The John Terry Goal

It’s early November. Delhi is not that cold. However, the lady was wearing a black sweater. She has a tendency of catching cold on flights. Hence, the attire. She comfortably took a seat near gate 4 of Terminal 3. Keeping her bag aside, she dialed a number on her cellphone, hushed some words and killed the call. She glanced at her wristwatch. There was still an hour and a half before her flight to Dubai would depart India. Then she opened her bag, took out a copy of Outlook and started reading.

She saw him 5 minutes later. She had just lifted her eyes off the magazine, without any particular reason, when she saw him. He was standing near the big flat screen TV showing a football match. He had donned the Manchester United jersey, his favorite no. 11 - Ryan Giggs. He was turning his back towards her, and she should not have seen him. However, he was disturbed by a call on his cellphone, and he started talking into it moving away from the TV -- that’s when she saw him. His hair was well kept and he was wearing a pair of khakis and loafers. Had a Manchester United backpack on his shoulders. The phone call ended in about 2 minutes and he walked towards the TV again.

Now, she noticed the TV. It was an English Premier League game between Chelsea and Sunderland being played at the Stamford Bridge. There was a corner for Chelsea. Oscar was taking it. She folded the Outlook and started paying attention to the game being played at London. Oscar swung the ball and a blue shirt standing in the crowd leapt to head it inside the goal. The Chelsea players started celebrating; she noticed the goalscorer was John Terry. Some of the Chelsea fans near the TV made some noise. Her eyes fixed at him. He was angry, cursing slowly and moving away from it towards a seat. She smiled. She knew he’d be angry, he’d curse. She knew how much he disliked Terry. She had heard him cursing on another John Terry goal couple of years back.

She adjusted her sweater and unfolded the Outlook. She could not read. She smiled again, thinking of herself, thinking of all those people who have to act strangers although they know everything about the other person.