We Will Meet Again...

They met by the river. The boy was out to accompany his grandfather fishing. The girl accompanied her mother picking herbs and happened to take a rest by the crystal clear stream. He was on one side of the bank, she was one the other, separated by the wide, flowing waters running down from a nearby mountains, eroding wilderness to reach the ocean. They could not do much but to look at each other in distance. Much as the want to get to know each other, they walked away knowing such thing would never happen now. He went back to his doting grandfather, helping him to look for live bait. She continued her journey with her mother through the woods. They never met again.

Decades passed, he was now a young, charismatic teenager while she became a kind and almost angelic teenager. They met again, this time in the city’s underground train station. They were waiting for their trains on the same platform, not knowing they were sitting back to back. It was when a toddler crawled towards them; they turned their attention to him almost simultaneously. It was then, those childhood visions and memory rekindled. They somehow just felt that this was not the first time they have met. Just as he wanted to ask whether they have met before, their trains arrived. Both stood up and walked towards the oncoming train. He was heading to the East; she was going to the West. They never looked back and once again they were separated.

Years flew by; they met again, this time at the airport. He was walking towards his plane when he accidentally brushed on a young lady walking in the opposite direction. Piles of paper was scattered all over the cold, sparkling floor. He rushed to apologize and helped to clear the mess. She knelt and began picking her paperwork. As he returned the papers to her, he saw a rather familiar face. She too noticed him with a familiar aura. She thanked him soon after. He then apologized again for causing the mess. She tried to ask for his name when an announcement was heard across the meeting area, “Attention to all passengers leaving for London. Gate E2 will be closed in 5 minutes time.” Upon hearing the abrupt announcement, he left the scene hastily.

As he dashed to his plane, he knew it was the same feeling when he met her on his last 2 encounters. He asked himself if it was the same person. To her, when she set her eyes on him, it felt as if it had happened before. She asked herself if she has meeting the same person time and again. But, both soon felt it was just a coincidence and certainly, they would not meet each other ever again. But things turned out differently.

Another year passed. He returned to the river where he once spent time with his grandfather. She also returned to the same river, trying to recall her past childhood she spent with her mother. They met again. He was standing on the one bank, she was on the other. Both looked at each other with a strange feeling. He turned his head towards the nearby waterfall and so did she. They noticed something has changed. There was a newly built bridge across the river. They walked towards it and finally stood on the bridge. They began posing their questions such as, “Have I seen you before?” and “Weren’t you the girl I met on the train stations decades ago?”

They curiously asked each other and revealed each other’s identity till dusk arrived. They were still standing on the wooden decorated bridge, talking happily with smiles carved on their faces. Perhaps it was fate that separated and brought them together all these while.

As they looked upon the moon, they wondered why did fate did not bring them together earlier. All of a sudden, a white horse appeared and took a sip from the river. They looked at it with a surprise. There was never a white horse in the woods. It was just a nature reserve and a horse could not have sneaked in. The horse neighed soon after and vanished. It was as if it had gone with the wind. They thought that white horse might just be their guardian angel.

Their fate is like a road. Sometimes it splits into two but it will always meet again at the next junction.