She was walking alone…the dry leaves rustled. It was getting dark, as though every step she was taking was towards darkness…more darkness. There was an eerie feeling in the air…exactly what she had felt some five years ago…
…A railway station, lots of people, the hustle-bustle and the descending night…yet there was a sense of security. Dad was by her side, guiding through the way. They were going somewhere for a month. Then… there was a flood of people oozing out of the train…then chaos…voices shouting at a deafening volume…then…as though the flood had carried away Dad. She looked around. She ran. She shouted out. A glimpse of Dad...across the platform.Oh yes! …I’ve found him…and suddenly as though Death had blown its trumpet. The train moved. She was loosing sight…couldn’t see Dad. The train moved on and on and on…it was just not coming to an end! Tears welled up in her eyes. She doesn’t want to loose Dad.
Dad! She cried out.
Dad…but he won’t listen.
DA..D! And this time he turned back…there eyes met…as if it was the last moment…and then Death blew its trumpet harder this time…only to wake her from this freaky dream. The alarm was screeching… It was time to go to school. The dream kept coming back to her again and again at all odd hour’s leaving her with a sense of disgust at her sick imagination. But she never told anyone about the dream. It’s just a dream after all…and it soon got dissolved in her daily routine of schooling and exams.
Life came to a sudden halt when Dad died. Everything was happening too fast. But one thing that had stuck like an empty void in time was the dream…now it haunted her. It was exactly a month back that she had that weird dream. Now that she had realized this it made her feel worse. Was she responsible? She? Daddy’s darling baby. She wanted to cry…Oh daddy…! But time isn’t that giving. The few tears that had welled up in her eyes could never rain down to wash away that pain. They stayed there…forever…not letting the wounds heal…
She grew older than her age. The innocence lost somewhere in the midst of the harsh realities and …her dreams. Dreams…which foretold everything. From friends to family…hard times and success. Trust, betrayal. Taste of failure, pain illness, disease, death…everything…
But no one believed! ‘You have started reading a lot of novels’ they told her…and she remained silent…
Gift or a curse? She could never decide. It was like drinking from the CUP…THE CHALICE…Painful, yet a unique gift from God himself. The gift of dreams. But the clock ticked life away…and she knew it. Life-in-death.
All of a sudden immense light blinded her…and as she lay in a pool of blood she realized she had been hit by a car. She was still alone…The dry leaves rustle no more…everything was still…No air…No life…Only she and her last few breaths caught Life-in-death…A faint smile crept up her dying face…She always knew this was to be her fate…Her dream had told her this a long back. Gift or a curse? She still can’t decide. No one will come to her rescue .She knew it. Today is the day!
I have to go …she thought. Death came slowly…She lay there as if her own life had hit her…in flash backs.
Childhood flew right in front of hr eyes…friends, family, good times, bad times, dreams…and Dad!
‘Dad?’ A pained smile drew across her dying face once again. She felt him…very near to her. She saw him…he was there…Arms wide open…ready to hug her …the same way he use to do when he was alive. Now I am secure…she thought. She smiled…almost laughed…and for the first time her dead eyes were alive…and for the first time a tear rolled down from her eyes…finally unleashing everything…
Dead desires, pains, killed emotions, innocent smiles and …her soul!
The body was recovered and the police is still trying to solve this mystery of the hit and run case in a NO VEHICLE ZONE. But they will never find…she even knew this. Number of odd things like a broken pen supposed to be gifted by Dad, a small pencil, a broken key ring, cards, dry flowers ,leaves, a wrist watch with no straps and dials and a lot more was found when her belongings were being taken care of at home. Amongst all these were her dairies…her only possessions which her family thought to be a mirror to her life.
Her dairies were read. She had mentioned all her dreams…there meanings and there connections with the incidents happening around her every day. But still no one could ever know her completely. Even her dairies couldn’t reveal her mysterious side for she never completed her sentences. Half a sentence and then the dots…
It is said that she was an ordinary girl with an extra ordinary gift…the gift of dreams. A girl who lived to die daily…and died to finally live freely.
Apart from her incomplete life, all she left in her dairy was this piece which was written a few hours before she died.
I lived and I died everyday as I saw what the future holds,
I locked it all in my heart under the weak emotional bolts…
I will die, to live a life which can never be told,
Yet you will find an incomplete ‘ME’ in this dairy’s every fold…
As I came, so shall I go…
Unravished by human understanding and power,
And all you will see shining up there will be PENTACLE…The star……!