Nora Meets the Phantom

Note: (This is a follow up of https://insightstrove.com/a-phantom-sorry/ please read it if you haven’t yet 😊). We’ll have to go back a bit before we get to the phantom sorry and see how these two met. Jump in.

Couples meet in the most unusual of ways; sometimes strange: like these two: Nora and the phantom.

“Excuse me” someone had touched her elbow. She turned her head to see the face of the handsome boy who had sat next to her during the play whose curtains just closed. With the narrative still very green in her mind, she imagined the play had inspired the boy, like Waiyaki- the Alejandro of the play- to profess his love for her (his Nyambura). If she was trying to hide it, the smile that took over her face brutally backstabbed her. “Do you mind passing this note to that girl.” He said as he pointed. Where then was a meadow of buttercups in her heart, a violet dusk pooled, and her smile was turned upside down. Even she, noticed and immediately gathered a blue smile quickly. “Sure.” She swallowed as she took the note.

People had already started to make their way towards the exits. So, she reached out to the girl and handed her the note. “Hi. It’s from – trying to look around for him- he was already getting out of the room- that guy in the white shirt at that exit.” The girl opened the note in front of Nora without a care in the world.

           I like you.
          Call or text me here
            # [...]
                  
                _Your admirer

Turns out he was indeed inspired by the play to profess his ‘love’, well, attraction. Just that she, Nora, wasn’t his Nyambura. The girl looked back up at Nora and handed her the note back jeering, saying: “I’m not interested, give it back.” Now, there’s no way Nora was going to give it back as the phantom was already out of sight. What was she to do? Dump the note in the garbage on the way out obviously, right?  While she was walking out, a wicked idea struck Nora. The guy doesn’t know if the girl accepted or rejected the note! What if she had some fun 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️.

That night, she fought with herself about whether ’twas right or wrong, what she was about to do and about her reasons for doing it. He clearly saw her and passed over her. This internal battle continued to the third day. In the afternoon on the third day, she wrote him a short text saying. “Hi, it’s the girl you saw at the play.” It was technically true. She didn’t send it though. But she determined to send it in the even before she went to sleep and so she did.

(In the morning) Her heart was rioting when she picked up her phone to see, “Hey beautiful.” Golden, she sprung up and without delay she responded back, “Hey handsome”. And that was how their conversation began. Their text messages graduated to calls and one month later, it was time to meet. This whole time, neither had raised the issue of facetime. Regardless, her time was up and the time to shed light in the grey had come.

What was she going to do? Was she going to confess now? What do you think?

In their conversation, they’d grown towards liking each other and this made her feel more guilty with each day that passed without telling him the truth. They talked about how they’d go to more plays and venture into other creative elements they were both into. Oh, how compatible they were. Nevertheless, there was that one problem that made their future all yellow. The date was set; and Nora resolved to tell him the truth the night before they met and prepared herself for the worst.

She blinked and the night was upon her. She typed the message…I’m sorry I lied to you…she deleted and started again. I hope you can forgive me for what I’m about to say…deleted again, started again. She went on like this for hours until she gave up and slept. The worst was about to happen, and she was ready for it like a criminal awaiting their inevitable sentence in the court of justice. She prepared herself, wore the most beautiful red dress she had, pampered her face with rose blush to avoid looking as ghostly as she felt inside and made her way to the venue, which was at a spoken word event.

As she entered, they immediately caught each other’s eye.

To be continued…

At this point, putting yourself in Nora’s shoes, what would you have done? Have you ever done something as crazy? How do you think the phantom SHOULD react? How would you react if you were the phantom?

Read the first part of this story ⬇️⬇️⬇️

A Phantom Sorry

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

_Kierkegaard

“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

_Confucious.