1 PM Call

Short Story Summary

A heartwarming short story and flash fiction about unexpected connections, daily rituals, and the magic of conversations that turn into lifelines. This tale explores friendship, emotional bonding, and the anticipation that comes with love and long-distance connections.

Each afternoon they spoke at sharp 1 pm. It was an unspoken ritual they followed, since the past seven months. He had first called her at 1 pm.

“Hi Soniya, are you free? Is this a good time to talk?” his voice liberated the million doubts she’d in her mind. “Yes, of course, tell me Raj” she replied, barely containing the thrill and excitement she felt.

And they spoke like they were the last and only humans on this planet, in the very first call. “Is this soul connect?” she wondered to herself, as she ended the call. They’d just opened the chaotic doorway to each other’s minds.

He heard her out as she lamented about the professional challenges faced by women. He in turn shared his own personal problems, his struggles and stories. She reflected on how it must be to live his life, his challenges as he tried to fathom what she narrated.

Neither realised when the 1 pm call became a practice, a ritual, almost a compulsion, an essential element of their days. The call symbolised their time together, a crisp breather, in the middle of their super busy days. Just the both of them, Raj and Soniya, and their open, uninhibited, soul stirring conversations over everyday nothings and everything. They often decided they would meet but living in different cities made it seem like a Herculean task and they made peace with their 1 pm call.

Today was different! Soniya glanced impatiently at her watch. It was already ten minutes past 1 and, Raj had not called her, as he usually did. Anger and frustration clouded over her impatience as she called him several times but he didn’t answer.

It was almost twenty minutes past one and she’d a meeting at 2 pm. Another 15-20 minutes was all the spare time she could think of. And Raj was nowhere today! Really angry now, Soniya was about to type a few nasty messages when she received a call from the reception. “Madam, there’s a Mr. Raj here to meet you, should I send him over to your cabin?”

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