Rainbows, lollipops and a ride in the sky - A MaNan Story Part 2

When he checked it, however, he found her to be missing. That made it clear to him that he probably indeed had imagined her. His constant habit of looking around for her for evasive purposes had probably made him paranoid. Furthermore, even the outfit of her imaginative version confirmed his doubt of her presence. He thought that he had seen wearing a tight white t-shirt accentuating her figure in combination with a pair of skinny jeans and sneakers. The whole college, however, was aware of her usual choice of traditional, colourful outfits. As it was, she turned out to be one of the few girls at their college that would dress traditionally and practically defy the unwritten social dress code. Almost everyone at college would wear the latest modern clothes. Especially the girls that would follow the latest trends and would dress as tight and as skimpy as possible, would be among the most popular girls. She, however, could not care less.

Whether she had been imaginary or not, at least the thought of her had turned out to be distractive enough. As it turned out, the mere thought of her had kept him busy enough to occupy his mind until he realised that his group reached the front of the queue for the park entrance. Upon entering the park, he tagged along with his group as they strategically decided the order in which they would visit the attractions. After they had decided what the best order would be, they started walking towards the first attraction. The waiting time for each attraction turned out to be quite manageable, although the most popular attractions did sometimes test the patience of its waiting visitors. Even though he did not enjoy the rides as thoroughly as he used to do, he could not say that he totally disliked the attractions. At a certain point, however, he started to feel an upcoming nausea. As his friends were planning to go into quite a wild rollercoaster, he decided to pass that specific ride.

In the meanwhile, he would look for a candy vendor. Not only might a lollipop lessen his nausea, but it would also help in cheering him up as it had been his favourite candy since his childhood. The shiny wrapper, colourful appearance and sweet but satisfying taste of lollipops had always had something about them that would make it impossible for him to stay in a bad mood. It had always been a weakness of his and only few people knew of it. That day he could definitely use such a stimulus. Thus, he embarked upon his quest for some sweet, shiny and seductive lollipops that would snap him out of the weird vibe that he had been having for days. And as if it was meant to be, he found a candy vendor within 5 minutes. It was as if the mere thought of lollipops had turned luck on his side and it persuaded him into buying not only one, but two lollipops. After all, buying merely one lollipop would not suffice to gratify lady luck, right?

As he stuck one of the lollipops inside his mouth, he put the other one in his pocket. As soon as he could feel the sugary taste on his tongue, he knew that the day was not actually that bad. The sun was shining, he had good company and even his nausea started to fade away. As the cloud of paranoia and anxiety that had been hovering around his head was starting to drift away, he could feel the pull of his newfound clarity guiding him slowly but steadily. It felt as if his inner compass had been polished and as if it was pointing towards a destination that had always existed, but that he himself had seemed to have lost out of sight for a while. All of a sudden, it dawned upon him that he somehow had been too busy fighting the inevitable and that it had been his inner fight that had been clouding his vision. Somehow, however, the simple and sugary taste of the lollipop had brought him back on the right track.

He did not exactly know where the right track would lead him, but he did know that he would reach his destination eventually. For the moment, he would settle by simply enjoying his day at the park as his sudden revival of clarity had pumped him up with new energy. As it was the case, the day was still young and so far he had not been able to enjoy the rides that he had taken. Keeping in mind that he had just gotten rid of his nausea and that his health therefore still was in a precarious state, he decided to take a few rides on the Ferris wheel. Even though the Ferris wheel had always had the reputation of the most boring attraction among the majority of people, to him it had always been one of the few attractions that would never cease to amaze and entertain him. Despite his slight vertigo, he could always appreciate the enchanting view that he could enjoy in the Ferris wheel. It always made him realise the seemingly simple yet complex nature of reality.

As if his feet had already known his intention before he consciously made his decision, he found himself heading towards the relatively short queue for the Ferris wheel. While he was waiting in the line and was savouring the taste of his lucky lollipop, he soaked the uplifting vibe around him in. The excitement of the visitors was quite catchy and as if it were infectious, he could not help it but also start feeling exhilarated. Even though the majority of people waiting in line for the Ferris wheel consisted of children that were not old enough to be allowed into the more adventurous rides and he himself seemed to be the oldest person in the waiting line, it could not bother him any less as the view from the Ferris wheel would make it all worth it. He was already looking forward to admiring the majestic overview of the amusement park, enabling him to assess the beauty of his surroundings even more thoroughly.

As though the anticipation of the view had made time fly by, he seemed to reach the front of the queue in almost no time. Being determined to enjoy his favourite attraction to the fullest, he subtly convinced the queue manager to allow him to take the ride to his heart's content by slipping a green note into his hand. While he was stepping into the capsule of the Ferris wheel, the sun was shining at its maximum. Not only did that make his ride the more enjoyable, but it also convinced him to let go of the final guard that had been his jacket by the end of the third consecutive ride in his private capsule. While he was placing his jacket next to him on the bench of the capsule and was taking out his old pair of sunglasses, however, he suddenly felt another oddly cold gush of wind that had also bothered him earlier on that day.

It felt like he had tempted fate from the moment that he had taken his jacket off, as a heavy downpour started from that exact moment on. By the time that his capsule reached the floor, the heavy rain had coerced all visitors into seeking shelter in the indoor attractions. Feeling relieved that his private capsule provided him sufficient shelter from the rain, he leaned back and closed his eyes as he waited for the manager to let his private capsule skip the next waiting visitor. Closing his eyes seemed to intensify his other senses, enabling him to smell the fragrance of rain to the core and enabling him to hear each single drop of rain spatter on the ground. The intensity of his senses overwhelmed him to the extent that he seemed to enter a state of trance that he had never been in before. Had it not been for his spare lollipop rolling out of his pocket, his state of trance might have never been interrupted and he would not have noticed that his capsule was not that private anymore by the time that his fourth consecutive ride commenced.

Link to part 1:

http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4486937&PID=127657568&#p127657568