teaching her driving. The oldies too decided to meet for an evening meal at the mall on the following Friday at 7.00pm.

So, the stage was set for them all to meet. Senior and Junior were still unaware that fate had thrown them together again.




Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2016
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