Part 3 - The Unknown Story

Part 3 - The Unknown Story

When you are a part of an establishment where people change every now and then, it becomes  hard to make the decision whether to make new friends or to continue without much interaction. This dilemma becomes more prominent in people who commute for long hours every day to work and back. Although you a part of the group which you know goes through the same activity phase in transit, you still have that feeling of being secluded out, each and every passenger restricted to their own cocoons of activity. When you are knowing a person while you are travelling, you have a feel good factor of acquaintance in this familiar but strange unknown world of travel. For Sam, it was good to know that Stacy was there in the same train, at least he knew someone and was not doing the journey in a pseudo solo environment. Sam had always been a part of a set of people who were interested in people and always wanted to interact more with their acquaintances in order to know what they feel.  Now, was the time to get more familiar with Stacy, to talk to her and know her more. It is observed, as a part of people learning process, the moment you get to know someone, the human psychology always starts making guesses about that  person post their first impression and their mind wants to validate  whether those guesses hold true or not. In Sam's case, it was a different story, it was that feeling of finding a good friend that had propelled him to keep his voyage of discovery still sailing through.
                   Days passed and a day came when Sam was standing in the queue waiting for the train to arrive. There was a huge set of people and all were quite displeased with the delay that had happened which had extended their wait. The train came and people rushed in towards the compartment to get their seats. It was just in a matter of time that the whole compartment was flocked with people. Sam, as usual, was able to secure his seat of choice with a little effort. Although, he wasn't aware that in a few moments of time, the seat next to his would be taken by that not so friendly overly sized man. This happened and along with this another thing happened, the seat on which Stacy used to sit was filled in with people who were new to this hour of travel with a place for just one passenger left out still. It was about time for the train to move and there was no sign of Stacy. Probably, she was having a busy day and was going to take the next train. As the train was about to move, suddenly out of nowhere Stacy hopped in from the door before it closed. As soon as she entered, she smiled with a sigh of relief but this one was not for Sam. After getting in, Stacy hurried towards another different from her usual place of seating, Sam looked in that direction and saw a person standing to let Stacy get in. This person had managed to hold a seat for Stacy which, she quickly, went and took. Sam was happy that she got the seat finally. She sat down and exclaimed, "I thought, I would never catch it today", and a communication started which was interrupted a series of phone calls as well. Sam did not want to overhear the details but was a bit concerned that Stacy didn't seem calm today and was worried. The guy she was communicating with, Sam had never noticed him except for the fact that from a few days he was always in to secure a seat which was in the same line on which Stacy sat and also, that he had sat next to him one day but was unable to concentrate on the material he was reading through. Sam did not want to think much through this, partly because it wasn't his cup of tea and partly because the overly sized man did not give him an experience to think anything.
   The next day wasn't very good or comforting either. There was a business delegation which was visiting Sam's office for which he needed to be early in the office. This had given him a very small time to rest. This was to continue for a week, catching up in the morning after returning late was an activity by itself. Moreover, the next day, when he reached his firm, he was told that he would have to travel again to overseas for some very urgent business agenda within a month. The travel and stay was supposed to be long one. This is the part, he did not like about this industry, the time you think you are comfortable with the environment around you, it changes. Well, this news had left very few options. He had now very little time to plan out and decide whether he's going to take this chapter forward or let things continue in their own pace. He thought that it wasn't any harm in extending a conversation, after all, there needs to be some essence out of all this, and finally decided to speak to Stacy about this.
   The next day, a strange thing happened. Sam was busy with the delegation visit and hardly had time enough to think. He had a couple of errands to finish before he had a meeting to start with the delegation and so was quickly scanning his mails and sending and assigning tasks for his team to complete during the day. He drafted one such mail and sent it quickly to a team member. He didn't realise what he had done, until he gotta response back from the sender in questioning manner. He looked at addressee's name and was shocked with bewilderment, instead of Stacy Smith, he had sent the mail to Stacy Wagner. Well, 'Stacy Wagner' was nonetheless than the familiar face who used to travel in the train. Upon realising the error, he quickly responded an apology and confirmed if this was the same Stacy that use to travel in train to which he received an affirmative 'yes'. Sam wasn't happy, he had never thought that his next communication would go this way, although he couldn't do anything much either. He was thinking that he would call her up at a good time and  say something like this - 'Hi Stacy, it's been some time we have been going together and I feel we have spanned some connection between us. I have been finding it difficult to concentrate being aware of the fact that I just know your name and nothing more about you, in spite of the fact we have been travelling in the same commute for an year now. Going forward I have a busy routine and heavy tasks with responsibility which would need definite focus. Knowlegde of this fact has left me with a question of closure and I am finding it hard to concentrate. At this point of time, I really want to know if you are going or have gone through the same situational dilemma. Well, as of today, we have three options -

• Be friends, know more about each other in the time we have, if it's something similar to an infatuation perhaps, it'll get straightened out by itself,
• Do nothing about it - keep it going as it is, which is definitely not my cup of tea.
• Forget about all this - like this never happened and try not cross paths. what do you say?".

  This seemed like a lot of thought but it was all devastated by what Sam had done a few minutes back.
   The next few days were busy as usual for Sam and Stacy also went on a vacation, probably a break from work, since it was a small festive season.


End 1:
It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".
"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for completion of the story. Sam started on a low note - 
 A couple of days before he had to leave for the tour, he decided to go and talk to Stacy. Knowing know that she was also positioned in the same firm, he was able to make arrangements for a quick meet. The meeting happened and Sam, asked the questions which he had wanted to know the answers to. Stacy, was not sure and wanted to have another meeting. Sam waited for a few days and then decided that it was best to take option three but while he was busy with all this he had failed to notice that there was someone else in the train who was noticing him. A beautiful young lady, who wanted to know more about the book he was reading. They started to talk and slowly Sam realised she was having the same interests. They became good friends, and it's been over an year now and today Sam has come back from the business trip, he was planning to marry her and wanted to talk about it to his elder brother. Jim wanted to know what happened to Stacy. Sam said he had never seen her after that time but thinks what all had happened had some good sense to it. After all, it was she who had started all this which had kept him occupied and feel good at the time. If he met her in future he would definately like to thank her. Sam Cooks was happy he took a stand to clear out any confusions.


End 2:
It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".
"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam looked at his watch, it was getting late and the kids had to be readied to go to school. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for the completion of the story. Jim asked - "Tell us more about what happened afterwards, did you guys meet again? What was Stacy's response? Did she too feel the same?". Sam was bombarded with questions, he told everyone to have patience and that he would answer them one at a time. He started with the turn of events that happened. 
 Sam had just a week before to go on to his overseas trip, one early morning he decided to hold an arrangement to have a meeting and talk to Stacy. She was in the same firm so it would not take much of their time either. He asked her the set of questions he was thinking about. On hearing the questions, Stacy had a serious look on her eyes, she stared at Sam as if she was a cop and he had done the most unworthy crime. Sam was frightened by that look. But before he could react to it or think anything about his response, her looked changed and a big smile took over just as if there was suddenly a pleasant weather post a huge storm. She said, it was a good idea, why not know each other. They talked and from the next day until Sam left for his trip, they talk a lot number of times.  Finally, they decided they were good friends. Sam had come back from the trip and wanted his elder brother and his wife to meet her. Jim was very much anxious about it, Sam had to bribe with a lot of chocolates to make Jim keep his quiet. Sam Cooks was happy, he took that decision, which had made things turn out good for both of them.

End3:

It was 7 o clock,  an early morning, and a brand new day was coming up. Sam told the kids - " You need to be ready to go your classes now".

