Trial and Error : Of Hair Bands, Mechanical Bulls and Cosmic Entities

“Come on Sis! I want to do hoops and bottles.” My nine year old brother shouted impatiently as he started dragging me by the hem of my shirt towards the stalls. “Steven, do you really have to drag me?” I sighed as I followed behind him, pushing my unruly hair out of my hair.

As Steven continued to drag me across the carnival grounds towards the hoops and bottles stall, I began pondering about my existence in this universe. Why did I, in all my seventeen year old teen glory, have to be dragged around by my brother at the exact same moment when the performer on the stilts happened to drop the ball he had been juggling? Was it all a coincidence, or had it all been planned beforehand by an all powerful Cosmic Entity? But one thing I was sure was not a coincidence, was the lack of hair bands in the vicinity. They always seemed to disappear when I needed them the most.

As my mind wandered back and forth between cosmic riddles and glow in the dark hair bands, a new question popped into my head. What the heck was it with nine year olds and short attention span? One second I was staring at bottles which I had to throw hoops at and the next I was waiting in line to ride a mechanical bull, as my brother bragged to his friends about how awesome I was.

Shaking my head, I moved forward and as soon as I saw the person at the ticket counter, all thoughts of how cool I’d look in front of my brothers friends as I proved to them how brave a person I was, were replaced by one thing: there really was an all powerful Cosmic Entity, and said Cosmic Entity had created the prettiest person it could and placed her at the ticket counter just so that I could make a complete fool out of myself as I held on for dear life on the bull.

Thanking the Cosmic Entity that it had at least put one person before me, so that I could leave before I was noticed, I turned around and made to leave the line as my brother tugged at my shirt.

“Aren’t you going to go, Sis?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Umm… no Steven. Maybe later?” I said wanting to get away before the person standing ahead of me went to the counter for his turn.

“But I told my friends that you are the bravest Sister ever, and they don’t believe me. You have to 

prove it to them, Gabby!”  He said, nodding his head vigorously.

“Why don’t I prove it to them later?” I asked, plastering on a smile, hoping he wouldn’t suspect the fact that I would not be returning to this stall even if I was held at gunpoint. Not while she was here.

“You have to do it now. Please…” He asked, pulling out his greatest weapon. Puppy dog eyes. My kryptonite. Crap.

I groaned in frustration, as I turned around. “Fine you made your point, put that look away.” I muttered. A smug smile adorned his face as he went back, talking excitedly, to his friends.

As I watched, the person before me was thrown spectacularly off the back of the bull, and two thoughts flashed across my, unusually, empty brain. Number one was: Damn, she has a cute laugh. And number two: I’m doomed.

As I stepped forward, I couldn’t help but stare at her luscious black hair, which was just long enough to touch her chin, her deep brown eyes, her mocha skin, and her full lips… which were moving? Forming words. Crap. I nodded stiffly and stuffed my hands into my pockets, grabbing three tickets and handed them to her, not daring to make eye contact. She stopped talking and looked at me, a twinkle in her eyes and a smile threatening to burst into a laugh.

“Um… Okay” she said, as she continued to smile, never taking her eye away from mine and my heart refused to stop oscillating between beating too fast and not beating at all.

“Right this way, brave contender.” She said, gesturing towards the source of my future embarrassment. I took a deep breath, rolled up my sleeves, and smoothed down my shirt, as I headed towards the bull and climbed on.

“You ready?” she asked. Afraid of sounding high pitched, I just gave a thumbs- up and she flipped the switch.

Suffice to say, the next twelve seconds were hell on earth. As I held on for dear life, I was sure that my hair was flailing around everywhere, and for some weird reason, my tongue was out half of the time. And as for the coup-de-grace, it ended with me face down on the mat with most of my hair in my mouth and my left boot stuck in the horns of the bull.

I sat up dazed, and watched as she walked to the bull, picked up my boot and gave it to me. As soon as I put it on she held out her hand so that she could help me get up. I took her hand, and she slipped a few pieces of paper into it. I looked down, and saw my three tickets.

“Roshni.” She said before letting go of my hand. “Come back tomorrow. Maybe I can show you how it is done.” She whispered, a mischievous twinkle in her eye, and as she laughed, my heart melted yet again. Could this lead to medical complications? I wondered as I nodded and walked towards my brother, who was shouting with joy.

“You did it, Gabby. That was so awesome.” He said, hugging my waist tightly.

“It was, wasn’t it?” I smiled looking at Roshni, only to find her looking right back. It was pretty awesome. But it was only later that night that I found out just how awesome it was, when I realized there was a number hastily scrawled on one of the tickets. A phone number to be exact.

Maybe the Cosmic Entity liked me after all.

Authors note: I was suffering from writer’s block, when I realized that the internet was a great place to find inspiration. I found a forum which listed certain conditions and certain words which had to be used to make a story. I picked the first interesting one I came across. Here is the prompt:

Story must feature characters of two different nationalities, must feature a same-sex relationship, must be humorous and must contain the words “Puppy”, “Contender”, “Vicinity” and “Coincidence”

Let me know if I fulfilled all the conditions, and also what you guys think about the story. Still keeping up with one post a day!

Peace!!!