The train bounced and jerked intermittently. The windows were dirty. The chairs dusty. The inner body showed signs of antiquity. Even the door shewed its state of dilapidation; sliding open and close as the train swayed right and left. The advertisements lining the top section near the ceiling were laced with sinewy lines of cobweb. And the passengers packed in this cramped space were no better. All appeared frazzled and fraught with a perennial fatigue save this wailing baby. Outside, the trees seemed to burgeon in contrast, with two plain coloured birds zooming in on an unseen prey. Though when one peruses, one would only notice an immobile mass of green basking in the dull glare of the sun.
I tapped the "Play" button.
The roar of a dragon rattled the train so hard that my ipod flew out of my hands.
I glanced around and was befuddled. Clearly no one had noticed the gargantuan beast flapping its wings as it glided over the puny train with its claws outstretched because their faces were still wrought up with this look of self-induced agony. With a mere shrug, i picked up my ipod.
Hesitantly i tapped "Play";somehow i felt myself tensing up, as in in anticipation of something...or someone.
But this time there was no roar. No sound. Nothing. An eerie silence encompassed me. Where was everyone? As i strained my ears i could almost hear a soft pulsating sound from a distant source. This tingling sensation seemed to tell me that i was still in the fully packed train yet there was no one around me. Not a single soul. And then i was falling. Before i could scream everything stilled again. There was nobody surrounding me; and just as quickly as it stopped, i started falling for the second time. Yet this time it was different. It felt like i was being pulled towards something instead of falling in a never-ending vertical tunnel. And the pulling force grew stronger as i accelerated towards..what? Whe-
-...an almost visible gush of air shoved me to one side of the tunnel; then i was in the train again. Sharp elbows nudged against me and when i glanced down i saw a woman endeavouring to stand from her prostrate position. The train had veered a little too sharply and she had lost her balance; which was not much of a surprise judging from her extra high heels. Indifferent, my gaze now transfixed on the blurry screen of my ipod, i saw that it had reached the end of the track.
Smiling to myself, i chose the next song and embraced myself for whatever it was that was coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment