Note: This story was a personal one I wrote months back. For purposes, it is being released after a first pass on Grammarly
He was gazing far into the endless hallway. Perhaps it was a mistake. After a brief moment of silence, footsteps ensued. Indecipherable chatter echoed in my ears. The infinite building was composed of dozens of rooms. It seemed as if the rooms were all different. On one side you could see a big hall with masses while on the other a handful was speaking. Even the colors weren’t the same. You could see monotonous gray followed by bright red. It seemed that this may not have been an error after all.
A few months passed. He coasted through rooms like a sailor in clear weather. One day, he saw a large auditorium filled with people. A heated-up fight was going on on the podium. A bunch of big, bearded men wearing black was arguing against a young woman and a man. He carefully made his way to the back of the auditorium and took a seat. He could understand that it was an irrational argument and maybe he could provide a solution.
A hand was raised from the back. The leader of the men noticed this and immediately halted. He signaled the young man to join the stage. The man made his way to the stage past the crowd’s stares. Were they wondering who he was? The conversation continued. The young man was rigorous in finding the mistakes the bearded men were making. They were taken aback and the leader had to do something. Silencing the whole stadium with his rusty voice, he began to mock the young man. The hot-blooded nature of youth was the result. His voice echoed past the walls of the auditorium. Immediately after shouting, the man took a breath. This is what the leader wanted—a reason. The man was kicked out of the room by the leader himself.
This didn’t faze him and he kept wandering. The next day, he saw a woman in her late 20’s waving at him from a doorstep. Maybe they weren’t aiming at me. But the woman kept waving making it apparent that she wanted to talk to him. As they got closer, he could see the room. It was a tiny, colorful space with pretty decor around it. The woman took a seat and asked him to sit as well. Beside her was a lady dressed in a wedding dress. As he looked at her face, he let out a gasp of surprise. She didn’t have one. He was taken aback when she started speaking. It seemed that both of them noticed him from the auditorium. That’s how the young man and the faceless lady met.
For a few weeks, the faceless lady and the young man would meet numerous times. They were acquaintances but nothing more. After that, they didn’t quite talk for a long time. Maybe they greeted each other in certain auditoriums but that was it. He met many people during this time. As in most of his relationships, they too fell. Sometimes it was incompatibility. Sometimes it was disinterest. The young man however grew closer to understanding who he was. He wasn’t the same hot-blooded force of chaos anymore. A calm, playful aura surrounded him.
As a matter of coincidence, he met the faceless lady again. But this time they talked. They exchanged stories and laughed together. There was something different this time. A young man felt something he hadn’t yet experienced. But he couldn’t wrap his finger around what it was. Slowly, the frequency of their meetings increases. Whenever the man was alone in a room he would find her and vice versa. They grew closer and closer. Sometimes they even went to watch plays organized in collisions. During each scene, both of them would pass funny remarks in each other’s ears and cackle like newborns.
It was a regular day in the endless hallway. As usual, the faceless lady found the young man to bring him to the room. When he entered the room, he found it filled with people he had met here and there. They had come together to celebrate his maturation and the faceless lady had organized it. In disbelief, the man couldn’t contemplate what just happened. Perhaps it was simple but nobody had done it for him. All of them had fun throughout the night. When everyone slept off, he realized his longing – Family.
He didn’t know his origin nor who he was when he entered the hallway. He didn’t have a place to go. But for the first time, he had felt like she was his family. His sister. The man was confused at first. He didn’t believe that this would’ve happened. His smug expression changed into a happy grin.
As they talked, again and again, his belief only reassured. He felt at home for the first time in his life. He wasn’t entirely sure if she felt the same but believed so. He still didn’t know who the faceless lady was besides a few hints throughout many conversations. Still, if the hallway were to disappear sometime, he wouldn’t have a clue as to where he could find her. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to. As this crossed his mind, he smiled in a melancholic manner. He understood that he wanted to know who she was yet it would be okay if he didn’t. For she had helped him understand what family means.