It was about 5 in the afternoon on August 25, 2007, the middle of a rainy day, that I first and for the last time, looked upon the face of the other part of my soul. I was 20 years old, a college student in the University. Young, naïve and had many prospects. But nothing could have prepared me for what I was to encounter that day.
It had been raining nonstop for two days and most students were absent either from cold, or the laziness that creeps to everyone whenever it rains. I was however at school because I had to make a report that was due the next week, and the sooner I had gotten it done, the longer I could stay in bed the next day.
The sky was already very dark when I got out of the library, only a handful of people could be seen and all of them were rushing to get home. I started to unfold my umbrella so that I could get to the bus stop across the street, but I waited to cross because the cars were wheezing by very fast sending splashes of water everywhere. The traffic light got broken the day before, and it seemed like nobody had called anyone to fix it, nor was there any police officer to control the traffic and the cars were dangerously racing one another.
A bus stopped across the street from where I was and the people who had been sheltering in the little waiting shed got in.
Except for one.
That was when I saw her. She had on a deep green sweater, a brown coat that was up to her knees, a brown bag and she was clutching a book. She had black curly hair that reached just below her shoulders and the saddest face I had ever seen or will ever see again.
The moment I saw her, she saw me and the universe stopped. The rain was no longer pouring, the cars disappeared and a feeling of peace overwhelmed me. I felt like I could do anything and yet nothing all at once. We were suddenly transformed into this world where only the two of us existed and nothing else mattered.
She smiled, and I smiled. It was the most wonderful smile I had ever and will ever see again. I felt like I was finally coming to a beloved home after years of wandering aimlessly in a dessert.
A shout – a truck’s honk – the sound of screeching tires – and she disappeared. In her place was a ten wheeler truck that had rammed itself in the waiting shed. I couldn’t move and everything came rushing back in a sort of frenzied blur.
It took me a minute to understand what had happened and by that time, people were ignoring the rain and were running towards a body lying a few feet from the truck. The traffic stopped. People all over were screaming, some men were swearing and a few ladies were crying. At that moment, the universe stopped too, but in a very different way than it was moments ago. I suddenly felt very empty as if my heart was ripped away from my soul.
Finally, when I had taken control of my feet, I started to walk towards the cluster of people, but scarcely had I taken one step when I saw a book lying open near my feet. It was the same book she was clutching. As I looked at it transfixed, its pages were slowly getting wet so I picked it up. I read the page where it was opened and a highlighted sentence caught my attention. Next to this sentence, scribbled on the side was a quotation. I read both of it.
When I looked up, I was surprised to find myself alone in a dark street. The truck was gone, the traffic flowed on smoothly and the streetlights were turned on. The street was as ordinary and as uneventful as it was that morning.
Up to this day, I still wonder if everything I felt and experienced were only a dream. But no, it wasn’t, because I had proof. Every time I look at the book, I see her, standing across the street smiling at me, and I knew, she was my soul mate and that I shall never see anyone like her again.
If you are wondering what the book was, it was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The highlighted sentence was:

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be;
And if all else remained, and he were annihilated,
the universe would turn to a mighty stranger:
I should not seem a part of it.”

The quotation beside it was from John Dryden in his Marriage à la Mode, as I had found out on my research, it goes:


“Our souls sit close and silently within,
And their own web from their own entrails spin;
And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such,
That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.”