Wednesday, July 05, 2006

When the inner voice speaks

She turned off the music on her laptop, and leaned back in her chair. It was a hot night as usual, but her mind was too distracted to be worried about the weather. Her conscience couldn't contain the sudden silence, and stepped out of her. Time for a challenge, it thought.
"Rihal, feels odd, doesn't it?"
"What does?"
"The turns that your life is taking."
My life isn't taking any turns. If anything, I'm hanging off a cliff."
"Yes, but you haven't assessed your situation deepy. Don't you see you've already fallen off the cliff?"
"Why do you say that? How do you know?"
"Let me tell you about this person you call your friend. Both of you went climbing up the cliff... started a risky adventure in hopes for lots of fun, and each other's company. Now, your friend thought it best to start the climb before you, so that he could clear footing as you climbed, and you followed obediently. As both of you gained height, you looked out for each other lesser, and lesser..."
"I followed because... it all seemed so perfect..."
"All that glitter is not gold Rihal."
"What happened next? How did I fall?"
"You lost your grip a few times, and each time, you'd try to grab your friend's foot. What else could you do? Each time he'd hold still until you were stable, but he didn't stop, because his vision's fixated on getting to the top... but cliffs are only meant to be falling off from."
"Go on..."
"You began to feel he couldn't always watch out for you, and this started a growing fear inside you, that you continued to feed. It's not his fault. After all, rock-climbing is a dangerous sport and losing confidence can be fatal, as it was, in your case. In the final slip, he had two options. To losen his rope and jump off the cliff in search for you, or... continue upwards. You know what you would have done if you were in his position. Once you fall off a cliff that high, chances of survival are very minimal. Was this worth risking his life for? He could speed up to catch up with the others much ahead of him, and find new companionship.
After that, you know what happened..."
And her conscience faded away. It hurt a lot. Just thinking about it. Remembering those moments. For Rihal, everything is lost. Her friend's only mistake was, that he climbed up first. And she had to suffer because of that decision. When it's too late, it's too late. You've been shattered like pieces of glass, crumbled like old doors and crushed like dried flowers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

that's more like it.. beautiful!