hYBrID [Published]

hYBrID III

hYBrID III

Dec 15th 2014

Years passed by like a blur with each day dissolving seamlessly into another and before anyone realized it, the Big day had arrived. Today my parents were coming here. I mean I will be seeing them after two long years. Plus, I will also get to see Sammy when we will reach JC. Mary had already packed my bag and now I was anxiously waiting for my parents. In the meantime, I was mindlessly shuffling between the songs in my ipod as my restlessness was growing with each passing second.

My phone ringtone echoed in the room, which was eerily quiet, like always. I frowned as I looked at the caller ID and saw an unknown number flashing across the screen. Nobody apart from Simon, my parents and Sammy had this number. Someone by mistake had dialed this number.

I picked up the call.

"Hello" I greeted casually. May be it was my Sammy calling me from a different number.

Silence

I waited for ten seconds.

May be he is not able to hear me. 'Hello' I said little loudly this time.

Once again I was greeted by the silence.

"I am hanging up" I declared and.............................. still the same situation leaving me with no option other than hanging up.

The phone rang the second time and the same thing happened.

No response when I picked up the Phone.

But when it echoed the third timeMary dashed into the living room. She was better than Beth, but still had that blank look on her face. She did her work sincerely and slept in a small house that my father had build for her in the backyard of our house.

She looked at the phone and then at me.

"What happened? Why are you not picking up the phone?" She inquired.

"First I thought it might be from Sammy, but the continuous calls has vitiated my guess." I pointed at the phone and added."The caller is not saying anything. Furthermore, It is from an unknown landline number. Either the person is poor or has parents like me who doesn't want their kid to have a cell phone until they reach a certain age. Simon was telling me the other day that cell phone is a very common thing these days. People own it like I have guards. It is pretty clear that the person needs some financial help." I stopped my rambling as Mary's face changed from slacked to serious one.

"What is the area code?" She covered the distance between us in three long strides.

"I don't know. It's not from West Virginia" I said and handed over my phone to her.

Her face paled as she saw the number.

"What's wrong?" I enquired coolly and took the phone from her hand which was shaking so badly that I was sure that had I not snatched my phone from her hand she would have dropped it.

She didn't reply to my question. The phone started ringing again. Her hazel doe-eyes were wide and fearful, looking from place to place, but avoiding the place where I was standing.

"Don't pick it up." she responded blatantly ignoring my question. She became more and more nervous and distraught. Her behavior was so unusual that I wanted to laugh. I mean it was just a call. No big deal. Looking at her panicked- stricken face I wondered if she even heard my question..

"Mary. Do you know the caller?" I blurted out to get her to talk.

But it seemed the wrong question as she started mumbling something under her breath. I just heard the last part."It's time" she muttered in a very melancholy voice. Her eyes had ceased its motion and now she was too busy staring at the floor.

For what?

I raised my hand and gently touched her shoulders. That broke her out of her trance and she looked at me in confusion.

I removed my hand "Time for what?"

She looked away and then glanced in my direction for a brief moment.

"I...... meant it is time..... for breakfast and your parents will be here soon. Why don't you go and take a nice warm bath?" she suggested and sprinted out of the room as fast as her feet could take her, which was so fast that I blinked several times after her haste exit.

Sometimes these people are really weird. I hope that I don't turn out like them. With this thought I went to my closet and grabbed my clothes and dumped my thoughts in that dark place and rushed to the bathroom.

*****************************************

Present

Through the window

I see you waiting

You are smiling

Cause I'm coming

Your eyes are a story

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I played this song. I played it again for the second time. Simon had changed both the phone as well as the alarm ringtone few days back to his favorite number as the previous ring tone had dared to meddle with his sleep. Even I didn't like that song that much, but since I hardly ever got calls from anyone so it was fine with me. I only received calls from my parents once a week, mostly on Saturdays and thrice from Sammy, whose schedule was not fixed, he called whenever he felt like. Once my phone got lucky and it received calls from some unknown caller by mistake. This happened in december when my parents were coming here. That was the one and only time it happened, but unfortunately I couldn't talk to that person. 

Apart from that, I was technological impaired, as I only knew how to receive and end a call. So he must have felt that unless he does something about it, things are not going to change and he will have to listen to that annoying song every single time the phone sound reverberates. So this was how I came to know about this song. Then he taught me how to play the music in my cell and I wished I had explored this function earlier, it would have saved my ipod a lot of trouble. I was missing Simon terribly, his father was not well, so I had forced him to stay there for the timebeing. Moreover, he being a boy, should shoulder his dad's responsibility till his father becomes better. His parents, however, were not happy with this arrangement, they tried to force him, but he refused and I am glad that he did that. Family should always be the first priority.

Song was still playing and it was so relaxing that my eyelids fluttered.

Tomorrow I am going to JC.

This time I had no expectation from anyone, not even Sammy. This was the last thought before I dozed off into a dreamless oblivion.