Bolt From The Blue - Something Happened Today

Photo by Artem Bali on Unsplash

I forgot my red water bottle. Wait, what? You want us to read about you losing your water bottle? No, no, not any bottle but red water bottle with white cap. It’s no ordinary bottle. It’s the one that I take with me to the gym. The one in which I fill water from a water purifier attached there with those weird beads in that machine. I have a theory that that machine just doesn’t work and I’ve been drinking tap water for long now. Thanks to placebo for not letting me fall sick. Anyway, coming back to my water bottle. I remember taking it to the gym, drinking water from it. Sweating working my legs out. Oh yes, it was a leg day. But don’t worry. Somehow for some reasons that I’m unaware of, my legs aren’t hurting today. It’s 11:30PM, full 3 hours since I reached my room and found out, actually, I did not, I have not been able to find my bottle. The red one with the white cap. I had to drink water from another stupid bottle from which my flatmate used to drink his fruit juice, something that he made by himself. The same orange juice which once broke one of his beloved glass bottles. How?

Well, we once had gone to this milkshake place which serves tasty but very expensive milkshakes in pretty glass bottles with a fancy cap. Caps are important, you see that’s what keeps what’s in a bottle in the bottle. Anyhow, he liked those bottles. So although the place was expensive recently we had gone there again. And no, we didn’t go there for their milkshake. We went there for their bottles. Milkshake indeed came inside those bottles and with no choice, we had to gulp it down. No choice you see. Anyhow, it was tasty no doubt. I had my strawberry thing while he had his good old very-much-overrated chocolate shake. You must by now be wondering why would anyone go to an expensive shop second time just for glass bottles if you had purchased those bottles in the very first time itself. Well, that’s the thing. First time when we went there, I had my drink and threw the bottle into the bin. I did get a mouthful from him over the same but god bless his soul, he had saved his bottle. The one I had to hold in my very hand sitting behind him on his bike. We reached our place. Safely. He rides well. No doubt about that. He was on a mad mission that day. Clutching the bottle like an Aladdin’s lamp. He cleaned the thing and then filled it with his orange-syrup-juice, whose proportion of water-to-syrup only he knows. I only am supposed to have few sips, that is all. Well, that evening none of us had any sip. The bottle was filled, the cap was properly closed and it was kept in the refrigerator. I forgot to tell you about our Aladdin era refrigerator. It has a mind of its own. It does have a freezer compartment but when it suits its mood, it turns into ice anything that’s kept anywhere even the ones kept at farthest from the freezer. The bottle that day was kept at a fair distance away. That was Saturday night if I’m not wrong. In the morning when I opened the refrigerator I was up for a surprise.

Everything was frosty of course but the bottle, it was something else altogether. The cap had fallen down. The glass had broken from top to down, the juice or whatever it was had all turned into ice that had risen well above the neck of the bottle. Science Dumbo. You don’t fill the bottle to its neck and leave it into a refrigerator that has its own mind. The only thing that was still holding two halves of glasses was that ice, I mean frozen juice! Well, that’s about the glass bottle, not my red water bottle. Now let’s go back to my red water bottle with the white cap now.

I came to my room from gym with takeaway food, walked into the kitchen, Washed a plate and sat down to switch on Prime Video so I can watch Mrs Maisel which by the way is a nice show. Rachel Brosnahan who plays Mrs Maisel is terrific. Anyway, this was when I felt a bit thirsty and I thought of my red bottle. Let me fill it. But where was that damn thing? It was nowhere to be seen. I checked all the dining table which if you didn’t know is very messy at this moment, the kind of messy you just can’t guess; I went to the kitchen, checked the top of refrigerator, I even walked into bedroom, under the sofa, bed, chairs, every damn corner in our house. Nowhere could I find my red bottle. I sat down. And started to think. I traced my steps back. I remember drinking water from the bottle in the gym, so I had taken the bottle there. I remember carrying the bottle to the locker room, keeping it on the usual spot on an empty bench like every day, going into the bathroom, cleaning myself up and then walking out with shoes, towel and my red water bottle. Like any other day. From there I walked to an eatery which didn’t have a fried fish like every other day so I walked away without having any food. I also didn’t enter in there so there is no chance I would forget my bottle in their premises. A sigh of relief. Next, I moved to a biryani place to buy food for the night. I took the takeaway pack. I did stand in their premise. I have stood there a couple of times with my red bottle. I have never forgotten my bottle there because I have never kept it down there. It’s no suitable place for my red bottle with a white cap. Then what happened? Well, then I walked to this chicken & egg store to buy eggs like not any other day. This was apart from the ordinary routine. Also, this was where I must have forgotten my bottle as I usually keep things down at the shop during payment. Black sheep. That is it. That’s where I had left the bottle. My red bottle. Satisfied with my Sherlock skills, I pressed play on my laptop. Mrs Maisel delighted with another of her act and in the meantime, I finished my food. Drank water from my flatmate’s bottle, locked the door and walked to that Chicken and egg place. I was determined to bring my bottle back to its rightful place. On the messy dining table back into my house.

To my bad luck and surprise, it wasn’t there. Next, I went to the takeaway place, asked the guy if he found any red water bottle which I might have left. He started singing paeans of his honesty and all kind of shit I had not at all demanded. I walked away to the place that did not serve me fried fish tonight. They did not have it either which I already knew. I was lost now. I came back to my room. Slowly opened the door and sneaked in as if that bottle, yes the same red one with white cap had legs and mind of its own to hide somewhere. Hide-n-seek kind of mood. But then better senses prevailed upon me. I searched like a mature guy the whole place all over again. No luck. Then I thought, okay. I think that’s it. Forget the damn bottle. I’ll go to shower now and then some night reading and then the bed. Oh, sweet bed on this cold winter night. I went in to shower and that’s when it occurred to me.

It wasn’t a usual day in the locker room today. There were three guys discussing some stupid topic which I completely zoned out there. So unlike every day, the locker room wasn’t empty today. Nor was that bench where I kept my water bottle empty. In fact, there was no space on that bench. That’s when it dawned on me. I had kept my bottle on the window seal. That’s where that stupid moronic bottle was. I have to find it tomorrow. I wasn’t going to walk to the gym from my room now. Not on this cold winter night.

Such a relief. Peace. I can sleep peacefully now. Good night you all. And thanks for reading!