Anagha Baheti

Sam splashed warm water on his face, and let the rivulets drip down his shirt.

It was the eve of his birthday. Despite the thick blanket of December cold, his friends were in the lawn outside his apartment, dancing to the extremely loud techno music.

He sighed and opened his eyes. The face in the mirror reflected worry, not excitement. He should have felt happy. In an hour, he would be twenty-five. In an hour, he would know how far his soulmate was from him. What would she be like? Would she be dusky? Tall? Pretty? Would she have brown hair and eyes like him or would she be a blonde with blue eyes? Could Cindy’s friend Sasha be his soulmate? They had gone on a couple of dates and things were going well.

His phone chimed. The sudden brightness forced him to tear his eyes away from the mirror. He had a text from Ethan.

Where are you, bro? It’s time to cut the cake.

Coming.

With one last look at the mirror, Sam shoved his phone and his keys into his pockets and made his way across his house. He put on the thickest of his jackets and opened the door to his house. The loud music hit him like a brick. Cindy soon found him and dragged him to where his cake was.

The music was abruptly cut off and someone handed him a plastic knife. Before he knew it, people were singing happy birthday. He went through the motions expected of him for the next forty-five minutes. Eventually, all the guests left, except Cindy, his roommate’s girlfriend.

Sam returned home, wished his roommates goodnight, and closed the door to his room. He plopped into the bed and stared at the ceiling.

As the clock passed midnight, biting cold began to sink into his bones. He reluctantly slipped out of the bed and closed the window. On his way back, he grabbed an extra blanket. That helped for a bit, until he found himself shivering beneath two layers of blankets. He got wrapped himself in a thick sweater and added another blanket, but by morning, it was as though ice flowed through his veins. He got out of the bed, added a coat over his sweater, and wrapped himself in a blanket before he stepped out of the room.

Ethan was making pancakes and shuffling through songs. The smell of coffee and syrup pulled him to the table where Cindy was having breakfast.

“What’s all this?” Cindy pointed her fork at him. A drop of syrup rolled off the piece of pancake skewered on it.

“Way too cold. Hey Cindy, on your twenty-fifth birthday, did you wake up at the North Pole?” Sam poured himself a cup of coffee and let it heat up his stiff fingers.

“Nope. I mean I was colder than usual, but nowhere close to this.”

“Ethan?”

“Same. How far away is your soulmate, dude? Imagine if she was all the way across the country.”

“I hope you meet her soon so you can return from Antarctica.” Cindy’s phone rang. The name made her jump. She grabbed the phone with one hand and shoved the last piece of pancake into her mouth with the other. “Sorry, I need to take this. I’ll see you in the evening, darling. Bye, Sam.”

Ethan went to see her off, and Sam sat in the empty kitchen slowly eating his pancake.

Sam rummaged through his bag and pulled out the keys. He opened the door, removed his shoes, let the bag fall off his shoulder, and took a seat on the sofa beside Ethan. He offered Sam a glass of whiskey and he gratefully accepted it. They watched football in silence for a bit.

“You seem stressed.”

“Don’t ask, dude. Not a single good day this month. Every meeting began with a joke about the number of sweaters on me.”

“Tell me the best one.” Same gave Ethan an angry look. “Sorry, sorry. You’ll find her. Don’t worry about it. Hey, why don’t you take random buses around the city?”

“What do you think I was doing the whole evening? No luck. The entire city feels buried under a glacier.”

“Hopefully the tropical sun will heat you right back up tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to go to Benny’s wedding.”

“No, no, no. You are not ditching me at the last minute. You are coming with us, and we are not discussing this any further. I’ll drag you to the plane if it comes to that.”