The Reverter

Earth Births A Sun

"Finally! Let's eat!", My roommate opened the box and carefully took out the rice onto the plates.

"So, Anirudh, how was your day?" Sarvesh asked me.

"The usual, finish the entries, get yelled at by your boss for misplacing a date, and sit for extra hours to get it fixed."

"Well, that's awful."

"Yeah, I just wish I could go back to how things were during high school."
"Me too...the war played a game with our lives."

"The war...", I stared at a grain of rice on my plate. Tiny and delicate, it resembled our current world.

"Here, have some of the paneer," Sarvesh said, as he poured the cottage cheese and its gravy over the rice. The soft rice was now covered in a red liquid which...made me sick. The things that this war had shown us. The deafening screams of the children. Mothers wailing with their sons and daughters, all but alive in their hands. The vast emptiness In the soldiers' eyes. And all because a few politicians couldn't keep their egos inside their pockets.

"I am sorry...I can't eat right now."

Sarvesh looked at me with saddened eyes, as he momentarily stopped eating. The spoon dropped with a loud clank onto the plate.

"shouldn't have brought up the war. No worries, you can have it in the morning. Go get some rest, you've had a long day." he said as he began to eat again.

I went to my room having spoilt my roommate's mood. Lying on the bed, I started thinking. Why couldn't everything be normal? Why every day do we have to hear about the fatalities of this ludicrous war? I wished I could go back to the old days; To the time when all everyone cared about was scoring marks on their tests. But here we were, living in the fear that each breath we took, could be our last. The doomsday clock had struck 1 second to midnight and was inching closer.

My eyes were starting to get heavy and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

"You know you're going to fail", my invigilating teacher said to me staring down disdainfully at my blank test paper.

Following that comment, the whole class erupted in laughter. Staring at me, not pointing fingers, but just laughing maniacally.

I tried to focus on my paper but was interrupted by a girl, who patted my back trying to get hold of my attention.

The teacher had disappeared, so I looked back and realised it was my high school crush.

She had short bouncy hair and wore tiny round earrings. She had this smile that always made my heart melt away. Her black eyes were like a black diamond in a sea of white clouds, her distinct and subtle brown complexion, soothing to my eyes.

I wished she worked in the same office as me. Which made me think: what was I doing in my High school anyway?

I have tons of work to finish. I can't waste my time on some lousy test!
She was about to say something; her mouth puckered. But everything had slowed down. It was as if I could feel the weight of the world on me. And as if the weight of the world was too much, everything started to shake, I looked at her and she looked at me.

But before I could say anything...I woke up to my roommate screaming, "Anirudh! We need to go!" Pulling at me with his full strength.

As I got back to my senses, (having just woken up), and looked out the window, my heart throbbed loudly, my eyes wide.

I couldn't hear my roommate screaming anymore. It was as if someone had taken my ears out and dumped them in a swimming pool. But I could see. Outside my window, was the horrifying mushroom cloud, as bright as the sun slowly expanding upwards in the distance.