Hindsight is 20/20

A 'Show don’t Tell' Assignment:

He felt the earth press onto the soles of his feet at every step. His right toe accidentally got caught in one of the crevices on the road and he fervently tried grabbing the air to keep balance. He felt a tiny bead of sweat trickle down from his right temple to the long overdue side lock that he sported. He used the back of his right hand to give one quick swipe across his forehead. His head had started to hurt by now. He turned back and looked at the road he had just traveled. He could see a thin sheet of still water at the horizon. He stopped and started rummaging in his knapsack for a bottle of water, just as his mouth began to water.

“Funny how even the mere mention of water is enough to get one thirsty!” he noted. He sloshed a mouthful down his throat careful enough to not spill even a drop down his overalls. His once bright blue overalls now looked unrecognizable. He had a big blotch of mud on his left knee cap, a few paint stains on the chest, soiled pants tearing at the ankle and a general faded color that screamed out loud – ‘I have been washed a million times now already so please let me go!’ He resumed his journey again on the straight road that he saw ahead. He knew he had a long way to go but couldn’t afford rest till the night. He felt like looking back again but he knew the sheet of water would tantalize him rather mischievously. It had already cost him the first quarter of his bottle and he reminded himself that he had ages before he would reach Timland. One step after another he continued.

“I really hope that this heat goes away soon…I have been walking for hours at a stretch now…I wonder why there are no birds around here…Flying in such weather would be fatal…I remember the Greek father son-duo who flew at the sun in wax wings and the son fell down as the wax melted…Oh, that’s too many suns! I wonder what their names were…I wish Father were alive, I could’ve asked him…On second thoughts though, it is good he never got to see me like this…O, how I loved his fountain pen…I wonder where it is now...If it is anywhere in the rubble that I’ve just bid goodbye to, I’ll never get it back…Rubble! It strikes a bell somewhere…Barney? Was that his name? Barney Rubble…I remember hearing his name somewhere…oh yeah at the Electronics store down Merrill Street! The things that children watch these days…at least they would have learnt how to live with rocks and stones now that the time has come…wish I had stayed a little longer at Merrill Street, but I had no choice…His eye patch scared me more than anything else…I wonder what his eye looked like below the patch…The normal eye looked sinister enough to terrify people…His call couldn’t be ignored though…He would’ve killed me...”

He moved his fingers delicately from the bottom of his left ear lobe to the opening of his lips and down to the chin. He felt a chill through the back of his spine and shuddered so violently that his toe got stuck in the crack on the road once again and he stumbled. A kick on the ground and a loud swear in the air made him at peace for the moment. He turned back and found the sheet of water staring at him, as though inviting him to trace back his path. He tore himself from the sight and turned around to face the horizon.

“I don’t want it, I don’t want it…Even if I take the name of what I saw or anything related to it, I might feel like taking some! And I can’t afford to as I have very little of…Don’t say it, I don’t want it…I wonder why there is a mirage only at the back though. I should see one in front of me too…All I see is the boy with the big brown eyes looking at me…the boy who was meant to be my next victim…the boy who I saved to get the scar…I remember how his eye patch was the last thing I saw before I fell to the floor…blood dripping across my face and hands…the glare of that one gray eye that I still cannot forget…But then I saved the brown eyes…those beautiful innocent eyes with which he looked at me…smiling…I couldn’t do it, I’d decided…After all the tasks I’d done for him, I wouldn’t do this one…his eyes were too endearing for me to even take a step ahead…Oh, did this paint scrape off from the wall? I remember seeing a lizard crawl by…I hate lizards…Now I remember why I went to the Electronics store…to get away from the lizard! I hate the man who had come to give the call…I wish the call had never come…I could’ve died…I escaped with only a scar the first time, second would be next to impossible, I’d thought…God’s ways helped me though! O what would’ve happened to me had the earthquake not taken place…I wouldn’t have lived to see these ants scurrying away on the road…How different was I exactly two weeks back…nothing called God in my life to ponder over…those beady brown eyes have saved me today…This is His way of saying thank you for not harming His child…I feel lighter now…”

He stopped again to rummage in his sack, but this time to take out a tiny flask. Took one generous gulp, smiled and kept it back securely. There seemed to be a spring in his step now. He did not turn back this time.

“God made alcohol…O how thankful I am of Him! What would I do without it?! Timland shouldn’t be far ahead now…I remember his gray eye tell me once that they never had anyone in Timland…all I want to do is get away from him and his people…Wow, where did this cool breeze come from? Funny how alcohol makes you feel so happy in a minute…Funny how the weather always agrees with your mood…The sun is on its westward journey now…Timland shouldn’t be that far…She said I ought to reach before the sun sets…She looked pretty at her age…Maybe I should’ve spoken to her longer…Maybe she would’ve liked to join me to Timland…I would’ve had some company at least…Strangely her voice seemed familiar…comforting more like…I don’t remember my Mother much, although now that I think of it, her voice singing me to sleep form some of my earliest memories of her…the primary reason why I even carried on my talk with that pretty-faced lady…I wonder what her name was…Lily? Yes, it was Lily as she reminded me of lilies too…I haven’t seen a single flower on this road…I guess they got uprooted…or were they never there before?! I haven’t seen flowers in a long time…I remember the gray eye peering at me, ordering me to pick up the single lily that was on his table and go to the graveyard and place it on a gravestone…I couldn’t read the name etched on the stone…I wonder who he even cared for so much…If he did, he might as well have gone himself…The graveyard was eerie…I remember I came back from there drenched in rain thinking of my next victim…the brown eyed boy was the one after him…What would my epitaph be? I hadn’t cared a darn about it when I exited the graveyard…I was so different then! I’m thankful now…more thankful than ever for my life…to start over…Oh, I see something in the distance…it looks like a store…”

“Hey I want to write something, can you write it out for me?”

“Wassit you wanna write?”

“Epitaph: He was born twice.”

“There ya go mister! You new here?”

“I’m going to Timland.”

“This is Timland, Sire!”

He took the paper, folded it neatly and kept it safely in one of the many compartments in his sack. He happened to catch his reflection on a mirror in the store and saw himself smiling after a long time.