Everyone in this world has a story to tell.
You just have to choose whose story you want to listen to.
And a small question for you now- Will you choose mine today?
2020
One day I wondered how it would be, if all the opaque walls in the world were replaced by glass panes, transparent to the outside. Then you could see how everyone is actually living under the facade, right? Then maybe, it would be easier for everyone to live and move on, because they would know how similar everyone's life is despite all the differences, and how everyone struggles to exist in this sycophantic world, and the assurance that comes with it, that you are closer to reality just as everyone is.
~ Then I remembered all the evil things humans do with the doors closed. All the horrors you would see. ~
Not a good idea, not at all.
2020, 11PM, Somewhere in the middle of nowhere
As I was travelling on the roads, I saw a woman in the backseat of a black coloured SUV. I look at the woman to find her staring at something. I look back to see what she's staring at, only to find a small coffee shop slightly smaller than 5×5m. I see a couple in that brown tiled shop- a young one, sitting, sipping coffee. The girl with her hair tied in a loose bun, took a small bite of that moon shaped cookie in her hand and they both suddenly laughed, a heartwarming laugh, maybe a consequence of the boy saying something funny. I look at them for as much time as I can and then shift my gaze to her. Her eyes had a glossy convex tear layer over them showing the reflection of the passing street lights once in a while. A beauty. Her eyes.
I wanted to look at her face in entirety but she had a mask on.
'Is she crying?' I think to myself.
'Nah. Can't be. Maybe she is just missing her ex-lover.'
~I remember them, those people from that day like that- the couple-their smiles plastered on their innocent faces and her, I remember her eyes pleading with a tint of exhaustion and horror ~
She looked interesting. Well, she was beautiful, wasn't she? I decided to follow her for the rest of my limited-time there.
The SUV's been speeding over the roads. And seriously, Why are you humans always in such a hurry?
'Don't you know it's the journey that matters no matter the destination.'
I know, I know, TMI-too much information. Let's leave the philosophy to the professionals and jump back into the story.
Following the speeding car on the freeway, I came across a carcass of a collided bus and a car on the side of the road. There's nothing left there to my imagination, nothing but the burnt deformed metal, shedding light upon as to what might have happened there. I looked at her to see how she's reacting to the grotesque that I just saw, to make sure if she's my type.
Her eyes again. The color of the Deepest blue I have ever seen. Like two oceans of her own. Her cheeks had traces of dried-up tears, justifying my comparison to oceans.
'She's just perfect.' I thought. But why isn't she wiping them, I mean that's what humans do, right? Wipe them off before you're caught in the act. Hide one's light in a bushel.
And why hasn't she said a word?
Maybe she's just numb and pain-paralysed. Happens to me sometimes. A rare phenomenon though. Just like I am, here on earth.
The SUV's moving fast and it's exhausting to keep up with it.
'Maybe she's not that beautiful on the inside, or maybe she's not my type. I should just stop chasing and go on another adventure, which involves only resting. No running. No chasing.' I tell my lazy self to talk myself out of that.
But before I choose to follow her again. The SUV slowed down, there was a big board written Toll-plaza on it. A young man in his twenties, a very handsome one, was sitting in a 1.5×1.5 square shaped cabin, collecting money- random printed papers for which in exchange he lifts the horizontal stop bar, meaning they are allowed on the further journey until another one of such appears and they have to do the same ritual all over again.
~Humans and their obsession with printed papers. All for what? One of the many things about them I never understood~
I look at her again to see if she's stealing any glances at his beauty. If she's, it's going to break my heart.
~Just kidding, I don't have one. But, it might do something of that sort.~
Her eyes again- droopy and bloodshot now. Like she's about to fall into a coma anytime soon. Her blue eyes were almost dead-black.
'I don't understand. What happened? What happened to those beautiful blue eyes? Is she sleepy?'
While I am worrying about the why of the state of her eyes, the horizontal bar lifts itself and the SUV speeds away. And as usual, I chase it.
About 5 minutes later, we reach a place where I could find only trees-huge ones- spread over at least about 1000×1000m area. The SUV stops. I looked for her in the backseat from afar, I couldn't find her. I went near the car, step by step, worried, to find her laying down on the seat, like she was in deep sleep. I sigh in relief, only to find myself horrified a minute later.
I looked at the cream colored leather seat cover in the car touching her half naked body, it bore a few stains of black here and there. I couldn't actually tell the exact color as it was really dark. A man stepped out from the front door of the car and lit up his torch and directed it on to the backseat. And to my horror, I realised those were not black but red stains. Stains of blood. Blood of the owner of the beautiful blue eyes. And to this day, I remember the red, the blood red.
I could now find all the answers to my questions I had at the beginning.
About why she was crying, why she had stared at the couple longingly, about why she had not said a word. She wasn't talking because of the duct tape under that mask that sealed her lips.
Before I could do anything, not like I could have done something, my time was up and I had to leave. I looked at the sky, nothing but darkness, then I remembered it was me, an eclipse that day, and that I had arrived, not just on earth, but also in the life of that beautiful woman too.
And to this day, I don't know what the man has done or the story of how she ended up that way in that car. I only remember the short journey I had that day. With her, the car, and her eyes.
And who am I? The storyteller for today?
I'm the shadow the earth casts on the moon on certain days in a year- An eclipse you call. A rare phenomenon on earth. But not so rare in some human's lives.
And poetically, I call this story,
The blood red of the beautiful blue eyes.
I'll come back someday soon with another story of my journey. I'll take my leave now. I have another universe of listeners to attend to.
- A story, for sure.