The Intruder

The hour was late but his eyes were wide open.

Staring into the darkness he looked at his fluoroscet alarm clock. Time had been cruel to him this night. 10 minutes had passed since the moment he had switched off the lamp to head for slumber but it had seemed like had been waiting for hours for the sandman to come. He was always amazed by the fact that how in complete darkness, although his eyes were of no use, his other senses would hike up their efficiency levels tenfold. In the absence of light, there were only sounds that could be his link to the rest of the world, although a touch more sinister.

Dependant on what he could hear and touch,(he was not sure if tasting and smelling things at this hour would be very beneficial)he observed his surroundings and heard the ticking of the clock as each second passed him by with a morose continuum. He felt the soft feathers in his pillow as he turned his head from time to time, trying to lie in the best position to sleep comfortably in. Despite all kinds of efforts to let his conscious drift into the subconscious, he only made it harder.

Ten minutes had passed with his attempts and was just waiting for the night to pass him by when he heard something that made his thoughts of sleep vanish in an instant. From outside his window and into his ears reached the tune of a whistle that one would make while driving a car or while listening to a song. And it seemed to be getting louder and louder.

Frozen in shock and fear, he couldnt even move to switch on the light and see who it was outside. He imagined a man in a hat and coat whose silhouette would hide his scarred face as he would stick his face in the window and scare you to death. He chose to remain numb and silent in his fear with all his concentration on his heart thumping against his chest as he held his breath to ensure no sign of life reached outside.

In his panic and mortal fright, he didnt realise when the whistling had subsided and vanished into the night, the sound of the clock was back with its monotonous ticking. His anxiety did not vanish away though for now he felt that this silence would be broken with a loud knock on the window or even wore, the sound of breaking glass. He waited for his captor to strike first so that he may retort, by screaming like a little girl and running for his life. But the moment never came.

His whistling visitor had left him for another night but his thoughts still lingered in his head, haunting him for the many nights to come, dreading the worst when he heard a whistle in the distance or a knock on the door.

And on that very night, standing on the other side stood a visitor indeed, a tiny bird lost in the city who had found a window to sit on to but not for too long.

Jetlag

The lights kept going on and off... his world shook like an earthquake... screams were piercing his ears... pandemonium was all around him. His worst fears were coming to life.

He was in an airplane which unfortunately was going to crash.

He got up from his seat and searched for someone. Someone who could help him, somebody who could take him far away from this horrible place and put him somewhere safe; the sofa in his office, the grass on his porch, the bed , or even the toilet seat of his bathroom... Anywhere but here. His eyes fell on an air hostess, he approached her,grasped her tightly and asked her, " What is happening ? We are all going to die aren't we ?" In her monotone yet trembling voice, she replied "Sir, I advise you to sit down, the captain is going to get everything under control." He looked deep into her eyes and saw what he expected.

Fear

Fear of the fact that the pilots had no clue whatsoever and that they had all gathered their Bibles and started to pray. As he slowly let go of her arms, he suddenly started realising the obvious.

This is it. This is what the ends feel like. He had never wished for an end like this but he had no choice. It was God's way of saying...

"Life is unfair and so is death"

Whenever he used to watch the TV news and hear of airplane crashes, a chill would go down his spine and he would quietly pray for those poor souls but also pray that an end like this would never come to him. But in a few hours time, he too would be on the news, nothing more than a mere statistic.

His thoughts came back to present as he looked at the passenger sitting next to him. It was a girl of not more than 10 years with a little teddy grasped in her arms and a two colourful butterflies clipped onto her hair. Her head was held low and tiny drops could be seen sliding down from her eyes over her soft cheeks and falling into the grey carpet beneath her feet. She did not panic nor did she wail, she sat there quietly, as though accepting death in the best possible way, in silence.
As she lifted her head, knowing that she was being watched, she looked at this man who was staring at her for quite some time and asked " Are you okay mister ?".

The man was taken aback by such words coming from a child. He was thinking of helping the girl by saying something soothing but he failed to utter a word. Afterall, what could he have said ? And now, after hearing this girl, he couldn't do anything but silently nod looking into the girl's hazel eyes and shed a tear.

He cursed God for ruining such a beautiful creation of His own but at the same time, he believed that it was the love for this creation that made him ask for it back. He was happy that he was not alone and he had someone to be by his side in this journey that he was to embark on. Ignoring the screams and the shouts of the passengers, ignoring the wings of the plane that tore apart, ignoring the violent shaking of the entire aircraft, he held out his hand in front on the girl.

Noticing this gesture, she took her own and placed it in his. As she did so, a feeling of warmth spread from his hand to his arm and to his shoulders, to every part of his body till it finally reached his heart.

That is when he knew that this was heaven.