They spent the night in a cheap motel, but they were together in the same room, overnight! They spent the intimate night cozying up to each other and slept in each other's embrace. The next morning, they decided to catch a bus out of town, to someplace where they could start to forage for their own life. But a bus ticket needed money. Ryan had that figured out. He had brought along his ATM card, and would withdraw whatever little money his dad had put in his account. That would suffice for till they were on their feet. They made their way to the bus stand, the promise of a perfect forever, clear in their eyes.
Once there, Ryan made his way to the nearest ATM machine and made to withdraw money. But then flashed the dreaded words on screen,
'Insufficient balance'
He did a double take. He could not believe his eyes. How could this happen?! But suddenly then, his mind zoomed back a few days, and he remembered a particular conversation he'd had with dad.
'Ryan, I'm a little short on immediate cash for a little startup capital that I need right now. I'll be withdrawing all the money from your account for a week or two. I'll put it back though.'
How could he forget?! What to do now? He went back to Lynn and recounted the whole story. At first she couldn't believe him but eventually they came to a consensus that arguing would lead them nowhere. They had set the ball in motion by running away and they could not turn away now. They checked their pockets for whatever money they had on them. They had a combined total of a hundred rupees.
They went to the bus stand and asked a conductor how far would hundred rupees take the two of them.
'Well sir, with a hundred rupees, you can get a ticket to Ramnagara, or Mandya at best.'
They both looked at each other, pure and true worry writ across their faces.
'Well, Ramnagara has a lot of scenic locations. We can make our own little house somewhere there. I'll farm and you cook, we'll live on our own, in our world. What say love?' Ryan offered.
'Okay sure..' Her voice was a notch lower than it had been till now.
They gave each other a reluctant smile and climbed onto the bus. After an hour long and bumpy journey, they got off the bus, disoriented and utterly clueless as to what to do next. Ryan was wondering why he'd bothered to study four years of B.Com if he was going to end up farming on some land. Lynn was wondering what they'd eat till the crops in the farms grew. And both were wondering when they could get their very next meal, because they were famished. It was not the most ideal of situations to be in.
Over the next two days, they set about building something resembling a hut among one of the many clusters of boulders a little by the side of the road. There was a meager amount of free land near their hut, which Ryan set about trying to rake free of weeds. He was clueless about it beyond a point. They didn't touch too much on the topic of agriculture in B.Com you know. It struck him within a few hours that this was a very poorly thought out plan and he started to have serious doubts about sustaining it. By this time, all of the food they had brought with them had run out. They were broke, hungry and very annoyed with their situation. Lynn had started losing her temper with Ryan and was complaining about everything. No food, no proper shelter, no guarantee of even a reasonable future. The worst part was, she was mostly right. It was then they realized that they had perhaps been stupid about the whole thing. That perhaps..
It was with these thoughts that Ryan made his way to the main road, looking to see if there were any shops that could give him any food on credit. He was subdued and disgruntled, his attention barely on the road. Just suddenly then, the roar of a passing two-wheeler roused his attention to his environs. He took a look at the vehicle, and his eyes grew wide. He looked around, and saw a few more vehicles, just as he expected. He turned right around and ran for all he was worth. He came back to the hut, panting. Lynn looked at him, concern overcoming her recent annoyance and resultant indifference. She ran up to him and asked what had happened.
'I almost ran into our friends. They were on their way to a road trip to Mysore or something. I don't think they saw me.'
That was when the same thought struck the both of them. This whole idea had been one stupid, short-sighted blight. They were idiots. Of an overwhelming order...
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