"I, uh, well..." said Jackson, "I over slept?" Bullshit," said Earl. "You were drunk, weren't you? Jackson, I've had about as much as I'm gonna take f...om you."Jackson could tell his friend was more than a little pissed. He could see his job was on the line. He panicked and blurted out the truth before he could come up with a plausible lie."It wasn't like that, Earl. I was abducted by aliens!"There was an awkward silence between them as Earl tried to figure out if Jackson had gone bonkers and. He wrapped his two skinnier limbs around me, and held me close. I could feel his heartbeat now. We rested like that, drawing comfort from each other, two creatures as different as nightcycles from daycycles, but the same inside... ... I had never been this close to any of the dolphins before, and in another part of my mind, I was taking note of new things. For one, with her snout nuzzled up to my left shoulder, I became aware of her steady respiration. Dolphins breathe through that blowhole on. . but i pushed all my feelings down and said “Thank you so much. i will never forget you as well”. With one last good look at this goddess, i turned back and left.Years passed, i had done my engineering out of the state, and then had found work in IT . Now and then, i managed to keep tabs on vidya, either seeing her outside the school , had a brief “how are you doing” sometimes on the roads if we met by accident, or through facebook we had brief chats. but nothing quiet special. Life had forced. Raat 8 baje ke karib bujurg jode ne humse bola bhai sahab humko letna hai please, aur hum dono upar ki birth par jaakar baith gaye. Humne apna khane ka saman nikala aur khaane ke baad baten karne lage. Thodi der ke baad maine bola aapa tum aaram karna chahti ho to let jao, mai baitha hun. Humne khana khane se pahle parda band kar diya tha. Light band ho gai thi aur hum log apni apni family matters discuss karne lage. Na jaane mujhe kab neend aa gai. Achanak maine mahsoos kiya ki aapa ki sari.