"No, you can't leave the story like that, you need to tell us what happened?", came the reply from curious Jim, one of his elder brothers' son, aged six. Sam dispersed the gang of kids and promised to complete the story post evening dinner. The day went by and dinner time came, dinner was over and the kids were anxious to hear the remaining part of the story. Sam was pestered for completion of the story. He started on a thoughtful note -

Sam had got a short time span and a lot of activities to do on his plate. It was not uncommon and frequently happened in the field in which Sam was, your days were either too relaxed or too busy.  This was his set of busy days, but the only thing which was different was that he had very little time to think or brood over what was happening in his personal life. He wanted to get things cleared out but life was never so easy. It sometimes happens that when we are too engrossed professionally we set goals and take stuff from our lives in a manner to be completed with a plan but some things in life need reflection and patience. Making a plan and following it might not work out in all cases, you need to leave some activities down to be thought and imbibed on a different level and wait for the person at the other end to respond in order for things to go to the next level. Socialisation usually takes a different form when it comes to personal relations, people in different parts of the world have different tastes, some of them are marred by the expectation of a sudden change in their lives and usually want time to let those changes settle down to their routines and personal involvement. Others don't want any changes and are content with their routines and do not want any new surprises to come up, maybe that fills in perfectly with their way of life at this point of time. And still others put a lot of thought process to things which happen in their lives and make a decision that it is in the best interest of themselves to not socialise further. Stacy had mixed feelings, she was sort of alarmed by the fact, there was so much which had happened over the brief period of time and maybe wasn't sure if she was ready for things to change in the way it was going. Sam, as he thought, tried to communicate what he thought and where he was thinking this was going or would go, but Stacy wasn't sure if she was ready or maybe she wasn't ready at all.  Time passed and as it happened Sam got busy with the work he had on his plate. It happens when you want to be occupied a bit less, the work occupancy factor climbs the highest. Sam wanted some time for himself but couldn't fine any. It was long and he did not hear from Stacy. Moreover as Sam was occupied, he usually had to stay down and commute at odd times, and it was very rare he would see Stacy in the train. The known acquaintance look slowly took the form of a gazing stranger and started to turn dreadful. What's strange about human psychology is that it permits you to behave in strange ways and react much normally over very short spans of acquaintance level until you have an opinion about a person, but when you start knowing a person well, your opinion secretly climbs in and starts to make a difference in your gestures, even in the way you greet or not greet at all. Your subconscious suddenly fades away and your conscious mind starts to take decisions and it becomes complex and is limited to the aura of the only lightened thoughts. That is where you make a decision, form an opinion about someone and just go with that opinion. Before you realise your opinion becomes a guiding light and makes a huge impact on the final outcome. Whatever was happening with Sam  currently was perhaps the result of an opinion which had developed during the course of time which had followed. Time was well observant of the fact and did not give them a chance to collaborate on this. Sam tried a few times to talk to Stacy, but he did not have the luxury of the bandwidth of time and so decided to let things follow their own flow.  

Gradually he realised meeting people and socialising with them was not as easy as he had thought, or maybe the socialisation, or the moment was not opportune for him now. At this point of time, Sam definitely did not want to take a  decision which would act negatively or against the pace or thoughts of Stacy and that meant going with the flow was the best option. He wanted to see the same smile return on Stacy's face and this moment of confusion to pass. He realised things were not going the way he wanted but was happy that whatever he did made things clear between them and gradually Stacy would take a decision and be happy. Couple of days passed and he saw her from a distance, it appeared she was happy. Sam Cooks knew at this point of time, some things are good to leave as they were and sometimes it is good to take a decision in the best interest of the other person. It might be that people come into your life, just to make you understand something important, to fill in that unexpected gap which has crept in to your schedules, at the end it is important to realize what you have gained because of these people, rather than brood over the idea of thinking if you were able to make them an essential part of your circles or not.  He looked to the kids and said, this story might not be a story with a definable ending but it gives some important lessons which any one should learn during the course of their lives. Sam did what was in the best interest for him and Stacy, he cleared out his confusion and allowed Stacy to make the final decision and this had kept him contented. Later on Sam had to travel to the other location, he met a lot of people but this incident and learning had made him wiser and he found there was a certain level of quality which had kept into his selection of people. He read a lot of books in the meantime which had allowed him to socialise on a much better level, which helped him in his career further and even his personal life. Sam Cooks was happy that this all had taken place and grateful to Stacy Wagner for this lesson of his life.