I fell in love with Rusty the first time I came across him. That was a long time ago. I must have been twelve at that time, a tall lanky girl tucked away in a little town that has been stuck in time. Nothing has changed over time, and it was exactly the same as it was fifty years ago when my grandparents shifted here. The river flowed exactly through the same parts and the decade old buildings housed the same clerks typing furiously away on their dusty typewriters. First it was my grand dad, and now it was my father. Sitting in same office, on the same desk doing the same work over years. I somehow had this inkling that I would be stuck here just like them and however hard I tried; I couldn’t picture myself on that dusty typewriter.
Now, I’m diverting from my story. It was supposed to be about Rusty, you know. You would ask where I met him. You know, one always remembers the first time one run into someone one falls in love with. And my crush on him was more than a mere whim; I can guarantee you that. Let’s come to the story now.
I ran into him one rainy afternoon; in the school library. Yes, it was that simple. I was quite regular to the library, and I guess he was there all the time staring at me, but it was that fateful day on which I actually took notice of him. I was a nervous girl and wasn’t really much of an explorer; but curiosity for the unknown came instinctively to me.
An hour with him, and I was awestruck with his flamboyance. His piercing blue eyes spoke a million stories. The conflicts within him were the ones I shared; perhaps the idea of being stuck somewhere forever inflicted doubts in me just like it did to him. He wasn’t running away from things; he was simply looking for something new. I understood that. And strangely enough he never had to tell me.
My obsession with him grew with time. I used to spend hours with him; dreaming of living his life. My dreams became interwoven with that of a sixteen year old guy who was but a complete stranger to me. My parents knew nothing of him, and to be honest, I didn’t want them to know. Back of the library was where I came across him and spent my golden moments with him.
He made me laugh, he made me cry. Silent tears, stifled giggles and dreams galore. Rusty became the source of my smiles, my best kept secret.
Today, I visit that place again. At eighteen, the back row of the library looks a lot different to me. But, Rusty, still sixteen, was waiting there for me; staring at me, as if waiting for a long lost lover. Covered in dust.
The room on the roof
The cover reads. I issue the book for one last time. I’m leaving this place next month. Going away, to places unexplored. To live my life. Incidentally , the typewriter at dad’s office is gone. A computer sits there, and on the chair is sits dad smiling at me. Change is here after all. And I smile to myself as I whisper that little piece of information to rusty-my first love.
