I am lying on my bed. Eyes closed. I am not sleeping. It’s dark. Images are floating in front of my eyes. I can see a boy. Shorts. Tee-shirt. Decently cut hair. He is talking on the telephone. There is nothing around him except for a floating twig. His face is dark. I see grass. I see hair. A wisp of hair. It’s dark. Very dark.
A voice from behind. “Haan bolo…” I twist my head – into nothingness. Then slowly a candle lights up. In that candlelight I see the face of a young girl. Her eyes are closed. Her hands folded together as if in prayer. Her bright tresses reach a little below her shoulders. Her lips are curled up. An air of calmness.
“TRING. TRING.”
The silence is lost. A steady wind picks up. I still can’t see anything but the face in front of me. The wind picks up speed. The candlelight starts to flicker. The girl’s hair starts to blow in the wind. The light is getting dimmer by the second! The uproar of the winds has increased to mighty proportions! The light is dying! Her hands are still folded… With a final gush the candle is blown out… Everything is silent. Everything is black.
What is that sound? “Ss… khi khi… uh huh uh huh… shi…” Somebody is crying.
“Who is there?”
“huh huh… I am so confused…”
What in the world is happening? Why can’t I see anything? Why am I blinded? Who is crying??
“AH!” Oh my God! What was that painful streak? What is it that just rushed through my body? Why do I feel that I have the heaviest hands and legs in the world? Why do I feel that I am chained to the ground? Why do I feel that I am being sucked into something?
Oh my God… OH MY GOD!! I can’t feel my legs. Somebody is grabbing my waist! I am being pulled inside something. I can’t lift up my hands. I CAN’T SEE ONE DAMN THING! HELP! HELP! SOMEONE SAVE ME! SAVE M…
Silence.
Swisssssh… “Where the HELL is this?” I seem to be flying inside a tunnel. There are streaks of light all over the place. They seem to come and go in the blink of an eye. This tunnel is not made up of walls. I don’t know why, but it looks alive. The walls keep twisting and merging together. They seem liquid. It’s huge! But where am I going?
Vrooom... What was that? Did something just pass by? Is my speed increasing? OMFG! It seems as if I am being pulled apart! Oh shit! I am headed towards a dead end. Darkness. I still seem to be moving in the darkness… propelled by some external force. “What is that?!” I see a white point. It looks as if it’s gleaming. I am heading right for it…
I am closing in. It’s HUGE! It’s some kind of huge globule. What are those things that seem to floating on its surface? They are gleaming. Oh my GOD! They are moving about! There must be millions of those over there!! OMG! Maggots! ZOOOOOOOOOMMmm… A sound of broken glass. SILENCE.
I open my eyes slowly. Where am I? Am I inside the globule? It’s white everywhere. It’s TOO white! There is absolutely nothing over here. There is all the light in the world but I can only see my hands and my body. There is no floor below me. I can’t see any floor. Then how am I standing? I can wave my hand around. But I don’t feel anything. There is no air over here. Then how am I breathing? I can touch myself. “Ouch!” I can feel my pricks. But even then… there is nothing. Nothing at all! No sound. Not even a steady whir. It’s just WHITE! An infinite expanse of… nothingness. Except me.
I turn around. “What is that little black thing that seems to be floating over there?” I move towards it. It is a telephone. What am I supposed to do with this? Am I supposed to call someone?
TRING. TRING…
The phone starts to ring. Should I pick it up? Is it meant for me? I see the white around me getting blurry. It seems as if the ‘white’ whatever it is, has started moving, circulating around. It seems to materialize into millions of small white particles which have started to move amongst themselves! Oh… They are approaching me! The world of white seems to be closing down! TRING TRING! The phone continues to ring. The particles are approaching me… TRING TRING! What should I do??...
Silence.
Black. There is a soft wind which is blowing by. It seems to caress my hair. I am sitting on a sofa. Laid back. It’s comfortable over here. There is a small bonfire in front of me. But its light seems to be reaching only till the two people who are sitting around it. One of them is the boy who was talking on the telephone. He is wearing an orange tee-shirt and blue pajamas. He seems to be drawing something on the sand with his fingers.
The other is the girl. The light of the bonfire seems to be playing with my vision. She is smiling. She is looking at the boy draw on the sand. There is a twinkle in her eyes…
I seem to have lost a lot of blood in that last journey. I am feeling very weak. I can hear my heart beat loudly. There is water in my eyes. But I fear shedding them because they might create a fire around me. I don’t want to get burnt. I want to live.
God bless…