Pacific Grove

That town was quiet. As laid back as it could get. You could almost feel time waiting for you more than often. It was an old people town. All I saw were retired people living a life of peace and beauty in that beach town. I heard that houses were very expensive there, you had to make a fortune to buy a house there. If you were young and you drove a red Mustang and you stopped at an all-stop sign just after the Mercedes, the old woman in the Mercedes would wait for you to go first. That’s the kind of town I'm talking about.

I was on my usual walk to get a lunch, a late breakfast if you may call it. I plucked a small red fruit from some tree on the road side. I didn’t know whether it was poisonous or not, but I ate it. I reached "Toasties". After a few "What can I get for you dear"-s and a veggie egg omelet I was on my way back.

At first I thought I almost missed it. A menstrual pad on the road passed between my legs just outside my gate. I looked at it, it wasn't used, but it was kind of folded. I didn’t want to take a closer look for fear of some vacationing girls playing a practical joke. I looked farther into the road ahead. I saw an arrow on the road a few meters ahead painted with a small brush in golden paint. Further ahead I saw another white object. I looked around casually and walked further. It was another pad, it lay open. Again, not soiled. I saw another arrow further ahead. I walked back and to my astonishment there’s another arrow starting right from my gate and there’s nothing ahead of that on the road, clearly indicating that it had something to do with my house, or with me! I got curious and decided to see where the arrows and the pads led to. After a few turns and missing pads I found myself inching closer to a house which seemed to be the where i was I being led to.

I walked closer to the house with surmounting anxiety. It was a small house with a volleyball net in the front and a luscious beautiful garden almost hiding the entire house behind it. I couldn't see anybody there. The only thing that suggested the presence of a young body there was the volleyball net. Rest everything was just like a retirees' home. I saw a Mercedes inside the open garage and a convertible Porsche parked outside the garage. Pretty upper middle class oldies for sure, I thought. They might have had their grand children visiting.

I made it a point to change my lunch and dinner choices to be ones that allowed me to walk by that house, the one the arrows and menstrual pads suggested. I made it a point to pick the 2 pads near my gate and dispose them in my garage. As I lay on my bed that night, all I could see was two young girls playing volley ball in front of that house.

I couldn’t wait to see if what I envisioned was true as I walked as calmly as I could, the next day, along the road towards that house. Whoever did that must have seen me, as no one would want to have risked placing sanitary napkins in front of a 60 year old couple’s house.

I could hear the loud laughter of two girls as they were playing volleyball outside. From between the plants and flowers in their garden, I could see the pony tail of who seemed like a very young girl. I walked hesitantly forward, knowing that I'd soon be discovered. After a few meters, the girl on the opposite side of the net, who seemed to be in her late teens, saw me and quickly signaled her friend. The game seemed to have slowed down a bit and the girls were occasionally turning their heads at me as I walked past them. The other girl seemed to be in her early twenties. One seemed to be more discreet as compared to the other one, who was almost staring at me. I returned their stare in a manner a young mature man would return stares from girls who were far younger than him. Hesitant, yet eager. Warm, yet boyish. Cool, yet shaken. They were by far the most beautiful things that I had happened upon in that beautiful town.

I wanted to smile and say Hi, but then I just walked past them. As I walked by the house on my way back, the girls seemed eager to initiate a conversation, one could tell. In a second it occurred to me how simple things could be, I immediately donned the comfortable outfit of a warm friendly neighbour and said "Hi".

"Hi.." "Hi.."

"so what are you girls upto here"

"We're just visiting. my uncle lives here"

"Ohh okay how do you find the place"

"Gorgeous" "Its beautiful, O my god, its so beautiful, I don’t wanna go back"

"Where are you from?"

"Ohio"

"Ohh okay, thats a long way from here. You must love the sea here. I just moved here 2 weeks ago"

"Ohh where were you before"

"Chicago"

"That’s nice; I've been there a couple of times"

And so on and so forth. It was exciting for me as it was for them. And our conversation came to a logical end where something had to be done for this rendezvous to be more meaningful than just a neighbour saying Hi. I was never the volleyball guy, but with a new found and stupid courage, I took the giant leap forward when I asked if I could join the game. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and I didn't know how to play volleyball. The girls said yes. I joined the younger one and here comes the ball flying to my side. All I could see was the ball coming down silhouetted against the blazing California sun. I jumped, leaped, danced, did whatever I could in my power, and as if the situation had taken control of my physical movements, I smashed that thing away!

The nurse was taken by surprise as I sent her tray flying over to the counter. John woke up from his day dream in his green clothes. The nurse shouted for help and along came two hulks to grab me by the arm. They thought I was again becoming delirious, but it was just another trip that I had been on due to the wretched disease that I had, schizophrenia. It took a few minutes for things to calm down and a few days of counselling for me to consider that there were no menstrual pads outside the hospital gate and no golden arrows. I was even allowed to take a look. Given a chance, I'd have been happy to go looking for the golden arrows again, just to have confirmed myself. What if that was all true! What if the hospital was the actual trip!