Walking lifelessly through the busy evening street, the slender figure of the young lady disguised as a man, kept on looking around that place that sent her to a beautiful past that she had never wanted to vanish.

It was the time of the evening when the sun almost went down, and the whole area was illuminated by bright LEDs and tube lights, through which the buildings and stores that were constructed over the past few years could be seen perfectly. She hadn’t been here for the past few years and it was evident that the place has drastically changed. Those parks and open gardens where she had spent the most wonderful time of her life, now no longer exist. Despite all the innovations, this place still gave her that nostalgic vibe. It was special, very special for her.

As the dusk began to settle, a chilly breeze came in contact with her figure through the thin fabric of the clothes that she was wearing. Her disheveled hair and outfit caught a lot of weird stares from the passersby but she couldn’t care less. Her mind was a mess. She was a mess at this moment.

She didn’t have any place to stay now as her friend with whom she used to live, had just kicked her out of her apartment. Roaming through all the hustle, she finally found a somewhat peaceful place to stay for the night. But you can’t be at peace when you have to sleep in the streets. It was a park, almost empty as there weren’t many people at that time of the night. She found a wooden bench and went near it. Dusting it off with her numb hands, she placed the small cloth bag, the only thing she had with her, down on it. Sitting down herself on the bench also, her eyes wandered around the park only to find just a few people.

Falling into her trance once again, she thought of how miserable her life had become in just a few days.

“How did I end up like this?” she thought to herself. All she remembered was how a few hours ago she was living in a shared apartment with her friend. She didn’t have any jobs to pay the rent or bills, but she used to spend her day at home doing different chores, preparing food, and helping her friend, who worked at a small café, with new ideas for her recipes. That’s why she couldn’t even protest when kicked out as she had no part in paying the expenses of their condo.

Her friend’s boyfriend used to visit them sometimes. He would always stare at her like a creep and made her uncomfortable by his words, but her friend never seemed to notice. He even tried touching her inappropriately and when she told her friend about it, he bought up lies to turn the blame on her which was believed by her friend. The so-in-love friend of hers believed all her boyfriend’s lies and making a huge argument out of it, she just kicked her out of her apartment and locked the door on her.

Grabbing the small bag beside her, she opened it up only to find two things in it. Those two things were most precious to her than anything and the only things she was able to bring with her. A photo album, and a beautiful gift from her childhood best friend – a snow globe.

Putting the globe aside, she held the album in her hands. This album was the evidence of her beautiful childhood, those wonderful memories that she wanted to live forever, those little jokes and hearty laughs that she used to share with her only best friend.

Opening up the album, she encountered a picture, a picture of her younger self and her best friend where both were holding each other’s hands while smiling cutely at the camera. It was their first day in kindergarten together. A light smile crept upon her lips when she remembered how she kept on refusing to go to the school and her best friend made her go with him. The picture was clicked by her best friend Leo’s mother who came to get them from school. They always went to school and even came back together since they used to live in the same neighborhood and were best friends after all.

Turning onto the next page, she saw a picture in which she and Leo were hugging each other. That was when the little souls promised that they will always be together but who knew that their lives would take such drastic turns and here she is now not knowing at all where Leo is, or how he even looks now.

It now hurts her heart to think how fate decided to separate them from each other. She was just told once that Leo’s family had shifted to some other city because of his father’s business and they might not be able to see each other again ever so she should make some new friends She never made any friends at school after that and she even stopped playing at their favorite playground.

It’s been so many years till then. Now she doesn’t even know where he is now, how does he look like or even he is alive or not. Although she was quite young back then to realize it, she was still sure that it was not any kind of puppy love. It was an innocent, pure and delicate bond that they both shared. Neither her life after that gave her any much happiness nor did she have some other special being in her life. She was all alone and all she could do was just disguise herself as a male to cope with the society.

Exhaling a shaky breath she closed the album before putting it aside and closed her eyes tightly. At this moment, her face was completely soaked with tears. The situation of being homeless and even hopeless at that moment wasn’t even helping it all.

Opening up her eyes she wiped her tears but they kept on flowing down. Her gaze landed on the globe beside her bag. It was a gift from Leo on her 7th birthday with “I love you my best friend”, written on it. It was a snow globe with a little snowman inside and played a sort of rhythm. It was special because of its rhythm that Leo used to like a lot back then. She tried playing it but there were no batteries in it. She was disappointed as she badly wanted to listen to it. She neither had any batteries with her nor did she have any penny to buy some. Once again feeling all hopeless she looked around her. Maybe she could ask someone for them or maybe, maybe she could take them away by herself. She shook her head not believing what she just thought but then again, she needed to do something. How would she even arrange the necessities for her without doing anything? How will she survive?

Even disguised as a man, she still had to do something for her. But right now, she needed batteries. Just a small thing like batteries and she isn’t even able to get them by anyway. She looked forward and saw some big houses in a row. Approaching them and upon examining, she found one of them was locked but a window was open at the rear side. How could someone be this reckless while locking up such a big house? Maybe the owner had a lot that even if he would lose some, he won’t be bothered.

She thought of sneaking into the house to find some batteries. She thought that after listening to the music in the globe, she will place them back again as she didn’t want to become a thief now. She couldn’t think of any other option right now and it’s just batteries, right? And even if she gets caught, what bad could happen just for stealing some little batteries.

She inhaled deeply and comforted herself, “Come on Jessie, what could go wrong, no one is at home. Besides, it’s not like I am stealing them, but just would be borrowing them for a few minutes.”

With this thought, she sneaked inside the house through the window but she hadn’t noticed that despite the front door was locked, the back door wasn’t.

To be Continued……..