Handle herself

The cool night air played around with her hair, the car made its way down the road at a leisurely pace. She caught her reflection in the side  mirror, adjusted her hair, winked at herself in the mirror and grinned.

“Girls and mirrors”, told her grandfather and laughed.

” Well, the love is mutual “, she added and laughed

I will try to visit as often as I can, as often as my pocket can stretch

“I am going to miss these drives” sighed grandfather as they turned into a side lane. “You could visit me often it is not very far off, a night’s journey,”she paused, a tingling sensation ran through her, she clapped her hands and added cheerfully, “I will try to visit as often as I can, as often as my pocket can stretch.”

Grandfather scratched his head and then put his hair back in its place by running his hand through them. He scratched his beard and looked at his granddaughter through the mirror and asked, “Are you nervous?”

“Just be yourself and everything will be alright”, comforted her Grandfather. 

“Very nervous and scared, excited as well but mostly nervous,” she let out a short laugh, turned towards Grandfather and continued, “What if no one likes me? What if I make more enemies than friends? What if I don’t like it there?”

“Just be yourself and everything will be alright”, comforted her Grandfather. ” I remember when I first had to go away from home …”, he was rudely interrupted from the barrage of honking from the car behind them. It was trying to overtake them, they tried from the right side and then the left but realising that it was not possible because of the small lane they continued honking incessantly. 

“Grandpa, calm down, don’t speed up”

Grandfather panicked, he speeded up hoping to put some distance between them. He drove to the left but they could not pass, they honked and taunted. She looked at her Grandfather and calmly said, “Grandpa, calm down, don’t speed up”. By then the road widened, they were able to overtake them, as they passed the guy in the driving seat leaned to the right and held out his middle finger. She put her head out on an impulse and yelled out, “Don’t worry, with the way you’re driving you will get there soon”, he looked back at her confused and the other guy in the front seat burst out laughing. 

She immediately leaned back, pressing herself into the seat, unable to believe what she had done. She slowly turned to her Grandfather, he giggled and said,” Very clever.”

“I just got off the phone with your Grandfather and he told me that I don’t have to worry about you as you can handle yourself. Handle yourself!”

She was in her room sorting through her clothes, separating the ones she would need and the ones which could be boxed and put away, when her mother walked into her room in a puff, “What did you do?” She asked angrily with her brows furrowed and eyes wide opened. “What do you mean?” she replied meekly while her mind quickly ran through the past few days for any crimes she might have committed. “I just got off the phone with your Grandfather and he told me that I don’t have to worry about you as you can handle yourself. Handle yourself!”. She stressed on the two words, “What did you do? What did you do for him to feel that way?” 

“You should have asked him yourself”

She threw up her hands and exclaimed, “How can I ask him that!”

“Why not!? Besides maybe he saw me handling some situation with maturity and concluded on that”, she reasoned

“Ha! No! He would have seen you being  haughty and talking back to someone and concluded that. Oh, God! Handle yourself” 

“So what? Isn’t that a good thing?”, she shrugged irritated by her mother.

” Girls should be demure, sweetheart”.

She looked down and snorted, her mother eyed her with great tolerance and then turned around and walked out of her room throwing her hands up in the air and saying,”God knows! My daughter!”