Erica was typing furiously on keyboard, which was the only sound in the room. She knew people upstairs will start working out in 15 minutes reverberating thumping sound for at-least half-an-hour. It’s 7:45 am on digital alarm clock in California but 10:45 am in East Coast. The person Erica is chatting with is in Boston. She never met him and probably won’t meet him again. There is not much information available on his Facebook account just like her account. They are not even Facebook friends which could be the reason of limited visibility. ‘Should I send him the request?’, she thought? She hovered her mouse pointer around ‘Add Friend’ button but decided not to click on that. She feared if he comes closer to her life, he will go away just like others.
James was on his way to work in his car which hasn’t moved for ten minutes because of traffic due to maintenance work on road. He looked on dashboard clock and sighed as if he expected this delay. It’s been a year since he graduated and started his career. He was doing good in his job and is saving for further studies in business school which can be quite expensive. Jame started doing mental calculation to figure out how many years it will take to save for tuition fees. His computation was interrupted by movement of car in front of him and he followed it soon. As soon he resumed driving, the phone rang multiple times and James knew someone sent him the message and he knew who that someone is.
Erica entered the office building and was mentally preparing for presentation which she was preparing for three weeks as she entered the lift. Everyone think Erica as perfect person – five corporate awards in two years, confident, articulate and one of the person who can have it all. However, things are not as perfect and rosy in this world. Erica has problem trusting other people and doesn’t allow anyone close to her life. She was brought up by parents who were devoted to her but hate each other. The only thing that prevented them from getting divorced was their love to their daughter. It’s difficult, if not impossible to raise a child by parents who are separated. However, their numerous attempt to veil this reason from Erica failed earlier than they thought and the family of three accepted their circumstances as it is. She was waiting for the reply for message she sent an hour ago, hoping it to arrive soon.
It was a busy day in office with meetings with different teams to put finishing touch on project. James took out his phone and saw notification for new messages. He opened the application and read the message.
James met Erica on anonymous chat website. People can talk to a random stranger anonymously, and since the whole thing is anonymous most of the people are not in their best behavior. Few people act like a human being and James and Erica just happened to bump into each other. They discovered that they both love to read novels and hate watching movies based on those novels. Apart from that, they were living in different world, though not geographically – They were just living in regions with three hour difference of time zone. James was quite introvert guy who has built a fortress around him to keep people away. Erica has always been a confident person and has been popular in school, college and workplace, which helped in shaping successful career. Yet, they had one thing in common- they don’t trust anyone enough to share what they feel. The world has enough vulture flying high in circle and looking down to any weak animal to feast upon. During the chat, they shared their email address and after talking on email, they connected on Facebook. James and Erica were good listener and offered great advice whenever they share their problems or dilemma. They discovered about each other’s layer by layer with each message. Both of them knew each other’s secrets that their close friends are not aware of. They act like different people when talking to each other online, often surprised each other of this latent personality.
James smiled after reading the message. Erica finally took a stand and left the job which was keeping her down. She was hesitating to leave because of her failing relationship with her boyfriend. For everyone else, their relationship was perfect, which was due to the smiling faces of couple in every party and social gathering. James replied with a thumbs up emoticon and put the phone away, he has a long day today. Two years ago, James was stuck in a workplace with toxic environment. Only people who were close friends of manager were the ones who were having some professional growth. Rest of them were not given many opportunities, only menial work was provided along with reminder that they are lucky to have a job. This environment subdued James’ self-confidence and he was afraid to lose this job, given the current dwindling job market. He had no friend and this led him to go to anonymous online chat room, so that he could have some conversation with someone who doesn’t pity his life. He met Erica on that site and he felt comfortable while talking to her and they exchanged email address and then Facebook account. He felt great talking to her on text and he never came across genuine person like her. She encouraged him to leave the job and take control of his life. And he did. James left his old job and got another one where he was respected and got chance to show his worth. Now, he is leading a team of ten people with great boss and work he always look forward to everyday.
Erica and James never talked to each other on call, probably won’t meet ever. But they are each other’s lighthouse for a ship stuck in a violent storm. Apparently, people just need someone with whom they could be themselves exposing their weakness to someone nearby.
Unchronicled Narratives 