Minutes Before The Miracle

CHAPTER - 32

Before I start, I wish one and all a Merry Christmas. May this Christmas fulfill all your wishes and may all your aspirations come true. This Christmas, let us try to be a Santa in someone's life and make their Christmas a tad more christmassy.

Happy reading!

-x-

Thought of the chapter:-
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
                        - Soren Kierkegaard

-x-

STEVEN

"How ironic it is that as a child, we want to grow up and, we wish to go back to our childhood once we grow up.

It was the fateful day when I strongly wished to reverse things. It wasn't the first time I wished so but if intensity be considered, it definitely was. The very first time when I wished to become a child again because I realised that I grew up and that wasn't even the most painful part. To be coerced and pushed by circumstances to grow up within a couple of days was all that was needed to crumble my heart.

And they call me heartless!"

I chuckle humorlessly.

"How blind we are 'cause we never understand, we don't even try to. We assume. And the worst part is we also assume that our assumption is perfect." The raise in voice probably reflected my anger and frustration which has bottled up for years together.

Supporting my elbows on my thighs with my head lowered between the former, I continue. And like a good old pal with whom you share the miseries of seventy years of your life after a long, long time, Emma supported me with her palm on my shoulder.

"What happened then?" she asks in a whisper.

"I didn't know right away that they were burglars. The group was welcoming and hospitable. They provided me warm food and not-so-hard bed that night.

I had scarcely woken up the next day that I was summoned by another guy. They called for 'trails'. The so-called 'trails' included moving within long and little tunnels, running, wrestling, defending... such sort of activities. I always felt that something was fishy but like I said, the belly's a pathetic wretch. I was satisfied as long as it was satiated.

Little did I know that they were building a thief out of me.

After about a fortnight of 'trails', I was told that I had to go with my 'friends' on a tour to a shopping complex. That might be the millionth time I felt that something was wrong. But I was happy to step outdoors.

We reached a huge complex the next evening but we didn't enter inside. Actually, we did. The difference being, we didn't do it the usual way. We did an entire roundabout and reached the electricity room. Two of my 'friends' smashed the security cameras there.

I call it the immaculate moment. The moment when I realised that I was just one step back from becoming a burglar. The moment when I learnt my second life lesson - Nobody even cares to feed you, if they do not nurture an ulterior motive behind it."

That day is engraved in my mind, as clear as a crystal. The day I turned into a thief.

"They told me to push myself into the little room and turn off the main electricity switch. I denied. The very next moment, my so-called 'friends' kept me on the gunpoint.

They say a person who aids a theft is as much a thief as the thief himself. They turned me into a thief that day and I couldn't help but become one.

How cheap it sounds! To be called as a thief. Trust me on this, it feels exactly the same. Cheap and worthless..."

For the first time in about ten years, a single drop of hot tear fell from my left eye and cascaded down the cheek.

Traitor!

A cool finger wiped my tear and two equally cool palms held my face.

"Don't ever think that you are worthless," Emma said in a comforting voice. And as I gaze into those hazel orbs, something sparks within me. Something at which I cannot put a finger on instills a strong sense to believe her.

Plucking her soothing palms from my face, I entwine her fingers with mine. As I stare in admiration at our interlocked hands, I realise how much she has crumbled my walls and also envisage how much more she will do. With a heap of thoughts dashing in my brain, I go on...

"I switched off the main electricity point and within fraction of seconds, darkness emerged like a moonless night and mingled murmurs rose up the air.

I was terrified, there was an open duct and I knew nothing about the other end. As I pushed my body within the little duct, I was thankful for my 'trails', for the first time.

The duct was hot and I could feel abrasions on my skin but that was my last concern. I didn't deter my speed. I kept going like a maniac and finally I witnessed vague light on the other end. Perhaps, luck was on my side for once that day. I got down, more like fell down, upside down on the hard ground.

My knees and elbows had turned bloody because of the heat and speed. My body ached and burned as if someone shoved a thousand needles and squeezed them inside my skin.

I was free again. Free to breathe and walk according to my will. Free to be hungry and thirsty. Free to be left uncared for. Free to be captured again..."

I saw Emma squeeze my hands and I squeeze hers back. Perchance it was a symbol of reassurance 'cause the worst is yet to come...

-x-

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