Justin
was in a hurry to reach home. So he took the shortcut route avoiding the
highway. He knew it was risky to take that road with sharp bends, especially in
the night. But still he decided to take that route. He was almost reaching a
nervous breakdown after his business meetings did not yield any results, which
disappointed him a lot.
He
was riding his motorbike through the poorly lit road in the night, with his
mind still stuck at the business meetings. As he raced on the road
absentmindedly, he didn’t notice the speeding truck that came from the opposite
direction.
Thuuddddd….!!
In a
split second, Justin was thrown over the trees on the side of the road.
He
opened his eyes when he heard two persons arguing with each other. But the
place was completely unfamiliar to him. Even those people he didn’t recognize.
He was standing in front of a big closed gate. The boundary walls on either
side of the gate looked endlessly long. He could not see the floor he was
standing. The whole area appeared to be floating over clouds.
“Am
I still having a hangover? I didn’t drink too much during the meeting!” He
whispered to himself .
Then
he noticed the two people in front of him arguing with each other. They were
dressed strangely. One was wearing a dark hooded overcoat with his face almost
covered, while the other was wearing a white dress with wings.
“Did
I reach some fancy dress competition? “
He began to wonder.
“Hello
guys.. Would you be kind enough to tell me which place is this? Somehow I lost
my way and reached here. I need to get back home.”
“Well..you
didn’t loose your way son…you have come to the right place. This is the gate to
heaven”. Said the lady in white dress with the wings.
“Heaven? Are you guys kidding me? Please leave me. I
am not in a mood to enjoy your pranks. I am already going through tough time”.
Justin said
“ No
son..we are not kidding. I am the guardian angel and this is the god of death.
Between us we take care of all of you guys from the moment you are born. You
were brought here by the god of death thinking that your time was over …but…”
“
But what? Its interesting to hear your joke at this moment in the night…please
go on. I am here to listen”. A visibly annoyed Justin started shouting.
“If
my time is over ..then you let me inside…why stop me at the gate” Agitated and
angry, Justin started to move towards the gate. It was then the man with the
dark hood, crossed his path and stopped him. In a baritone voice he said
“It
seems you cannot enter. There was some mistake and actually your time is not
over. You will have to go back. We are extremely sorry as it was a mistake from
our side”
“
Now I am lost. You guys proclaim to be gods and angels ..and you say you
brought me here by mistake. I am supposed to believe all these.,…eh? . Justin
became furious.
“Son…yes
we made a mistake. So we would like to compensate you for the trouble. As we
send you back to your life, you can ask one boon from us. With that boon, you
should leave this place at once. You do not belong here ..now.” Said the
guardian angel.
Still thinking that the two people
around him are playing pranks on him, he said sarcastically…
“Ok guys…so you are gods ..taking
care of birth and death…fine. I will ask for a boon. Pointing his fingers to
the person in dark hood, he said
“ I want to see you in front of my
eyes whenever someone is about to die”
“ you really want that as the boon?
“ Asked the guardian angel.
“Yes..I do. If you are gods, you
can do that ..right?” said Justin with that sarcastic smile.
All he could hear was a loud
thunder which followed an eye blinding lightning. He felt like falling down
though the sky, defying gravity, slowly
like a feather falling through the air.
When he woke up, he realized that
he was lying on the banks of the road. His motorbike was lying at some distance
from him. He felt the pain on the cuts and bruises he had. He tried to
recollect the collision with the truck. He vividly recollected the strange
conversation he had with the guardian angel and the god of death. He dismissed it as the hallucinations that
followed the impact of the accident. He
lifted the motorbike and went to the nearby clinic to get himself treated for
the minor cuts on his body.
Few
weeks passed by. He had almost forgotten the accident he had and the strange
encounter with the gods, which anyway he dismissed as hallucinations. In fact,
he didn’t have time to think about all those. He was always busy in building
his own life from the miserable beginnings he had. Business was not in great shape. But he never
gave up. He moved on with a positive attitude and his efforts were starting to
pay.
One evening, he came back from
office and was sipping his evening tea, standing on the balcony of his two
storeyed house. He watched the pedestrians and the vehicles moving on the road
opposite to his house. At the traffic junction people started walking along the
zebra crossing during a red light. There were few people taking the zebra line,
including an old lady. All of a sudden, Justin noticed a floating shadow
appearing beside the old lady who was walking at the edge of the zebra line.
Justin felt a shiver passing through his spine. The shadow was very familiar to
him.
“Oh my god…it is looking like the
man with a dark hood whom I saw during the night of the accident.” Justin
murmured.
It was then the hooded man, turned
around and looked at Justin. Through the dark hood, he could see two glittering
eyes. Even before he could think further, a speeding car which didn’t wait for
the red signal crossed the signal and hit the old lady. She could not survive
the impact of the collision. As a big crowd gathered around her body, Justin
saw the hooded man flying by holding the old lady who appeared like a shadow
and vanishing to thin air…
“Oh..my god…so its all real. What I
experienced that day is not just hallucination…its real” Justin felt like
freezing.
Two months later, Justin had to
visit a hospital to see a friend who was recovering from some illness. It was
one of the busiest public hospitals in the city. As he walked though the
general ward section to go the semi-luxury ward where his friend was admitted,
he saw a big crowd near each hospital bed. Doctors and security guards were
tying to control the crowd of relatives of the patients. He asked an onlooker
about the reason behind the crowd.
“Lot of people consumed the
spurious liquor sold from an unauthorised outlet. Now all of them are admitted
in serious condition” He said.
Hooch tragedies are common and in
spite of repeated warning from the authorities, such incident kept on
happening.When Justin finished his visit and
returned to the hospital gate, he had to walk through the same general ward
again. Crowd was still there. But this time, near many of the beds he could see
the same hooded man, whom he met doing his accident. They appeared as shadows
floating in the air. He felt his legs were not moving. Some sort of fear
engulfed him. As he walked through the
ward, the hooded shadow like figures
looked at him and began to smile.
“ Oh..no..its happening again…. It
cannot be true” Justin walked fast to avoid the crowd. Hardly he reached the
gate, he could hear the loud cries of the people standing near the patients in
the general ward. He turned around to look towards the general ward. Up in the
sky he could see many shadow like figures floating and then slowly disappearing
into thin air.
Six
months passed away. On a summer day, Justin got a call from his aunt asking
for help. Her husband was in hospital. As their children were abroad, there was
nobody to give a helping hand at the hospital. Justin immediately rushed to the
hospital and did everything that was necessary to get his uncle admitted. The
old man was having a mild stroke and the cardiologist at the hospital said
everything looks fine as he was admitted right on time when the symptoms of
stoke appeared. The old man was in the hospital for a week. All those days
Justin did everything he could to help his uncle and aunt. The doctor treating
the old man confirmed that he will be discharged on Saturday as his condition has improved.
Saturday
evening, Justin went to the hospital. After paying all the hospital bills, he
was waiting for the nurse to come with the discharge summary and further
instructions for follow up. There was a gentle knock on the door. Expecting the
nurse or the doctor, he opened the door. Standing at the half opened door was a
man wearing a dark hood. Under that hood, he could see the shinning eyes.
In a
fit of rage, Justin shouted and hit at the hooded man. But his fist just moved
through the thin air only. He saw the hooded man moving inside like a shadow…
“
Justin…what happened son…is everything OK ?” . His aunt asked..
Justin
could only watch helplessly the moments that followed. He saw two shadows
flying out of the room, while the nurse who came inside was frantically
checking the pulse of the old man lying still on the bed.
It
was disturbing experience for Justin. He realized that the incident that
followed the accident he had was real and he is living with the boon of being
able to see the death approaching people, when it is their time to die. He
never wanted such a power to be with him.
He
desperately wanted to get ride of that
power he got through the bizarre incident. He realized that, though death in an
inevitable thing for every living thing, knowing that earlier than the actual
moment can cause much more pain than one can imagine.
In
his solitude, he sat on his knees and prayed deeply.
“ Oh
God… in a moment of anger, I had asked that boon. I no more want to have that
power to see the god of death near anyone who is about to die. Please take away
that power from me”
Months
passed away. No further encounters he had with the shadows. Life was getting
into proper track for him. All his efforts in his business life were paying in
a big way. Business flourished. He opened shops in two more places in the city.
He had more employees. His life style improved. There were times earlier when
he really wanted to end his life as he found the harshness of the life’s
realities very hard to endure. But he fought bravely and grabbed his life back
from peril. Not
only in his business life, but also in personal life, he made progress. He met
his life partner unexpectedly.
She
was a mutual friend of an employee in his company. He met her during an office
party which was open to friends and family. In few meetings and outings with
her, he realized that she is the person with whom he should share his life.
After thinking for a long time, he decided to propose to her.
He
invited her for a dinner at a sea side restaurant.
At
the candle light dinner, he was very nervous . Unlike
all the previous conversations, he didn’t know how to start the talk and
propose to her. The diamond ring he bought for her, was kept in his
pocket. Many times during the dinner, he reached his pocket, touched the box of
the ring and though he would make the proposal. But every time he tried
that he felt freezing cold.
“Is
everything all right Justin? Are you not feeling OK? Asked his girl friend as
she was noticing the anxiety on Justin’s face.
“
Eeh…Nothing. I am absolutely fine”.
He said.
“Excuse
me dear for a minute. I will just come back from the wash room…you finish your
drinks.” Justin told his girl friend and
went to the washroom
He opened the doors of the washroom. It was empty. He washed his face in the cold
running water many times. He practiced the
words he planned to say to her,
few more times in front of the mirror. He was sweating profusely. He bent down
near the wash basin one more time to wash his face. Suddenly he felt a gentle
touch on his shoulder accompanied by a baritone voice..
“
Son…it’s time to go”
Justin
lifted his head up and looked at the washroom mirror. In split second he
accepted that chilling reality. Standing behind him was the shadow..the man
with the dark hood. Through the dark hood..two glittering and piercing eyes
were visible. …….
