Étoile Filante

By Rahman Sam

"But why did those green eyes seem eerily familiar? And why am I more than just looking into his captivating eyes? – Pam is a hardworking nurse with a very fertile imagination. She seeks refuge in her surrealistic ideologies to cope with the stresses of daily life. But things are about to get surreal in reality when she repeatedly encounters a mysterious stranger – and she feels an inexplicable connection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rahman
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798215130384

Book preview

Déjà Vu

At the end of a nerve -wrenching day, Pam stretched her exhausted limbs to do away with all the stresses that her last shift had rendered. She couldn’t bother to change her scrubs this afternoon, as breaking the rules after a Friday shift was apparently her thing.

Turning curious or disdaining heads in the pub is entertainment from another dimension’, she mused. The other girls must be on their way to The Tavern; boy have we earned our treat!"

Pulling her red hair up in a messy bun and gathering her belongings, she headed out through the out-patient department, waved a cheerful goodbye to the receptionist and stepped out into the bright sunlight of late summer. The mild breeze felt refreshing on her weary skin as she wavered towards the bicycle shade. Was there any reason for her to deliberately stagger the time a little? Shouldn’t have been, as it was finally Friday on a nice bright day and she was about to see her friends from nursing school. Still, was there any longing deep set in some untrodden path of her sub-consciousness that made her want to linger in the area a tad bit longer? Whatever it was, she would not let it sanction its way to her conscious mind. But she was aware that her cosmic exploring sub-consciousness is way more powerful and interesting to loose over any rationality. Resigning, she let any spark of rationality give way and took a good searching look around. And there he was, standing at a far corner, the breeze artistically tousling his dark brown hair, often teasing against the fair skin of his face. The sunlight majestically played lighter tones on his locks that lifted in the air. The stubble of facial hair almost looked ginger in the bright sunlight. Pam watched in slightly unabashed fascination how he made no attempt to remove those unruly, straight and spiky locks away from his face, but allowing the wind to take care of it. He moved a few paces closer from the corner, which allowed Pam enough exposure of her enigmatic subject to estimate statistics. He might be in his mid-thirties, if he does not look hopelessly younger than actual age, just like myself...vertically quite blessed, clearly above 6 feet...medium built, well sculpted... might make a neat silhouette. A deep shade of embarrassment crept up to her cheeks to acknowledge that she was estimating the statistics of a stranger, but given the accounts of that past week, hadn’t she theoretically earned the right to do so?

Pam’s recollection

Somewhere within the field of my peripheral vision, I conceptualised the form of a not-so-run-of-the-mill male figure, but the rush to get back home on a Monday afternoon did not allow me more than a passing glance. It sure was not banal that a passing glance at a random stranger around the hospital vicinity had a deeper impact on me to glance back after a few steps away, but coming across someone worth a glance back is not rocket science, be it in an unexpected venue.

At the end of the following day, I found him leaning against the wall of the frontline security office, which was located a few yards away from the bike shade. While unlocking my bike, I stole a few glances towards him, still not daring an eye-contact. I could still feel his gaze gently warming down on me, which made me self-aware; the eight-hour long shift couldn’t have been very kind to my appearance. But who cares, at least it was home time. Leaned, one foot propped back up against the wall and arms crossed – he looked too relaxed to be any patient’s relative, let alone be a patient himself. New personnel?...

It was pouring down heavily on Wednesday afternoon, causing traffic congestions, rail disruptions and bus diversions, consequently forming a huge crowd around the exit. I was too distressed to look out for him that day; running around in train stations to follow the diverted route home was not my favourite activity. While filtering through the crowd and carefully avoiding puddles, I somehow made my way towards the entrance of the station. That was when a glimpse of this stranger crossed my field of vision for a fraction of a time, before disappearing in the crowd. If I had seen correctly, he was not using any umbrella under the heavy showers, his black jacket sodden against his skin. A galore of questions suddenly bombarded my mind – ‘who is he? Is he stalking me? Wait, wait... am I not the last person in the universe to be stalked? Am I a little daunted? If so, why am I a little drawn too? Why do I keep on coming across him? And lastly, am I the only one seeing him?’ I always worked under stress and I didn’t presume that would mess my brain to produce recurrent visions of unusually good looking men. That night I even ended up dreaming him. I can be quite pathetic...

I gain more life as the week rolls towards Friday. Consequently, on Thursday afternoon I gladly agreed to accompany a colleague to a little shopping trip at a nearby mall. Before my eyes could pass censorship from my judicial sense, they were hovering over every possible spot where the mysterious man might be present. But he was nowhere in sight...a wave of disappointment surged through me, more than I would admit to my logical self. With an unwanted tinge of apathy, I unlocked my bicycle and pedalled off with the colleague out of the hospital. As we came to a halt at the nearest traffic light, a Harley Davidson pulled up right beside me; motorbikes always fascinated me, but today I was in no mood to check the one beside me, had it not for the rider to rev the engine for a short while. Taken aback, I turned my head on my right just in time to watch the rider flip back the tinted visor on his helmet, revealing a pair of emerald green eyes, peering right at me. Although in theory