Rainbows, lollipops and a ride in the sky - A MaNan Story Part 1
There he sat, enjoying his hair being dishevelled by a breeze of wind that was extraordinarily cold for that time of the year. As if it were a reflection of his own mood, the weather seemed to be quite edgy that day. Although the sun had been shining as brightly as it had done any other summer day, it felt as if the cold breezes of wind that day indicated an upcoming change in the air. Despite his fondness for spontaneous outings and despite the promising clear sky, he had not been able to feel the same excitement as his friends had for their trip. From the moment that his friends had suggested the trip, he could not help but feel squeaky in the stomach. It was as if the mere suggestion of the trip had given him a weird vibe of which he had not been able to get rid of. He however, being the loyal friend that he was, decided not to disappoint his friends in spite of his inexplicable unwillingness to go.
So there he sat in the back of a gorgeous red convertible, listening to his friends babble about all the fun that they were about to have. The excitement in the car was almost tangible, yet he could not help it but feel restless. Considering the harmless destination of his trip, however, he felt quite ashamed of his hesitation to go. As it was, they were on their way to the most popular amusement park of the country. The park was suitable for people of all ages and its attractions were quite harmless. Every time he had visited the park, he had been in all of them several times and nothing had happened. Even the youngest kids were allowed to go in most of the rides. Thus, the paradoxical feeling that something would happen to him because nothing had happened to him yet, was quite embarrassing and also quite frustrating for him.
He tried to suppress the feeling as much as he could and he tried to enjoy his surroundings. Although he could not quite share the excitement of his friends, he could not help being in awe of the beauty of the rural scenery that they were passing by on their way. He had always lived in the centre of the city and had seldom left it, which made him appreciate the rural part of the country even more. The way in which the scenery was bathing in the bright rays of sunlight and the way in which the occasional breezes of wind seemed to groom the greenery, made the countryside seem all the more vivid to him. If it were up to him, they would rather spend their day in the countryside and soak in all of its beauty and purity. Taking that into consideration, the location of the amusement park was a consolation for him. As the park was located near a village, he would at least be able to enjoy the rural solitude to some extent.
By the time that they were passing by the village, the bright sun emanated such a scorching heat that he decided to take off his favourite jacket that he had been wearing. Luckily, he was wearing a white t-shirt that day so the heat became quite bearable for him. When they reached the park, however, he could feel another chill gush of wind. Although it was quite soothing, something about it made him decide to take his jacket with him. As he was tying his jacket around his waist when he was walking towards the entrance of the park with his friends, he noticed that he seemed to be one of the few people that even bothered to carry something along. The largest part of the crowd that was gathered in queues at the entrance, was dressed as lightly as possible. Some people were even fanning themselves due to the heat, using colourful mini fans that probably would not even last for the whole day and would inevitably end up in the trash bins by the end of the day.
While attempting to not get irritated by the length of the queue, he reached into his pocket for a smoke. Rummaging through his pocket, he realised that he had not brought his pack of cigarettes along with him as smoking would probably not be allowed in a family park. Furthermore, he had been intending to quit smoking for a while now. Although he was just an occasional smoker, he thought that it would be better to stop smoking completely before it would become a habit. As noble as this intention of his might be, it resulted into an unforeseen lack of needed distraction at that moment. In order to divert his attention, he took a better look at the crowd by which he was surrounded. Just like he expected, he saw a lot of families around him. The majority of the groups around him consisted of families, varying from young nuclear families to old joint families that consisted of more generations. However, he also saw quite some groups that resembled his own one and consisted of youths.
It was when he was spotting his peers in the crowd, that he thought that he saw her. She had been one of the silent motives that persuaded him to go along with his friends despite his unwillingness, and that day she was dressed in an outfit that he had never seen on her. Not that he looked at her that much. Or even noticed her. At least, that was what he had kept telling himself. He also kept telling himself that he just liked to keep an eye on her in order to avoid her, as her mere presence seemed to attract all types of trouble for the both of them. If he were fire, she would be water. One way or the other, they would inevitably clash whenever they would come across each other. Therefore, both of them had finally reached consensus on one matter: both of them were hell-bent on staying out of each other's way as much as possible. Yet there they were, clashing into each other again. He blinked his eyes, as if it would clear his vision, and quickly glanced in the same direction in order to check whether it had been his imagination.
