Short Story – Coincidence
Image© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
It all started with a mere coincidence and ended in a great reality. That night I lost someone who was the only one I could ever imagine living with. He was the only person who could provide me exactly what I needed, his presence!
He once said,
‘Behind this door lie some darkest secrets. Secrets, people tried to unlock using the different set of keys. But the levers inside the lock got more and more complicated with every wrong key inserted in the hole. ’
It didn’t strike my mind at the time this complex metaphor came out of his mouth. But I think now it’s clear. Clear like the crystal blue water. I now know the meaning to every single word from that metaphor.
The door was his life, and he himself was the key to his darkest secrets. Every time someone tried to know about his secrets, he would make them more complex so that no one could get even a pinch of it.
It came to my knowledge, everything about him. But it’s too late now. Only if I had learnt it earlier, I could have at least had a chance to make him better. I knew him from the day he was born, and I started to understand him with his very first breath in this world. I was there in his atrocities, in his successes and his failures. I had seen him rise and fall several times. I learnt from him how to be stable during good times and how to keep calm in failures. I knew his short temper, and I also knew his gradual control over his anger.
But more of my memories are occupied by his urge to make everyone laugh, his need to make everyone happy. More of anyone I remember the way he used to make me happy. Whenever I felt sad he sang beautiful songs for me, it was like putting up earphones and just go on with the rhythm.
He was an actor, a joker, a comedian, a silent crier. The first three were for everyone but him and the last just the opposite. The moment of laughter on his audience was the greatest award he had received. And he would imagine himself standing with a soda bottle representing his trophy and a pen as a mic. He could see the desire, in the eyes of the audience, of him delivering the tear-jerking speech.
But he was also an endurer. He had suffered the pain that no one could possibly imagine of. This was one of the darkest secrets behind the doors. I’ve lived his life, I’ve felt his pain. His life was like a U-pin, with full of twists and turns. Some alluring and boisterous, other with problems and bitter pills. Every time he tried to straighten them up he would end up hurting himself. After all no matter how much we try to straighten the pin there will always be some crests and troughs present there.
Those people were the most important part of his life. Admirable they were. I was there all the time looking at them silently, the way they made fun of each other, the way they supported each other. I felt immense pleasure whenever everyone’s laughing voice would pierce into my ears. Everything at such moments would happen in slow motion for me. A group of seven, one cracked a joke making fun of other. I could see everyone’s eyes waiting for the climax of the joke, controlling their laugh. As soon as they would hear that final part, six different voices, six different laughs, six different motions and one trying to control his laugh. One leaning back rapidly on the chair, eyes shrinked, hairs on the face and constant clapping with a loud laughter. Another patting on one’s back, same loud laughter. Someone with their both hands tightly on the mouth and same loud laughter. And the one who made the joke, trying to protect himself from the one he made the joke of. At one moment everything would get mute and all I could see were their happy faces pointing towards each other in an ultra slow motion and suddenly the voice would appear again and it would get chaotic.
It was in the afternoon when a discussion turned joke happened. I was there watching them discuss on the ultimate truth of life, Death. I sensed something negative. I tried to stop him. But my every try was a failure. I remember he said that he wanted a fast death. So that he could skip the hardest part, Pain. The more the discussion looked serious, the faster it got converted to a funny one. As soon as he declared the way he would like to die, they declared him dead. I told him to make them stop saying those words. But smiles on their faces were more precious for him than his own life. Each one of them was having a pretty good time, enjoying the fake death of their friend. Everything was alright, but everything was not over yet. The night came with most terrible horrors. Because, that coincidence was the accident waiting to happen.
It was almost midnight. A cold breeze passed by the corridor. He was in some deep jumbled thinking. His thoughts ran like squirrels in a cage. I couldn’t know what was going on. I tried to get his hold, but he was out of control. I too felt my head heavy as an overloaded truck. I felt like I was one of his thoughts trying to fit in a right place. He walked towards the washroom staring continuously at the tiles. It happened when he entered to take a bath. His face pointed upwards towards the shower, water striking on it. He suddenly felt something, his body shook and he moved backwards. His stepped on the soap and lost his balance. He slipped and struck very hard on the head. Clear went blurry just in moments. His eyes started closing slowly. Words’ trying to make their way out of his mouth, but it was just a mild voice left. Few moments later. Neck hung left. Hands laid spread on the floor. Mouth half open with water drops pouring out. And finally a total infinite blackout!
That was the end. We were apart. I just had to live with his memories from then. I couldn’t find a place better than him to live in. The worst part was that everything happened in front of me. But I was helpless. I saw him leave this world. I saw him trying to say something but couldn’t utter the word. I saw him take his last breath. Life turns everything around just in seconds.
I heard their loud voice again the next day. This time they were not laughing, this time they were crying. I saw their faces confused, shocked at the same time. They were confused whether they wouldn’t have discussed that topic and made fun of his fake death the other day, would he be alive? They were shocked, accusing themselves of his death. I was there watching them scream. But I was helpless, again.
I was not any physical form; I was his friend inside his mind. I was not a single thought trying to find a right place to fit in; I was the creator of all of them. I was no one but him and he was no one but me! Now I’m nothing but just a form of energy mixed up with the universe.
__END__
