Retiring after a long day’s work is
one of the things we all look forward to. You lazily tick the items off of your
checklist – dinner, dishes, water bottle for the night’s thirst pangs, doors
and windows shut tight and finally a bed well made that has been waiting for
you to dive in to. Checking the last item off - the lights - with an inexplicable
sense of satisfaction and snuggling comfortably in to your bed that’s been
calling out to you with so much desire since the past hour, you couldn’t
imagine doing anything else but tucking yourself in to those freshly laundered
sheets and drifting off effortlessly in to a peaceful world where you are hoping
to the good Lord that sandman doesn’t show up.
It’s all going on just as planned
- you are sinking in to the softness of
your pillow – the bearer of ecstasy, the holder of the head that’s been beaten,
bruised and bellowing from the inside, finding the right spot, the right angle
and position and then it happens, you are in between two worlds, two dimensions,
almost reaching out to the depth of your sleep, aware yet blissfully not giving
a damn about your surroundings – the drowning lights of vehicles passing by,
cries of super excited children who are having the time of their lives by not
letting their family sleep in peace, the music from a wedding hall nearby,
distant honking, fading away slowly in to the dimension that your swirling in
to when all of a sudden there’s a quick, sharp, high-pitched hum around the
earlobe that somehow was not tucked in to the sheet – not like it would’ve made
a difference – and you jolt up in utter disbelief and a heartbreak that could
never be repaired, not even with time, unforgivable act of cruelty by that
hidden hummer in your room, waiting patiently by your bedside table or probably
on the door of your wardrobe or even cleverly, prepared to prey from the
ceiling – timing his deep dive almost in to your ear drum, teasing, almost as
if mocking to say, ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’ – it’s feeding time, you just hadn’t
realized – how selfish, he thinks and he comes in, both wings fluttering, gotta
suck me some blood – and whizzes past you once again, deft in his moves,
ducking the grab of your hand that’s hopelessly waving out in the darkness –
“stupid human - shooting in the dark”, he laughs as he set out a lyrical hum to
echo through the room.
Everything is destroyed, the pillows
have been turned, the sheets crumpled, the sleep broken, the utter despair you
are in – until the moment of enlightenment finally arrives – quite literally
with the light turned on – you wait in silence, don’t make a move and just wait
for it – you can hear yourself breathing – a little shaken, heady probably
woozy from the sudden jolt.
And then the moment arrives – you hear
it – all those external noises fade away – feeling almost meditative there for
a moment – you are completely aware, you track him, you chase and follow – it’s
a high pursuit chase within a 10*10 room and before you know it, your reflexes
work in a way that you are astonished in to a state of shock – you open your
palm – the hummer has been silenced.
Sweet dreams, blood sucker! You just
got yourself preyed!
