A FRISBEE, A WOODEN PIPE, AND A FLOWER WITH LOTUS-LIKE PETALS.

The floodwaters swirled at distance, rising and ebbing. We, including the villagers, looked for an escape route but found none. Eventually, the incensed head of the village spoke in an impudent tone,' Having no other way to go to, we all will climb the hill to the top.'There was a sudden outbreak of fury among the villagers. They noisily repudiated his offer to climb the hill to the top, but when the gush of water went past them, missing the last bloke by a hair's breadth, and instead soared higher and washed away the boulders and left the peak of the second highest hill drenched, they all caved in.As rock climbing was their forte, they all began on their arduous journey skilfully. Those in front constantly called out to those at the back, just to check that the one behind them hadn't lost their grip. Margaret and Joss, two orphans of 14 and 16 respectively, were among the last group of people who'd started to climb. The climb began right from the bottom, where the rovering waters were hitting against the floors of the hills. While the others were preoccupied with climbing, Margaret, very soon, realized that her mother's diary has fallen off her haversack and she must bring it back.'I'm going down, she announced, moving backward.'There's definitely some much better ways to get killed, some more unnerving and disconcerting than this' the head of the village yelled angrily at her.'I need to get my diary back' she retorted.'Sister Margaret, you know it's perilous right there, and we've already come halfway through' Joss cried.But Margaret didn't reply, because she knew what was more important. As soon as she got on her feet, she squished towards the diary which was lying on the levee, opened to the page where her mother had scribbled for the last time.'Caught you', she beamed, clutching the diary in her hands.But it felt as if her story wasn't meant to be a humdrum, like an ordinary story of an ordinary girl about an ordinary diary, it was meant to be counterproductive. Suddenly, she felt the icy savage waters covering her feet in a blanket of coldness. She glanced at her feet. And almost instantaneously, jerked her head to watch the floodwaters which had surged up in the meantime to kiss the glass roofs of the sky at a height of as good as 10 feet. She felt like running away, but we are yet not unknown to the powers of water, not a mighty human can dare to compete with that, whilst she was just a girl.The intimidating floodwaters hit her like someone who had knocked the stuffing out of her. She was instantly knocked off her feet and now was at the beck and call of the floodwaters. She wanted to stop, wanted to steal a breath, but the waters, flowing at the breakneck speed of a train, made it insurmountable. Margaret, who apparently had her head above water, was slowly and gradually, getting immersed into the deepest pool she'd ever seen. She was sinking, diving deeper and deeper like a submarine, and was supposedly drowning like a human. She was repeatedly trying to get her head above water, and so was constantly trying to propel her body by imitating the swimming movements that she had seen, but to no avail. She wasn't a professional swimmer, and in a river that even professionals might discover back-breaking to swim, she had no chances of survival.The waters had also begun to irritate her eyes and the ginormous volume of waters hitting against the teensy walls of her eyes were causing them to ache. As she delved deeper into the waterbody, her eyes were now not as half as opened as they used to be. But she was still hoping against hope. She thrust her hands upwards and yanked her legs in an attempt to reach the top, but by now, even the villagers had made up their minds that she drowned to death because not a single star of hope was hovering above her horizon.Not only was she drowning, but also feeling suffocated. She couldn't breathe and it felt to her as if her lungs were getting filled to the brim with water. She felt as if she was breathing water and not air. The diary, clutching to her hand, couldn't be wetter. The ink from the pages of the diary was gradually slipping into the water body and the words of her mother were getting smudged. What she needed then was a hand of immediate help. But who would go down to save her? The villagers must have reached their destination by now, she thought pointlessly. Meanwhile, she kept sinking, and sinking, and sinking...'Oh my god, help me! I'm drowning to death ' she spoke silently to herself. She had lost the spirit of survival and it appeared as if she had reconciled to her fate. She was dying, dying every second, dying every minute and after several minutes of succeeding death, she finally shut her eyes and spoke the last words in her mind,' Oh Lord, I drowned to death!'Her soul had almost left her body and her brain had almost stopped functioning when a blinding flash of royal yellow color started to penetrate her closed eyes. She suddenly seem to regain the senses that she'd almost gifted away to the king of waters. She tried to open her eyes to look if some rescue team had come to save her out of this, but what she saw didn't seem like a team. It was more like an individual, wearing clothes of aureate, and from somewhere around him, spewing out that blinding flash so that Margaret couldn't see him. She could just spot a few of these things through veiled glances- something round like a frisbee, something straight like a wooden pipe or a taut tube(dunno), and some flower having its petals as large as Lotus'. Margaret had tried to keep her eyes open for a little longer, but she couldn't keep her eyes open for good, they had to be shut. And with this thought in mind, she closed her eyes and simultaneously made her mind to accept her demise with open arms.After a couple of hours, Joss stood by the levee facing the tranquil sea, with the diary resting at his feet. The diary was in a perfectly fine condition. The ink hadn't blotched the paper and the diary wasn't as wet as it should've been. It was a perfect nuisance.'C'mon Margaret, up you get. You've been sleeping for quite a while. UP, NOW!' Joss commanded, wheeling around to see if she'd actually follow her order.Much to his amazement, Margaret sat bolt upright. It took her around a few moments to realize that she had not drowned, that that aureate-clad person had saved her from the dungeon of death.'Hey, Joss! I drowned, didn't I?''Apparently, but as I see you here now, I can't assure you that you did'Margaret felt bemused.'How did you manage to save yourself through?''Umm, I didn't, in all honesty. Someone was wearing aureate colored clothes and emitting out that royal pineapple light upon my visage. He was also carrying certain queer instruments which seemed like a frisbee and a wooden pipe, and when he lifted me in his arms, I remember, by my senses, which had awakened in his presence, that he wasn't saturated.'You must be barking! A man who didn't saturate in the water?! Your senses have become dodgy''No, it's conspicuous. I felt it. I remember. I do''Well maybe, then you should wait here, in case he turns up from the middle of the waterbody, acquainting you of his actual presence-The king of waters' Joss sniggered at his statement, giving a half-suppressed laugh and then leaving Margaret alone, he sashayed his way up the hill to join a group of villagers.'Who was it? Wooden pipe, Frisbee, and a flower with Lotus-like petals! Oh Lord, who was it? Margaret begged for an answer, looking befuddled and nonplussed.Suddenly, a thought struck the back of her mind like a hammer has struck a gong, and she questioned herself in pure innocence,' What if the flower was a Lotus itself? What if the wooden pipe was nothing but a flute? And what if that Frisbee was The Sudarshan Chakra?'

- Samridhi Upadhyay.

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