An Unfamiliar Place
By Leilani Biswas | A short story about change and stepping into the unknown.
By Leilani Biswas | Guest Writer for Seeking Veritas on Substack by Sankarsingh-Gonsalves Productions | Leilani’s writing explores the realities of life, people, and relationships.
Eva walked at a steady pace. Not too fast, she cautioned herself, lest she attract unwanted attention. A rapid pace might also cause her to miss an important landmark and lose her way. But not too slow, she countered, as that would undoubtedly draw the unwanted attention she was trying to avoid. A slow pace would reveal her uncertainty not just about her surroundings, but also about herself.
How did she wind up being here? She replayed the question in her mind, over and over again, unable to answer it. She wasn’t a spontaneous person, far from it. Under normal conditions, a spur of the moment trip to an unfamiliar place would have been completely out of the question, the idea receiving no more than a moment of consideration before being tossed aside. But the past year had been far from normal. On the contrary, everything about the past year felt quite abnormal, more closely resembling a surreal nightmare, to the point where nothing made sense anymore. Under such conditions, everything changes. Eva had certainly changed, enough so that a spur of the moment trip had gone from being completely out of the question to making perfect sense in an otherwise nonsensical world.
And now here she was in a place she didn’t know, heading down a street she didn’t know, following directions she had memorized. She walked, keeping watch for key landmarks, while trying her best to maintain a steady pace.
She looked up at the street sign: Fernwood Avenue. On her left, she saw the red brick building with the stone sculpture in front. On her right, she saw the gas station. This was the intersection she had been looking out for. She waited for the traffic light to turn green and continued walking. Not too fast she reminded herself, but not too slow either. She felt a tinge of anxiety as the curving road prevented her from seeing what lay ahead. Although she hadn’t been walking on this stretch of the road for very long, the unfamiliar surroundings, combined with the inability to see around the bend, made each second feel like an eternity.
Just as she began to worry if she had mistakenly gone too far, the road straightened out and the café came into view, less than a hundred feet away. Her sense of relief was offset by the butterflies in her stomach, which fluttered with increased vigour. The chill in the late-summer air meant the café’s patio was empty, save for one individual sitting at a table, chair angled to face her direction, anticipating her approach.
Taking her final steps, Eva made her way onto the patio through the open gate. She had reached her destination—still not entirely sure of where she was, yet suddenly certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was exactly where she needed to be.
SG Productions welcomes occasional submissions from guest writers who add to the breath and depth of storytelling on our Substack publication, Seeking Veritas by Sankarsingh-Gonsalves Productions, as part of our commitment to build a community of emerging writers who value view point diversity.
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Love how this shows uncertainty and certainty co-existing, and captures that even when unsure, we can put one foot in front of the other (literally and figuratively) to step into the unknown. And I appreciate how the entire story unfolds over a walk "at a steady pace", a fitting metaphor for how so much in life rests on the ability to find a way to keep walking and going forward, in spite of all the fluctuating feelings and bends in the road; and noting when you see those "key landmarks" in life that indicate you're moving in the right direction.
More! More! Please! The imagery and building sense of anticipation is wonderful. There is a thoughtful internal rhythm and a good balance between physical action and internal monologue. Its compelling, introspective tone invites the reader to walk alongside Eva and share her quiet tension.