Chapter 2: She's Interesting!
It turned out to be awkwardly pretty and by the time the event ends she requests me to stay back for a few minutes.
Initially, before the event started, being the first and only participant, I was hungry and I told her I will go grab some food and a beverage.
"You're not plotting to escape this event since we don't have any participants right?" She says innocently.
I burst out in laughter. "No, certainly not. Look I'm leaving my belonging with you to ensure I come back". I keep my backpack in front of her on the table.
"To come back to take them and leave again?"
I can't stop laughing. "You're so much fun. I will definitely attend this event if only we both end up to be the participants. But right now I need to eat something, haven't had breakfast. So..."
"Oh okay. Sorry for holding you back." Her demeanor quickly changes and she lets me go, out of her charm spell.
I decide I will indeed come back. Not to take my belongings and get away but as promised to attend the event even if it were only us. She is fun, sincere and interesting.
As I wait in queue to order my food and beverage, I see more participants walk up to her table and converse. By the time I get my tray to the table where she is sitting there are four folks.
"Right, that's Paul our first ever participant who came first", she makes the introduction for me. And that's a first time anyone has spoken for me.
I say hi to everyone and settle myself opposite to her, the seat which she has reserved for me.
"We have all the participants right now. So, we can start the event in couple of minutes. If you want to have something you can get your order now."
She says it in a way that no one should get out of their seats. The participants looks at each other and nod their heads but they don't get up. And I look at my tray, a frappucino and a chicken bbq burger. Great. Yet another awkward moment. I am the only participant with food on table for a writing event. "It's gonna go just great", I say to myself.
"Okay let's begin. First of all thank you so much coming on a Saturday evening to a writing event. You could have been anywhere, going to attend a wild party, catch a movie in the mall, hangout with friends, shopping, bla bla, but you all decided to sign up for a writing event, follow it up by turning up for the event. I truly appreciate your motivation and dedication".
Wow! That was so inspiring and thought provoking. She is indeed true. A thought of escaping to a nearby bar did surface in my mind when I realized I was the only participant before. At that moment, like a river set in motion she flowed streamlined. I was completely enthralled. Is this the girl whom I met twenty minutes before?
"I'm Pearl and I work as an Engineer. I was an introvert who happened to start a youtube channel, you know talking about books and movies, etc. Few months back, I decided to explore this a-world-for-all-those-bored-people-out-there app and I had this urge to write. So, I started attending few writing events and became communicative. But these writing events didn't squelch my thirst for writing and sitting alone at home I could not get myself to write consistently. So, I decided to start a writers club on my own and invite participants regularly for a writing session. This way, I would get a dedicated slot to write something. In the process, we will all learn from each other. And that was the idea behind this writing event. So, let's have a round of self-introduction and then we will start with the session"
It was a good backstory. Although I could not have guessed that part where she being an introvert. I mean with all those funny lines and then convincing me to not run away and stay back. It seems she has already leapt to great heights.
We introduce each other and then she surprises us with an entertaining ice-breaker game. Nobody would believe her if she was an introvert once upon a time. She is a damn good host. It takes me a few minutes to realize this is a completely different person to whom I met before event, sitting silently on a corner table.
"This is a colour board", I come back to reality from day dreaming with Pearl's voice. She's holding a colour board where there are different empty colour cards.
"So, every color represents some emotions. I will not reveal it to you now. But you need to pick a colour which comes to your mind and tell me. I will give a writing prompt associated with that colour and you can start writing your story based on that prompt." She starts one by one.
Interesting. I've been to many writing events and I've never come across such an unique method to instigate creativity for writing.
"What colour you are going to pick, Paul?" She wakes me up again from day dreaming. I smile at her. Her look gazing at my eyes, questioningly. I see the colour board and realize it's my turn.
"Ummm... Well..."
"If you're finding it difficult pick your favorite colour."
"I don't have any favorites. Why don't you pick a color for me Pearl?" I throw the ball to her.
"Hmmm. Let's see." She is happy to choose and scrutinizes the board to pick one color for me.
"Well, you can have..."
To be continued…
MaddiE's Note:
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