‘The dream’

“Hello,” he said. I was unable to speak. What could I say; he caught me by surprise? Her picking up the call was the least expected thing, but the thought of a guy picking up her phone could never occur in my mind. What could I say to him, with whom I wanted to talk when I didn’t even know her name? I decided at that moment to know her name first, no matter what. She could take away my sleep, and in return, I couldn’t even know her name; it was a biased way she was treating me. But that was the matter for another time; the real problem at that particular moment was to answer that guy. I couldn’t think of anything apart from disconnecting the call, so I did; I had no other option. I didn’t try to call her again; it was out of the question for the time being. I put my phone aside and lay down on the bed. I wished for sleep to come at that moment, but it still was not satisfied with all the torture which it gave to my mind. After playing hide and seek with the sleep for almost an hour, a miracle happened; I finally caught it and cuddled it. I didn’t know for how long I slept, but by the time I woke up, my body was drenched in sweat.

I had a dream of her. I was with her, and we were walking on this unconstructed road. I was not aware where that road was taking us. I was not worried about it either because I was with her. I was happy and composed. I was enjoying her moving alongside me. There were dense trees on both sides of that path; I could see a glimpse of the Sun through those trees while walking, but most of the time, it was the only shadow of the trees falling on the path. It was making a beautiful view. We were silent, but nature was talking around us, birds were chirping, sometimes there was the sound of the rustling of the leaves when a mild breeze was touching them, other than that there was just a stillness all over. It seemed liked nature wanted us to enjoy every moment which we were spending in her lap. I was feeling tranquil; there was a smile on my face the whole time.

After some time, we reached the point where that road met an open area. There were patches of grass on some spots of it, but most of the part was simple ground. There were rocks placed at one side of it, and trees were surrounding the rest of the corners. Those rocks were there to create a height alongside the edge. By looking around, I could see that the location of that ground was on quite some high point; it was somewhere on a hill. That was the moment when my agitation started. I was standing beside her, still looking around when suddenly she started moving towards the edge where those rocks were resting. She didn’t even wait for me to come along. I wanted her to stop, but not a single word came out of my mouth. I was staring at her, walking away from me. In a few seconds, she reached the edge. She didn't stop there. She climbed one of the rocks, stood there for a while, turned and looked back at me, and then in front of my eyes, she jumped. I was merely standing there, unmoving as if I was a statue. I heard people shouting, gathering around those rocks, and looking down where she had jumped, but I didn't move from my spot. That was the moment when I came out of the dream, sweating, with my heart pounding. I checked the time; I didn’t sleep for more than an hour when her dream woke me up. That was one hell of a nightmare, too dreadful to let me sleep anymore.

I lay down on my back and started staring at the motionless blades of the fan. I went into my thoughts to visualize my days since the day she came into my life; not a single moment was usual for me since then. Her talks were weird, creepy in some way, her questions were strange, and her inflexible timing to call me and not talking to me on the text during the day was bizarre; moreover, my not knowing her name till then was quite the weirdest thing among all.

I started asking myself, was I wanted to talk to her weird self? Was I wanted her to be in my life when her talks were keeping me awake and anxious? Was I wanted her to be around me when nothing right was happening since I started talking to her, or if I really wanted to be around her? There were these questions all over in my mind but with no answer. Then I started thinking about the opposite. What if I was merely overwhelming about nothing? What if her creepy behavior was just my imagination, but in reality, she was just a normal human being? She asked me the usual questions too, regarding my family, my college, my friends, my dreams, and many more. It was just me who never got the courage to ask her anything, not even some basic questions. I didn’t give myself a chance to explore more about her life, about her likes and dislikes, her dreams, her friends. I was the one who didn’t behave normally; I was overthinking about anything and everything.

I kept blaming myself for some time. I wanted to do that because I was not ready to stop talking to her. I was announcing myself faulty for everything, and by doing so, I started coming out of the repercussions of that unpleasant dream. I was ready to sleep again after giving some more time to my thoughts to see the things sensibly. I made myself set to behave like a rational person, and with that determination, I went to sleep. This time I slept soundly but without being aware that many restless nights were drawing closer in my life.