It was turning
out to be a most memorable night, a heady mix of nicotine, the zingy salty air,
and an effervescent, eccentric female had more than taken care of that. He was
just beginning to get over the rather peculiar way in which the night had
begun, when she popped the rather uncomfortable question.
**
“What’s wrong in
being angry huh? Everyone makes it out to be some sort of illness plaguing your
system, and you try to weed it out by laughing away like morons with something
up their arse, why?!! Its good to be angry, you know, its only when you are
angry that you feel vast reserves of energy in you, you know, you keep bounding
about saying stuff to yourself like a mad hatter, you are actually bustling
with life when you are angry, as opposed to when you are docile and slouching
like a spineless something in your couch trying to figure out what to watch on
TV. Take it from me, you are healthier when you are angry.” Her conviction and
rapidly moving arms seemed like something out of a Tarantino movie.
“Do you do standup?”
“No, why?”
“Your mannerism reminds me of one, are you a
shrink?”
“No, why?”
“The way you talk reminds me of one. You are a
standup the shrink cat brought in.”
“Cats are quite wonderful creatures don’t you
think? They have that quiet dignity about them, cultured, if you will, and they
mind their own business, not like those stupid canines that lick you senseless
at the drop of a hat. I’ve never liked dogs, you know, too intrusive, and
stupid, following you around all over the place, I let go of my Vodafone the
minute they started doing those stupid dog commercials.”
“ You might want
to snuff out your joint, you know, you are already way beyond your senses”, he
said, taking a puff off his own.
“ oh no no
darling, these rants are not nicotine fuelled. I am known to be eloquent, and
articulate”, a regal, nonchalant wave of the hand punctuated her words.”
“Well if I
could, I would prostate before you to make you zip up”, he was reaching his wit’s
end, though he had secretly begun to admire this mysterious chatterbox
acquaintance he had made.
“ Oh you poor
wasted boy, then do it, why don’t you?”
“I am presently
indisposed”.
“Indisposed,
indisposed is such a convenient word no? It is the yada yada of excuses”. He
felt a pressing need to ask what yada yada was, but he somehow suppressed his
urge.
“So tell me,
what made you come over to this lovely place at this unearthly hour? Lizards
copulating madly in your bed ?”
“ Oh I would be
a fool to hive up a rendezvous with such a pretty female”, his blunt methods of
flirtation were rather well known.
“ Oh so you are
one of those shamelessly hopeless romantics aren’t you?”, she was known for
calling a spade a spade.
“ Well it has
worked to great effect previously”, he said in defence, never one to admit
defeat.
Conversation
died off, as they lay there in the moist sand, gazing up at a cloudless sky,
silence broken only by the waves as they rolled ashore one after the other,
leaving a crab or two scurrying along in its wake. The lighthouse illuminated
vast swathes of the sea, as the beam of light danced around in wide arcs.
Overall, it was a most tranquil, beautiful night, appealing to the romantic in
him, doing nothing of the sort to the cynic in her.
“I had a dream
of someone trying to kill me, it was pretty unnerving”. She burst out in peals
of uncontrollable laughter.
“ So that’s why
you are here? Because you saw a dream? Boy oh boy !” Her laughter eventually
died down, leaving him rather red faced, though she couldn’t see that in the
darkness, much to his relief.
“ Why are people
so scared of death? Is it not a relief from the tribulations in life? Come on
man, we need more stars up there in the sky, it will look good, the stars down
here are arrogant truckloads of trash!”.
“ I get the
point”, he said, through clenched teeth. She was clearly off the hook.
“ Hey tell me
something, this person who killed you, was it a female who stuck a pen in your
neck?”
“ How on earth..”,
he was stopped midsentence, as just then she proceeded to take out a Reynolds
from her pocket and sink it viciously in his neck, rupturing his jugular vein.
He was too shocked to respond. A piercing pain permeated rapidly through his
body, which then gave way to a gurgling sound as blood oozed out in copious
amounts.
**
He was too
shocked too notice the speedometer needle and the fuel needle approach red.
This was not the first time he had had nightmares, but this one was different
in terms of the effect it had on him, It was grotesque, unnerving, and he could
not go back to sleep, not with that image playing in front of his eyes. That’s when
he got on his bike and shot off into the night.
**
He was not expecting anyone at the
beach, not at this hour. It was a secluded, isolated place, not someplace many
people knew, and that made him more nervous. As he went closer, he realized
that it was a cigarette toting female, a rather young, attractive female at
that. He felt his fear steadily seeping away. He walked up to her, she seemed
to be sleeping.
“ Mind if I join in?”, she woke up with
a start.
“ Whoa, you scared me, I wasn’t expecting
anyone to turn up at this hour”.
“ Well that makes the two of us,
whats your name?”
“ Nothing significant, got a
cigarette?”
“ I have something stronger”, he
lay down next to her, and they lit up. “So why are you here?”, he asked, to
break the ice.
“ Stormed out of the hostel, spat
with warden”, they smoked their joints in silence.
“ Angry young female huh”.
**
He lay there in the sand, writhing
in pain, steadily losing consciousness and a lot of blood. She stood above him,
smoking, in no apparent hurry.
“you know boyo, there are two types
of dreams, the good dream and the bad dream. The difference between the two, is
that bad dreams usually come true. She suddenly yanked him closer by the collar
and whispered in his ears, “ You, my love, had a terribly bad dream”. The slow,
passionate strawberry flavoured kiss had a tone of finality to it. And that’s when
everything turned to an endless sea of white.
