1 Dream

"Latest news from 'The Gate'.... Noida is seeing a heavy downpour in it's western gate cities…" the radio announced.

"Hubby, the radio," the woman sitting in the front seat called while pulling the driver's sleeve.

The driver, still facing the road, gazed at her through the end of his eyes.

The woman pointed to the radio, "… The kingdom administrator had announced complete closure of all the public places in the western gate cities and advised the people to stay in homes at all costs…" the radio continued.

With the driver's leg pressed on the brake, the car came to an halt at once making the girl in the back seat hit the window she was peeping through.

Rubbing her forehead with an 'ouch' expression, "dad?" she shouted.

With her words trailing off in the background, the car turned silent like a library. With the driver's hand turning the knob on the radio, the voice from it grew louder, "… places… Noida museum, Noida central, Leonea Amusement park…. closed on administrator orders…. Leonea park announced cashback for the visitors or given an option to postpone their tickets to a later date…"

The girl's wail was the first voice to break the invisible tension weighing the air in the car, "No way!"

The woman put off the radio immediately and turned to the girl in the back, still wailing, "Calm down Mary, your dad and I will figure something out."

She turned to the driver cum husband, gave a glance at him and started opening the car door. As soon as he understood the never-spoken-language, he followed suit and opened the door.

...…..

"Why should this happen today of all days, 'Great King'?" I asked to the air outside the window.

Looking at the white sky turning dark from the dark clouds gathering, I couldn't think of anything except imagining the 'Great King' and 'The Lady' standing behind them and smiling like they always do.

It was not like I have ever seen them smile, nor I saw them in the first place, neither my mom nor my dad would have seen either, nor anyone living on this world would have seen them. They just stand behind the clouds and keep watching us with a bright smile on their faces, that's what I heard from my school teacher.

My teacher taught that to my 12 years self, but now, I'm 17- no, in a day, I would be 18, I'm mature now. I'm not the little girl who thinks the 'Great King' and 'The Lady' are the ones who control everything. They are almighty, but our lives are ours, they don't have time to watch over every one of us, if they watch over us in the first place.

Now I can't continue thinking, it's like that, so it's the only way, nor, mom or dad said so, so I should follow it. Now, I'm an adult like mom and dad, I can make my own decisions and I have made mine.

It's the same time, mom opened the door and sat in, immediately, dad did the same.

I knew, now they are going to say, "we will avail that cashback afterwards, let's go back home now". But I will say it first, "we will stay somewhere here and then visit the park after the rain sufficed."

However, why does it feel, they are thinking the same like me. Do they really think I wouldn't agree with them. Anyway, I will tell it first, then let's see how will they respond.

Before I could open my mouth, dad spoke first, "Mary, let's head to the village the couple went to and see the festival there. Somehow, we should find a place to stay there, or we will try asking the couple."

Mom continued, "Anyway, we are staying in the village until the park opens and then, to the park. Okay, Mary?"

...…

"Did we get lost, hubby?" mom asked dad with a slight worry clearly visible on her face.

Dad stayed silent with his eyes glued at the road covered with trees. Covered in the sense literally covered, as the dense trees growing on the sides of the road grew wide at top and touched each other across. As if to fill the peepholes through which the sun could see through, if it was still a day, which was hard to find now, the vines crawling along the trees grew along the branches and filled the empty areas where the tree branches or leaves did not cover.

Without the magic lamps of the car ON, it would be like travelling through dark. Neither, our situation change just because we could see the road now, but the visibility allowed us to verify the car moving.

We tried looking through the trees on the side, but to no avail, everything was dark. Without knowing whether we are heading right, we just moved and soon we saw a faint light ahead.

Dad pumped the gas immediately and we were at a small area where the road grew a lot wider and an arch covered with vines was visible ahead.

It's hard to read the contents on the arch, but it's easy to guess that it was saying something along the lines, 'welcome to the village', with the village name in place of the word 'village'.

One more thing about the area we are at is weird, the dense trees are no more dense and the sky above is clearly visible.

The trees parted for at least around 100 meters wide as soon as the road became wide. But, the end trees which are close to the arch wall, seemed like, they are supporting the wall and also they are a lot greener than all others.

It looks like the trees have become the wall surrounding the village rather than them covering the wall.

I waited still, sitting in my seat and watching through the arch. In seconds, the sky above us turned completely dark as the dark clouds gathering there became dense and immediately, it began pouring.

Meanwhile, dad said something about car not working and asking us to run to the arch.

I opened my door and started running to the arch while being drenched in the pouring rain. My mom beside me looked similar to me, a bright smile on her face clearly visible.

We both ran as fast as we can and covered the 100 feet road to the arch. As soon as we ran past the arch, the world seemed like it flipped.

The sky was no longer dark, instead the sky looked orange with the sun setting in the distant, but the air felt a lot warmer as it was on any sunny day.

Dad, who just ran past us and stopped ahead, and mom beside me, both were staring at the sky with the same excitement visible on their faces that I imagine I would have.

A small doubt stuck on my mind and immediately, I turned around and ran to the arch behind me.

Standing below the arch with my arms stretched, with one arm inside the village and one outside the village, I could see rain pouring from the darkness above through my one eye and see light falling on the ground through my other eye.

There seemed like a small line or shadow below the arch, where on one side was darkness and on the other side was bright with not even a single wet spot as if it never rained on that side.

I just stood there letting the rain drench my one arm and warm air cuddling my other.

….

"B-B-B-BB-BB…." the alarm chimed, making me woke up from my nightmar-, dream, yes, it's a magical dream this time.