There are two little girls, one of them is living in the Village and the other is living in Another Part of the Country. Though, they spend all summers together in the Village, play together, share their secret dreams with each other. They listen to Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel together. Then they grow up, build their own lives, but every now and then they meet up.

There is a little girl, living in the Village. She likes to read her mother’s and grandmother’s memory book. She grows up and goes to the Big City. She sits in the grass with her friends, celebrating the end of their first university year.

There is a boy from Another Part of the Country. He moves to the Big City. Just at the beginning of his working life, every now and then he goes out with his friends. He sits in the grass with them and notice a girl sitting just some metres from him.

“If Tom had learned anything… it was that you can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that’s all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence… Tom had finally learned, there are no miracles. There’s no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be. He knew, he was sure of it now.” (500 Days of Summer)

That’s how Mr. Big City came into my life almost six years ago, and inevitably became the centre of my universe. And my super-romantic soul clinged on the idea that our encounter was not by chance but I attributed it to fate. That’s why I used to and still hang on him. Shouldn’t it be obvious that we were meant to belong to each other as our grandmas were from the Village and my mom’s and his aunt’s favourite song was Heartbreak Hotel and not until that single day in the grass had we even known about each other? Shouldn’t it be obviuos that we were meant to meet as two strangers in the Big City of millions of people and just discover how our past is connected? Maybe I attached far too much importance to fate. Maybe I became obsessed with something which I called fate but in fact it was only coincidence. Maybe I shouldn’t have put him in the centre of my universe. Because then, I wouldn’t feel now that I lost everything when he decided to break the miracle.

You may kowtow;

Or slice carps or mullet

As an expert;

If you be a traveler

Survival skills I can impart;

But it will do you no good.

Life’s journeys begin from within

And every by lane,

Within the whole circle

where roads man-made, are

turnpikes,-pass over

and find yourself

At the centre,-

Where Nature’s unwritten markers

guide your feet.

If nature has taught,

You have learnt something more than

Mere practice of art.

Ah, then I shall teach you

Willingly what you lack.

I shall also profit from my lessons.

benny