We are concluding our Letters theme, which was filled with amazing submissions, with Asma A.J ‘s piece titled “A Moment for Me”

Dear You,

Yes. You.

I can only call you, You, because I’m not really sure of who you are.

You could be the one I ignored in the elevator today. Or the one I had to impatiently wait for to pass by and order my lunch. Maybe the one I frowned at randomly, purely an accident (or not!). Or maybe I smiled at you in passing, but you’ll slip my mind in the next 5 seconds.

Yes. You.

Ever wonder what would happen if a moment were to capture us? Where time clicked, and there is no way around each other?

I wonder sometimes, if the moment was ever to be kind to us. If, at that completely surprising and so unaware set of seconds, the both of us, our eyes catch a moment, and our existence clicks into place.

A tentative smile from one, a stubborn resistance from the other, but it is inevitable, and the moment becomes more.

A first encounter, still tentative, but more sure as the future casts its shade just at the brim of our lives, not yet unfolding in front of our eyes but we feel it.

And then it all becomes real. This me and you. Just thrown together in this tumble of a life. The laughter mingles with the smiles, familiar touch of skin on skin to make it real, this you and me.

The convergence, pull apart and the moment of possible lifetimes that brings us together, our youth dragging along. There will be shouting and yelling, of course, how could there not? You’ll be puzzled at my alien feminine ways, and I will huff at your coarse sensibilities.

There will be more between us, our legacies that we, too, see into the world. And more. And more.

There is so much in that moment, so much.

But it’s never clicked.

And I’m okay with that.

Because, until you take your time to make it to me, I think I’m doing okay in my moment.

So…yeah. Take your time.

(But for god’s sake, don’t be late!)

Author: Asma A.J