He led the horse to the pond and stood watching. He could not make it drink the water, you see. A few paces ahead, a solemn faced guy with a bow tie sat next to a piano, immersed in creating music .He was annoyed at being distracted but earnestly tried to suppress a scorn. I smiled at him. Birds chirped all over in sync competing against the notes from the piano. The birds would’ve won, but only just. A little stream flowed as an illustration to laminar flow. A bearded man sat at the banks with a pen in his hand looking onto the skies for assistance. He hadn’t noticed that his paper was floating in the water now. I waved at him, he did not see, I let him be. A monkey practicing his leaping skills paused for a moment and made a face at me. I must’ve watched him longer than he recommended. I laughed. I was happy and light hearted; something must be wrong. Blinding light, too bright. I was then engulfed in brightness…
Dec 17, 08:50 AM
My roomie ‘J’ smiled slyly “Been swallowing bitter knowledge pills all night?” “Yeah. Less than 2 hours to go for the exam and not even half baked.” He put up a smug face “And we wasted a couple of hours talking about liberation, creative freedom and crap.” Something white hot shot up through me – anger. “Crap? How can you” my voice trailed. “Of all the people on earth….” He said “Oh c’mon, we all end up bowing to the damned system. Get a seat in a sellout course in some famous college, take a job that pays more bucks, socialize, marry, have kids, die. Things won’t change. At the end of the day, you still have to take your exam at 10:30. We are the slaves of society.” I started to stare at the ceiling.
Dec 19, 04:05 PM
There were so many people around wearing masks. I was floating. I felt something pierce my skin. The room then started spinning. I closed my eyes, started drifting to another world.
Dec 17, 10:10 AM
He was right; I’d been hovering over the beaten track all along. Time to break free. Time to become an unmanned vehicle on its own course, interested only in the journey and not the destination. I’d never attempted something like this before.
Dec 29, 11:15 AM
I liked it here. They were all clad in green (I later noticed I was too) and they did as they wanted to. One guy kept hopping around laughing; another has a terribly hoarse voice, but sang nevertheless. Looked like these fellas didn’t have a care in the world. Someone was performing a trick that he alone understood; he seemed quite satisfied. I had to take classes from him, for being satisfied. A tall lanky lad had an animated conversation with the wall. Or with God maybe, you never know. There was this nice guy who walked around helping people. I tried mouthing something. Words deserted me yet again. I signaled to him. He seemed to understand and brought me a paper and a pen. I let out yelps of joy that were strange even to me. The past few days have been very weird, like some confusing dream. Have I landed in the world I dreamt of? I started writing and doodling.
Dec 17, 10: 30 AM
I took a right instead of left; usually I just looked out for traffic. Today I looked out for beauty and was awarded aplenty. Nature welcomed me with a bed of dry, golden leaves. Trees adorned the street on either sides with leaves and flowers of ever so many shapes, shades and geometry. The old ones fell down in tandem making way for newer foliage. They did not fight for spots or resist the end, like we do. They allowed us to cut their branches, pluck their flowers, fruits to quench ourselves. In return they gave us fresh breeze, shielded us when sunny and gave the birds a place to live. Revenge? What revenge? Silly thoughts for a civilized world. I kept walking. I spotted a daffodil and leaned to pick it, a playful wind kept blowing it farther away. I almost had my hands around it when something hit me from behind, my head hit the pavement. The warmth of the crimson fluid. Darkness.
New Year day, 11:45 AM
“Mr. J, right? I need to take a statement from you. Can you just go through everything that happened? I’ll interrupt when I have questions.”
“Right. He was heading to take an exam. Or supposedly so. He went the other way, leading to the woods”
“Did he discuss skipping the test with you or anyone else earlier?” the cop asked.
“No, I even wished him luck. He just gave me a satirical smile. He met with an accident as he was walking. Hit and run vehicle”
“Did he ever show signs of being mentally disturbed or having an extreme absence of mind?”
“No, nothing of that sort.”
“Why did head the other way then, given that he didn’t have much time for a stroll?”
The pieces began to fit in now. “Maybe, maybe because of a discussion we had. He felt strongly about certain things. He wanted to be free, wanted everyone to be free, to break free of the system, the invisible code of conduct imposed by the society. Maybe he wanted take the first step that day. He probably went where he really wanted to.”
“How can skipping a test make him ‘free’? Sounds cranky enough.” (“Typical”, J thought)
“How and when did you come to know of the…” the cop disrupted J’s thoughts.
“Around 10 45 AM. Some gentleman driving that way spotted him. My number was listed in his mobile as ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact.”
“Go ahead.”
“Naturally I was shocked. I called some friends. We hurried to the spot. He was unconscious, lot of blood loss. We went to the hospital. There was appreciable damage to his head. They performed an operation that afternoon and another, a couple of days later. They managed to save him but he has lost his speech.”
“They found him to be abnormal too, right? That’s why he is here”
“They asked him to write down answers to questions and he wrote some’ he paused ‘random stuff’. But you must know he has a twisted sense of humor, that bugger.”
He continued “They think it is better for him to take some treatment at this” J swallowed what he called a bitter pill “this mental institution before they examine him again in 2 months.”
The inspector was silent for a moment. “Right. Sounds straight. Anyway, do not leave town, we might call you again if needed.”
“Right , sir. Can I go meet him now?” The cop nodded.
J came and shook my hand while I remained distracted. He took the paper from my writing pad and started reading “He led the horse to the pond and stood watching. He could not make it drink the water, you see. A few paces ahead ….”
Dec 17, 10:10 AM
I woke up with a start. I was shaking. I half expected to be around a bunch of people clad in green. Thankfully, I was still in the comfort of my room. And never before have I loved my stained blue sweatshirt so much. “Just a dream” I told myself. The clock read 10:10 . Damn, I must’ve slept off while staring at the ceiling. It was getting late for the test. I quickly made myself presentable and headed outside hastily. I came to the point where the roads diverged. J‘s voice echoed in my head “We’re slaves of the system.” Yes, but not for long, mate.
I took the road to my left and watched out for traffic.
