The damsel in distress

Dragging the squeaky suitcase, my vision grasped the sight of the gigantic cruise, bestowed before me,

that we were about to board onto. Among the crowd, I scanned faces, in search of my friend - the bride to-be. It was quite a ceremony that she was about to hold for her wedding – on a cruise. I spotted her

and we climbed onto the cruise. “Hold this, I gotta go, be back real quick!” she said, handing me over a

pair of sunglasses, wrapped in a red velvet cloth, secreted by a jet black box, as she submerged into the

crowd. But, these weren’t just any sunglasses; these were the glasses the bride was about to wear for

her bridal shoot. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, rich people surely think different. Absorbing in the

surroundings, I walked into a hall-like compartment. Waiters were rushing cross, serving the guests. The

view was surely mesmerizing. Unaware of where I was stepping, I bumped into one of the waiters.

BOOM! It sent the sunglasses flying, and me, face-flat on the floor. All this happened so quick, that I

barely had time to realize the situation. I tried to stand up, rubbing the side of my head; which was

forming into a bump but all that mattered was: “The sunglasses!”, quickly scanning the near

surroundings, my eyes fell on the foot of a nearby table. “The sunglasses!” I gasped as I rushed towards

them, just to find them broken. These absolutely stunning, lavish, sophisticated sunglasses, that

probably costed a fortune, were kaput. I felt as if my soul had left my body. Blank. Dumbfounded. Only

when I came to reality, had I realized the attention I had attracted. Picking up the fragments of the kaput

glasses, I slipped out the hall. First, I calmed myself down, there was no good in panicking. Second, I

started to think of my next step. Since, it was my fault, I had to do something about it. Guilt had started

to nibble me down as i stared at the very fragments, “What can I possibly do to save this situation?” I

thought to myself. After all, the ceremony was just an evening away. As I was wondering this, sitting in a

so-called café, not far from the “disastrous hall”, where the sunglasses received martyrdom, a young

lady approached me. Her hazel eyes twinkled like gemstones, her perfectly wavy hair formed a blanket

over her skull. While i sat there, looking rather pitiable with my bruised forehead, quite the contrary.

“What’s up with the tensed expression?” she said, shaking me out of my gloomy thoughts.

“Uh…..nothing” I replied. Settling herself in the seat parallel to mine, “A penny for your thoughts?” she

asked. I summarized to her all that had happened. Though taken aback by the absurdness, she

understood the seriousness of the situation. “Need help?” she proposed, “that of a stranger? Maybe

not” I said, unsure. “Fair, but do you have better options?” she said rising an eyebrow, followed by a

friendly chuckle. She had a point, I couldn’t disagree. But, was I really going to trust a total stranger,

which I met barely ten minutes go? Regardless, I did. “Oh! By the way, I’m Belladonna. So, what’s the

plan?” she initiated, "Saphine, to the opticians', is all I can think of", I replied, making up for the missed introduction. Wrapping it all up, we stepped out the

cruise and started our journey with a small nearby optician’s shop. We showed them our broken

sunglasses and were rejected right away. But, we didn’t get disheartened, we had seen it coming. Next,

we roamed around the city, and landed upon the largest shop of the town. With hopes high, we stepped

into the store. “It can be repaired” said the optician, as we released a sigh of relief. Too early! We had

cut him off. “….But that’d take two days”. Our smiles dropped, as both, Belladonna and I gave each

other a look of pity, walking out the main door. Not far off the shop, I buried by face in my hands,

“We’re doomed”, I moaned. “Not necessarily”, said belladonna, trying to stay optimistic. Walking in

despair, belladonna’s face suddenly lit up, as if a sudden realization had hit her, “I know an antiquated

shop, owned by an old acquaintance of mine, and it might help”. With just a few short hours left till the

ceremony, we quickly hailed a cab, and off we went. It was not the easiest place to spot, but we

eventually came across a rather small shop, covered in blue and mint green strips of paint. Looking at

the place, skeptically, “Are you sure?” I asked Belladonna. “It’s the last ray of hope”, she replied. We

pushed the glass door open, and were warmly greeted by an old sweet lady (who, I inferred, was the

“old acquaintance”). “We are jus’ browsing”, Belladonna assured the lady, and with that we parted in

different directions, searching for a similar pair. Although, the probability of finding an exact pair was

low (rather impossible), we were one hopeful team. The clock ticked away half an hour. Searching and

searching, we were starting to get more and more restless, when the old owner approached and asked

us what was wrong. I pulled our broken pair out my bag, and gave her a glimpse. “Wait a minute, dear”,

she said in her shaky voice, walking into the store room. After around, five minutes, she returned with a

box covered in dirt. She opened it, dusting off the dirt, just to reveal an identical pair. We were

astonished! We must’ve saved a heaven in our past life to land on such a coincidence. It turned out, that

these were the rare, Conte de fees d’eleonora - a lavish pair made in France. Only five of these pairs had

been manufactured, that were possessed by certain personalities. Intriguing, indeed. We quickly

replaced the old glasses with the new, replica ones and rushed out thanking that lady – our savior. We

reached back just in time; got ready and returned the glasses back to the bride-to-be. “Where had u

been man? I almost thought u wouldn't show up!”, exclaimed my friend as i handed her over the

glasses, I could spot belladonna at me winking from the corner of my eye. trying my best to not

giveaway my nervousness, i could only put on a nervous smile. The ceremony went on smoothly, as me

and my partner in crime sat there, thrilled by the adventure we just went through.