Chapter 1: The Rainy Afternoon
It was a Rainy afternoon, one of those rare days when God forgets to turn the tap ‘off’ and the weather slows down the time so much that you feel the rain would last forever. It was one of those days when the ambience is so woebegone that you don’t feel like leaving the warmth of your bed, let alone going to office and getting some freaking work done.
It was one of those days……
Christopher was walking on a Road, perhaps a long one, but clogged due to the unending downpour. The loud honking of a horn….far…far away brought his attention to himself. He stopped, looked around and the marks on his forehead became deeper as his face contorted. Perhaps he was trying to remember something, and trying very hard at that.
“Why am I walking on this road?” he mused.
He turned around to trace his footsteps. Perhaps then he would be able to recollect where he came from, but the rain had washed them. The dense curtain of rain had made it impossible for him to look beyond a few meters. As he became more aware of his existence, he noticed that he was drenched to his very skin and shivering from the cold zephyr that accompanied the rain. He looked at his feet. One of the shoes was missing.
‘Ah!’ Now he knew the cause of the pain in his right foot.
But wait!
What was that spot on his foot? He couldn’t make out the color exactly. It was dark blue… “No Maroon”, he thought. He looked up. Unable to find any thing of interest, he looked back at his feet. The color was Red! Blood Red!! And it wasn’t a spot; it was thick, frozen blood which was so glued to his foot that even the pools of water forming on the road were unable to get it off.
“Whose blood is it?” he thought. Perhaps the blood was his own, he wasn’t sure. But he didn’t want to spend his time on this tiny detail. Bigger questions were squandering his mind. What the hell was he doing in the middle of nowhere? Was he a criminal?
Of course normal people don’t have blood on their body parts. Was he running from the police? And if at all he was, why didn’t he remember?
“There must be some clue. Look in the pockets.”
He searched the pockets of his oversized brown jacket, but found nothing. He searched again and found some coins. He searched yet again and drew out a photograph.
The hollow face from the black and white photograph stared back at him.
“Who is she”? “Come on man…. Think hard…you know her!!”
It was his wife, Lisa.
If he only knew……
The sound of a car horn distracted him again. But this time the sound was not coming from far away. The car was very near, perhaps on the same road. Christopher realized that it’s been hours since any vehicle passed that road. He found it strange. One more question – unanswered.
The intensity of the car horn grew louder. It wasn’t allowing Christopher to dwell in his empty mind - his own world. He turned around, his heart beating fast. The shivers increased. He was not just feeling the cold. He was scared. His intuition was trying to say something to him. But what? He thought…thought hard. He could see the car now. It was a white colored Fiat. The car came closer. He could now see the people inside. A weird sense of recognition seeped through him.
“Am I running from these people? Who are they?”
“Why am I running?”
He brushed off these thoughts and concentrated on the car again. It was close, dangerously close. He tried - once again - to identify the people inside, but couldn’t.
The car came to a screeching halt in front of him. A middle aged man came out, took out his gun and pointed straight at his forehead.
“What’s going on?” he wanted to ask.
Bang!!
His tongue couldn’t move. Something had happened. He was not on his feet anymore. He was lying face down on the road. The rain was filling his nostrils. Something was accumulating in his lungs. It was his own blood. His head was split open. But in the fraction of a second between the bullet hitting him and his falling down on the ground, his entire life revolved in front of him. His questions were answered. Christopher was dead.
But now he knew…..
It was a foggy morning, one of those rare days when it appears that clouds have come down upon earth, when it appears that earth is nothing but a part of heaven, when you can’t see your own garden from the bedroom window. Oh, how beautiful a foggy morning is!
Christopher was disturbed by soft footsteps. These were not his own. Someone else was in the room.
Which room?
“It must be my house” thought Christopher. “It has to be!”
The footsteps were coming at him. The soft feet were not walking any more, they were running. Someone held him from behind. Christopher thought he was going to die.
