Chapter 10

Sunday was dedicated to anime, potato chips, and water with lemon juice (I had to balance the junk with something healthy). After heavy binge-watching, and finally realizing I had work the next day, I went to sleep at 3 am and had to wake up at 5:30 am, feeling groggy.

Felling slightly feverish, I decided to take the bus, listening to "River flows in you" and "Yutaka Yamada" on loop. After some time the bus came to a sudden stop. I walked up to the front of the bus and noticed there was a commotion in the middle of the road. After enquiring from the conductor got to know that apparently, a taxi had tried to overtake a car and hit another one in the process, which was overtaking another, while the taxi hit the first car. All three drivers along with the passengers were screaming at one another and calling each other such lovely names which would have made my ears bleed, had I listened any longer. Some policemen were writing down the car number from the number plates but made no effort to stop the fight. Quite a large number of the audience were gathered to watch the free morning show and there was no sign of the traffic to move any sooner. So, I paid for the ticket to the conductor and got down the bus, and decided to walk to rest of the way, as usual, sniffing occasionally.

I was greeted by the friendly receptionist who commented I look sick as a formality with no hint of concern. When I reached my desk my neighbor on the right-side (whose name I am yet to learn) waved and then whistled.

"Looks like someone had a sleepless night," he said with an awful lot of excitement.

"It was two sleepless nights," I replied in a croaky voice, my throat sore as I talked.

He pointed his index finger at me and said "You are a very lucky man, you know," as if he was accusing me of some crime.

"Yeah, very lucky," I muttered.

The rest of the day was as boring as it can get. The only interesting thing that happened was when in the cafeteria a girl tripped another one with high heels as she was carrying her lunch tray laden with rabbit food, and the tray fell on JJ. It was not much but looking at JJ being decorated with lettuce seemed like a joke made by fate itself. Like a gorilla in a salad frenzy.

As I was about to leave the receptionist called me and asked, "Are you going to come tomorrow?

I was unsure of the answer myself but still, I said yes and left.

I thought about taking a bus home but the night was so calm, I decided to walk. It was quite a breezy night. The wind was making the leaves rustle and a few stray paper cups tumble across the street.

The night was unnaturally calm. Although it was quite late, a city like this is never expected to be so empty. It felt like there was some major weather alert and the people were hidden in the safety of their homes.

Maybe I should have watched the news instead of anime.

I was walking with my hands tucked in the pocket of my hoodie (which I always kept with myself in case the centralized office A/C made me feel like a human popsicle) when I saw something shiny on the sidewalk. I went to see what it was and was mildly shocked by what I saw.

It was a gold coin.