It is a sunny afternoon. But the trees enjoyed a cool breeze passing through them. An old apartment faces a children's park. The children's park is brimming with kids on different kinds of tools. Among the huge group of kids, Kenny, Mathew's son, bends back and waves at his father. His hat falls down. As he tries to pick up the hat, Mathew is suddenly woken up by a bug in the car. He is almost halfway to his home but he is excited to meet his son. He sits in the car silently, trying to remember his lovely dream, unperturbed by the humming of the bug.
He gets the bug out and starts driving.
'It's funny how the brain hits you with any random memory at any time. Something like YouTube algorithm.'
It has almost been two hours that Mathew has been driving. He has been getting calls incessantly from the college since he ditched his classes and set out for this trip after the conversation with his psychiatrist . It's been almost a year since he travelled to his estranged wife's place.
The car passes by a dense forest.
'They didn't let me keep Kenny with me. Since Angela had a boyfriend, they said Kenny would get love from both the genders, which will be the closest to him having a normal life like other kids.'
After a few hours, the car stops by a small apartment. Mathew peers throw the car's window at the apartment.
'It's been a long time. But the apartment is still shitty'.
Mathew presses the bell. A smiling Angela is taken aback upon seeing him.
"What?! How today?"
She gives him a hug.
"You should have called me. I would have prepared some food for you. You look so lean. Are you on a diet?"
Mathew keeps his bag on the table and crashes on the sofa.
"Looking thin is the least of my ambitions at this age."
Angela goes into the kitchen to get some water. Mathew stands up from the sofa and walks around.
"Where is Kenny?"
"School", Angela nonchalantly replies.
Mathew stands beside her as she pours some apple juice onto the glass. Angela catches him staring at her.
"Angad has also gone out of town. So, yeah,I think I need someone to talk to. Glad you came".
"Why don't you guys marry now? Like its been almost a year."
Angela gives the glass to Mathew. She brings out another glass for herself.
"How does it matter? Anyways, we are loving this phase in our lives."
Mathew picks up Angela's phone.
"You talked about calling you? You even reply to my texts like after some hours or something. Am I that unimportant now? "
Angela looks surprised at this allegation.
"But I get so many texts. I have so much work.... "
"Let me check", Mathew opens the Whatsapp.
"Hmm... You texted Billu plumber before me. And my text is still unanswered".
Angela snatches the phone away.
"But my order of texting back depends on the importance of the text itself and not the person who's sending the text. So you are saying that I had to choose between no water tomorrow and massaging your ego by replying to your shitty emoji first?"
Mathew looks gravely towards Angela. And gives a big smile.
"Emojis are shitty anyways. How is every emoji bald and has no ears?"
Angela let's out a high pitched laugh.
"Maybe that's true."
Mathew stares at her laughing and smiles a bit. He suddenly remembered that her cheeks would turn red whenever she laughed hard. A time when they were happy and content flashed infront his eyes. He looked outside the window. Two eagles are soaring high, circling around each other. He looked back at now red faced Angela, still giggling.
'Please brain, hit me with this memory any time.'