“What happened honey? Did I scare you?” It was the gentle voice of a lady.
“Nah! You can never scare me.” Lied Christopher.
As the lady came in front of him, a weird sense of recognition seeped through him.
“This must be my wife, Lisa! Oh I love her so much”
The phone rang.
“Hi, this is Anna Morgan. May I help you?” the lady answered the phone.
Christopher was shocked!
“Anna? Anna Morgan? ….. What the...?”
“It was a wrong number. Never mind. Would you like some tea honey? Oh look at the weather today. The morning is so beautiful. Please don’t go to the office today. Please Hon!!” Anna was talking non-stop.
“Office? Do I work somewhere?... Can I work somewhere? .. hmmmm!!..”
“Yeah, tea would be good” said Christopher, just to shut her up.
“Okay, Hon!” hummed Anna, as she raced to the kitchen.
“Is she my wife? Then who is Lisa? Why do I love her? Do I even remember her face?”
Bang!!
A loud, piercing sound made Christopher jump. The sound had come from the kitchen. He was sure about that. He ran towards the source of the sound. It was not the kitchen, but, the bathroom.
“How could it be?” thought Christopher. But now was not the time to ponder. He slammed the door open and barged inside.
Anna was lying in her own pool of blood.
“Anna!!....Anna!...”, Christopher was crying.
A woman was laughing. A ghostly laugh!
Christopher moved to the right and lifted his head. A figure moved. Christopher fell down on the floor with a loud thud.
“Who..err.. What are you? What have you done to Anna?” Christopher was sobbing uncontrollably.
“I am that hollow face you were looking at some eras ago. I am Lisa!” a voice was emanating from the hollow face.
“But! But! Anna is my wife”, Christopher’s voice was barely audible.
“If only you knew….” Roared the voice.
Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!
Three bullets hit him hard on the face. He could only count the first.
As he hauled his last breath, he figured out what was happening to him, and then, he died.
Now he knew…..
Chapter 3: The Revelation
“And that is why Your Honor, such a freaky criminal should be put behind bars for 250 years in a cold cell without a fuckin’ ray of light to give him warmth”, the attorney was barking like a mad dog.
Christopher came to his senses and became aware of his surroundings. He was sitting in some random room.
It wasn’t a random room….
It was a Court Room!
He was tired of thinking again, hence didn’t bother to think “Where am I”?
“Oh! Anna is dead!!” a thought crossed his mind.
“Anna…..Who”? Christopher wondered.
“I am not a criminal”, Christopher wanted to say, but the voice barely left him. He went largely unnoticed.
“Your Honor. He is not a criminal! You have his files.. How can law treat such a person like a criminal? Has the humanity died? Is justice so Blind!” Lisa was pleading now, her voice too heavy with her own emotions. Oh! Never had she felt such empathy for a client.
“But he killed his wife! Obviously such a psycho can’t be allowed to roam freely. He is a threat to our mothers, daughters and sisters.” the attorney was emotional too, although in his own way.
“Can you term this thing as killing? The poor chap doesn’t even know that he killed Anna”, Lisa felt she was losing the case.
“He doesn’t know??” the attorney was fuming with anger now. “His files clearly indicate that he seems to remember everything just before a black out! He knows everything Your Honor, everything. He has the audacity to go for a stroll after killing his own wife. Oh how I wish capital punishment was still an option!!!!”
The voices were becoming distant now. Christopher was mildly amused at the fight between the two attorneys. “Tom and Jerry”, he thought and chuckled.
As the world revolved around him, the feeling of amusement suddenly changed into utter pain. “Oh what have I done!! What have I done? I’ve killed Anna”
His tears hit the floor before his face. He tried to retain his memories but they were slipping out quickly. His body writhed in an odd fashion as his tongue rolled out, huge drools of saliva dripping out of it.
The Schizophrenia attack had once again taken the sanity out of him…
Now he knew!
And now you know too!!
