Freedom

December 8th, 2004

This is a short story that i wrote when i was in college. Enjoy…

She was walking down the road, the road that seemed to go nowhere; the only thing on her mind was her loneliness and the rain, which had started pouring in. All along the road were trees, they were on both sides, the trees were of the stubborn kind, and they had seemingly covered the sky, so as to form a roof. Yes rain was filtering through them and so was losing its effect, but was still reaching her drop-by-drop.

She was starting to hate rain, when it touched her skin, she would wipe it off as if it was something foreign. She didn’t like changes, and this rain was changing her, it was a signal to her that there is something beyond those trees from where it was coming. The road was becoming slippery, she hadn’t seen anything like that before, and on every step she would slip a little off-road. In her stable and preconceived world this was chaos.

For 19 years of her existence what she had seen was this same old, but straight road… it turned sometimes, but most of the time it was straight, and the trees they were everywhere, surrounding her like fleas, they had become part of her life, in her small world they provided her with the roof and the boundaries, they told her how to walk in straight line.

When she was small, around 10 or maybe 11 she stumbled against them, they blocked her way, and at that time she knew that the only way to go through is straight, and so she had been walking straight since then, but today it was different there was something coming from beyond those trees which was unconceivable. THE RAIN.

One thing is for sure, she was not prepared for it, it was increasing in speed, and the trees were having difficult time stopping it from getting to her, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to wipe every drop from her body, they were everywhere, she was feeling uncomfortable. So at once she decided ‘I should take refuge under a tree’, So she ran….

Her loneliness had deeper underpinnings although there were trees, but they only reacted when she changed her course. In time she had realized that her existence is for herself only, that she was lonely. But recently she had started enjoying her loneliness; she had become her own best friend.

But this time, the rain which was now swift had compelled her to take refuge under a tree, she reached a tree but didn’t stop running, she thought that it will embrace her, but she was wrong she stumbled again, this time the tree hit her with such power that she lost all her senses, in time she recovered, she had tears in her eyes, she was crying. She took a step back, it must have been the rain, she slipped and fell on her back, but what she saw changed everything, The rain had made inroads and the roof at this point was a little shattered, So the first time in her life she saw beyond the trees. She saw the SKY.

The limitless sky!!! She saw a truth beyond what she conceived to be true, she saw everything, which she shouldn’t have seen, and it was for just a moment, because the trees were quick enough to cover it again. But that was enough for her, for the first time in her life she was FREE.

Entry Filed under: Short Stories