The river roared and thundered in its full glory. The Fate was enjoying the discussions happening within the boathouse. The paddles in the boathoues are all having their own confusions. Made my the reckless and drunk boatman, each and everyone of them are of different shapes and sizes. The paddles having looked at the mightly river and heard the scary stories of how their friends and elders were crushed by the river are wondering how to survive the river. Finding the right partner to paddle with was one way to ensure the safety. Drunk that boatman was, it was important to ensure that paddles worked together to keep the boat steady anytime.
The Long paddle having dejected by everyone never got to enter the water. It was told the river in these parts was too shallow for him. He knew he would just be used as the firewood in the boatman’s home. Then there was the Fat paddle, the one which was too heavy to paddle. Some tried to row the boat with it but the boat would just tilt on its direction and topple. The Fate had heard all these stories long ago and was too bored of it.
It was curious about the discussion between the two paddle lying together in a corner. Silently and away from everyone’s eyes, the two were trying to understand each other and discussing on how the river would be and how they would tackle it. They were different than each other as was every paddle in the boathouse thanks to the drunk boatman but still they saw each other similar in many ways. They came from similar wood, were almost made on same day, one in morning when the boatman still had a heavy hangover and other in the night when the boatman was hardly able to stand. They saw the chance of being able to work together and row the river. The questions and uncertainties that they were trying to tackle. Each with its own bruises with brief past experiences of going just into the riverbed with someone else. The Left Paddle would ask what will you do if I am lost in river, the Right would ask do you know swim and stay afloat. The Right would ask ‘Have you ever been hit by a rock?’, The Left would ask have you every been in a fight with another paddle? Each with their own fear, hoping the other would help in finding a more reassuring answer of what lies in the river.
The Fate laughed at their innocence. It knew what lies ahead for them and how clueless they were about it.
