The minute the countdown hit zero, his eyes flew open. There were beads of sweat on his forehead as he sat up and took deep breaths.
Grace watched silently, her pen dangling between her index and middle fingers. She had expected some reaction but she didn’t think it would be this intense.
After what seemed like an eternity, he turned to face her. When he spoke, his voice shook slightly and the fear in his eyes was clearer than day.
“I saw him again. I’m not even asleep and I saw him clearly.”
I have a mild interest in science fiction for the simple reason that it is sort of a predictor of what is to come based on reality. While most fictions miss the mark completely, some hit bull’s-eye with uncanny precision.
The most interesting of the lot, however, are those that we never see coming because they sound too ridiculous or those that are presently the case but sound like fiction.
Continue reading “Understanding Reality: An Autopsy or A Biopsy?”
The occasional chirping of crickets punctuated the otherwise dead night. He laid awake on the bare floor, naked save for his boxers.
It wasn’t just because he liked the coolness of the ground but also because it gave him a sense of closeness to mother earth.
His eyes had grown familiar to the darkness around him and he could almost make out the outline of the room if he tried hard enough. But he wasn’t trying tonight. Even though his eyes seemed fixated on the vacuum above him, his mind’s eyes were somewhere far away.
I wanted to see the world
Not captured on a camcorder
Transmitted to passive viewers,
Nor in the form of mental images
While I read about other men’s travels.
I wanted to be free.
Free to roam, free to be lost.
Listening to nature’s call
To lead me where it wills.
Tonight is the 63rd night you’ve been gone.
I try not to keep track. I try to move on and do other things like drinking myself to stupor or cutting myself. Yet those pains are dull compared to the gaping wound you left in my heart.
The nights are the worst because you are always present when I close my eyes. Then I wake up and remember you’ve been gone for that long.
I thought to come after you once, to try to make things right and live out the remainder of our days how we planned we would.
Remember?
I checked the clock by the bedside, its light glowing, almost pulsating in the dark room – a reflection of my feelings before morning. It was 3:15. I couldn’t believe it’s just been 2 minutes since I last checked.
Instinctively, I reached my hand to the other side of the bed but it met nothing save the cold empty space beside me.
I miss her.
Nights like this are always the longest. Nights when I know that by sunrise I’ll see her again.
The days he left, I cried. Yes, actual tears fell.
Continue reading “Morning Sunrise (flash fiction)”
One major thing we tend to believe is that we have everything under control because we’ve made plans. And we think, “Now my life is under control.”
Because when we make plans, we often feel like we’ve got it all figured out and everything will work out just fine. And that simply executing them will make our lives better.
But really, does making plans guarantee us having a hitch-free ride? Are there no cosmic hindrances that could spring up at random amidst our well-composed and executable strategies, to put a halt to it or derail us?
If those exist, then maybe we don’t have as much control as we think we do. But should that make us resort to not planning and just winging it through life? I think not.
Plans give structure. Maybe with structure comes an illusion of control, but that’s not the main reason for their existence. They are meant to help us navigate through life despite the colossal fuck yous the universe has in store for us.
Plans serve as guardrails to stop us from totally going off track. That’s different from being in control. A lot of things will happen to propel us towards a desired destination or throw us off balance.
The point of planning is to ensure we don’t lose sight of where we are going. To find our balance and reorient ourselves when the storms subside.
And that’s why you and I should make plans. A proper understanding of the purpose of plans will better inform the planning process, our expectations and how to react when the plan fails.
