Maaneet FF *A Second Chance* |NOTE P.65| - Page 44

Chapter 12

"Geet? Are you okay?" Maan asked, waving his hand in front of Geet. He had walked in after knocking several times and getting no answer, and what did he see? She was sitting up in her bed, sitting cross-legged, staring wide-eyed into the space around her as she mercilessly bit at her thumbnail. "Anyone home?" Maan asked again, this time knockinghis fist lightly against Geet's forehead. "Geet!" He didn't understand what could possibly wrong with her. Last night she had been her normal clumsy self, but this morning, she seemed to be in a world of her own. His only answer as to why she was like this was, of course, women, the most complicated and intricate living life form ever created. He had come to the conclusion, after experience of course, that no matter how much you tried to understand women, you just couldn't.

He was sure Geet probably hadn't even noticed that he had walked in and was, in fact, sitting right in front of her. "Women," he thought, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Geet!" He called to her, yet again.

"Huh?" Geet mumbled, giving Maan a dazed look. She watched him for a few long seconds before she took her nail out of her mouth, finally giving her poor nails a break, and actually acknowledging that he was sitting right there.

"What's up?" Maan asked, crossing his arms.

"Oh...umm...I had a dream," she replied tonelessly. "A weird one." She crossed her eyebrows.

Maan laughed, "Geet, in case you didn't already know, everyone has dreams when they sleep. Although I'm no doctor, or psychiatrist, or whoever you're supposed to go to get consulting on dreams, I'm sure its quite normal. Even I have them."

"Maan!" Geet slapped Maan's arm. "I know that, okay! Don't make fun of me!" she said. "By the way, just out of curiosity, what do you dream about?"

"Me? Oh, just the normal. About projects and stuff. Sometimes I get pretty good design ideas in my dreams," he told her matter-of-factly.

"You dream about work. Work?" she asked with disbelief. "Oh my god! You're so boring! How can one person be this boring? I just don't get it! I mean, you are quite big," she said, examing Maan up and down, "but still, you can't hold all that boringness inside you," Geet flung her hands into the air, ignoring Maan's slowly angering face. "Oh, by the way, before I forget, you know, since we're on this whole topic of how boring you are, your song for the day is...I'm not sure yet. But don't worry, I'll let you know."

Maan rolled his eyes, "You were actually serious about that? I thought it was a one day thing."

"Oh no, don't you worry, Maan." Geet laughed evilly. "I'll be scheduling a movie marathon for us one of these days. I have a bunch of movies that I really really want to watch again. Plus, there's a bunch of new ones that I haven't been able to see either. And then we can go sight seeing one day too. You know, since I'm new to the place. You can give me a tour yourself," she smiled.

"Me and a movie marathon? In your dreams, Ms. Chatterbox. I've got a lot more important things to do," Maan said.

"Dreams..." Geet whispered to herself, remembering where this had all started.

"Did you just say something?" Maan asked.

"Wait a minute, did you just call me Ms. Chatterbox?" Geet said angrily.

"Oh come on. Even you know it. You talk non-stop. I don't even know how you do it," he answered, smiling at her annoyed reaction. "Anyways, what was with that wide-eyed dazed look you had when I walked in here?" Maan asked, widening his eyes to imitate Geet. "Did it have something to do with your dream or something?"

"Ha-ha. Very funny," Geet smiled sarcastically at Maan's imitation. "You know, someone once told me that dreams you have early in the morning come true. Do you believe in that?" she said suddenly serious.

"What are you talking about, Geet?" Maan said. "Dreams? That you have when you're asleep? Coming true? I have no idea what you're trying to say. They're just dreams, Geet."

"I mean...I dreamt that..." she slowly unfolded her arms, brought one of her hands up to Maan's face, and gently placed one of her palms on Maan's cheek, caressing it ever so tenderly.

"Geet..." Maan said softly, bringing up his hand to cover the hand Geet was caressing his cheek with.

"Oh..." Geet quickly moved her hand away from Maan's face. "Umm...so do you believe in signs?" she said, trying to get rid of the awkwardness she had unconsciously just created.

"Like what?" Maan asked slowly.

"Like...oh, I don't know," Geet stopped. "I'm so confused!" She moaned, covering her face with her hands.

"Yes, you are. And you're confusing me too! I think you had too much sleep or something. You know, sometimes too much sleep can get to your head," Maan patted Geet's shoulder. "I think you should get up already, or you'll be late to work on your second day."

"But I have been up," Geet said. "Since three!"

"Since three?" Maan said. "Why? What were you doing up so early? Wait, I didn't even know that you were even physically capable of waking up so early, you know, considering that the first time I met you, you managed to sleep almost an entire day..."

"Remember? My dream..." Geet trailed off. "And, no, I did not sleep the entire day, okay. That was my first day here. I just landed in Delhi that afternoon."

"Oh god, not again, Geet! You and your dreams!" Maan said getting up off Geet's bed. "And for your information, Dadimaa told me you landed the afternoon on the day before. That means you slept for the rest of the day and the entire day after," he stopped and tried to register what he had just said, but instead, he had just totally confused himself in the process. "God Geet, you're making me confuse myself too!"

"Maan?" Geet and Maan turned to see Dadimaa standing at Geet's door. "What are you doing in Geet's room this early in the morning?"

"Oh, hi Dadimaa," the both replied together.

"Madam Geet here thinks it's more important to discuss a weird dream that she had a three in the morning rather than get ready for work," Maan laughed as he walked out Geet's door.

"Dream?" Dadi said.

"Yeah, and all boring Maan Sir can do is make fun of me," Geet called after Maan, as Dadimaa laughed at them both.

"Wait. Was Maan just smiling? Actually smiling?" Dadimaa asked as she sat down next to Geet. "And laughing?"

Okay, now Geet was completely fully confused. "What do you mean, Dadimaa. Why does that come as such a shock?" she asked.

"Why?" Dadimaa turned to face Geet. "Because, I haven't seen him smile like that since he came here, Geet. You don't know him that well, but I do. And let me tell you, I have never seen him smile that much. I mean, he used to be pretty cheerful as a kid. But ever since he moved to New York, he's been a little less, I don't know...what's the right word for it, joyful," she said sadly. "Since he came back to India, he's been even less cheerful. He seems changed, and I don't quite know why. And laughing? That's totally out of the question. Lately he's been acting like one of those angry-young-men you usually see in soap operas. But today, he's smiling!"

"But Dadimaa, I've seen him smile since the day I got here," Geet told her. "Actually, I take that back. The first day I saw him, he was kind of annoying and seemed really sadu-ish. But still, the next day, we got along pretty well and I'm sure I remember seeing him smile a lot," she said. "And lately he's been making fun of me a lot. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who doesn't smile. He seems more like the opposite..."she trailed off.

"Really, Geet?" Dadi looked surprised.

"Umm...yeah?" Geet said. "Dadimaa, is everything okay?" she said, seeing the hazed look on her face.

"Hmm?" Dadimaa mumbled. "Oh, yes, Geet," she said getting off the bed. "And I think Maan was right. You should probably get up. You don't want to be late to work. Especially on your second day," Dadimaa told Geet as she walked out.

"What? Maan doesn't smile?" Geet said to herself. "But I've seen him smile so many times...and that dream. What was up with that dream? Was it really Maan who saved me? Or was I just hallucinating or something?" she mumbled. "Wait, it's a dream. How does someone hallucinate in a dream? That doesn't even make sense, Geet!" she scolded herself. "Oh my god, I'm so confused!" she groaned. "Babaji!" she yelled looking up at her ceiling. "Help me!"

Shreya