RUN

Let me get something straight…(not dogs' tails though)

Why is this guy constantly chasing me?

What is His problem?!

What did I do?

Answer these, and I will straighten a dog's tail.

Impossible, right?

Its okay, anyway, I can’t really straighten a dog's tail. Especially not for YOU.

Now I’m totally out of breath. My legs seem to be aching, after quite some time.

I can’t take it anymore. I stop running. I said I stopped RUNNING, so it doesn’t mean I can’t jog, does it?

So I jog on the spot. I could hear Him stop as well. I turn, so we’re face-to-face now. Hardly 20 yards distance between us.

He is panting hard. He has almost given up, just when I started enjoying this…

Both of us stare at each other’s guts, as to who is going to make a move first. As of me, well, I haven’t much of an option. I just got to run.

Five minutes (as that is the only number that sounds appropriate, judging the seconds that had vanished) passed by. Five minutes was more than enough for me to catch up on my breath. I take off in the other direction. He shouts something in response to my action. I don’t hear it, and I don’t exactly want to either.

I turn around to check if He was following. No, He isn’t. I’ve lost Him.

Well, I think that was it for the day.

I slow down to a jog. I can’t stop running. I CAN’T, I had just told you but I don’t know why though. I don’t want to know either. I’m totally used to running. I have to run. That’s it. That’s my food. That’s my sleep. In short, that’s my life. I run.

I run and the day is over- like this one. The sun is setting now. I can see it from here. This highway is a never ending, winding path. It just seems to go on and on how much ever distance I cover. The sun took its time drowning into the end of the highway, in the end of my view. A rare sight, I would say. For you, that is.

Just then, a bird just flew past me. It went through the sun.

The bird is a free creature. It has all the space in the world. It has free water. Free air. Free home. In short, a free life. Nobody tells it what to do. It’s not like how humans are; not like ANY of you.

Don’t you agree?

If you don’t, it doesn’t really matter to me. If you do, it still doesn’t matter to me because that’s not what I’m trying to say.

My point is that, I’m like the bird. I have all the space in the world. I have rivers to quench my thirst. I have all the air on Earth. I have the nature as a friend. Nobody tells me what to do. That’s because nobody knows me and I know nobody. That keeps me going.

I take a surprise turn towards the woods. When I start approaching it, the shadows of the sky scraping trees somehow looked like a person. I suddenly remember my chat about them with the fox earlier this morning…

People are weird, the way they live. Your lives are not even worth living!

Well, I wouldn’t say mine is any better.

Mine’s the best.

Yes it is. You may have your own way of looking onto things, but it’s the truth, admit it!

You may have a permanent house in which you always end up after a trip outside, wherever it may be. You will go somewhere, and come back home right? Isn’t that your routine? A dog told me this, and I don’t think they would be joking.

Anyway, you go out, come back, got out else where, and come back to the same place, and… that’s it?

Is that all you do?

Go to the same places and that too, everyday?

I’ve not heard of something dafter than this one!

Have you people ever thought of how boring that is? And of how you waste so much time doing so?

I don’t stay at a place for a long time. I don’t turn back either.

The same sights, same sounds, same everything, makes me sleep. I’ve slept in this manner once, and I’ve never slept since. Sleeping is boring. Look at all that time down the drain! How much I could run!

Yes, I don’t sleep. I run. My usual routine.

I avoid people. I hate the way they stare at me. Stare at anyone or anything abnormal, I guess. Yes, I was called abnormal by someone.

According to me, you people are abnormal. You are daft. You are literally wasting your once-a-life-time- opportunity to live!

I mean to offend you, but hey, nothing personal!

I turn back on track, and all I could see up there is a small bump left by the sun. I turn and jog backwards, and look at the status of the moon in the sky.

They’ve taken their places, the sun and moon. I turn back and continue jogging. Its night. I smile for no reason at all.

I spot a huge tree, to the right. I go over to that tree and drop myself down, even though that hurts my bottom a lot. But I have absolutely no other way to stop running.

I just realise how thirsty I was. So after a small rest, I get up and jog towards the sound of water.

Only there is no sound, let alone the sound of water… so I try different places to catch hold of that sound.

Okay, I’ll at least have the time to tell you about Him now. He is always chasing me and I also have a strong feeling that He is following me. How else could He know where I am? At least five times (since it is the only number that can be trusted with when you have nothing else to say) a day, he chases me here and there. I actually don’t even know why he is chasing me. Well, I got used to it. In fact, I like it! He makes my day! Thanks to him, I started running.

What I don’t like about it is that, that coward gives up easily. See what happened earlier this evening? Just when the fire is catching up, it’s already over. Can’t He hold it a little longer, that old hag?

I’ve never had a close look at him though. We somehow seem to maintain a huge distance, and he has never caught up with me. If this keeps up, I might want to give in myself! But then, His speed increases everyday, and unfortunately mine does too… so I might really give in someday.

But I don’t think that would happen any sooner now, so I might as well forget about that.

I took an unexpected turn, just to find a silent stream flowing as though it didn’t have a care in the world.

Without a second thought, I jumped right in— another way to stop running.

I know the cold is ridiculously unbearable, I just realize that streams can be deeper than I thought, but then, how else can I get in?

I actually don’t know how to swim, despite how many times I’ve been in water. But then, I can run. So I run in water too, to keep myself afloat.

I start drinking water. After a while on top of water, I hold my breath and go down. I close my eyes until I get used to the water. I stop running (what else can I call it?) since I’m underwater now. What use is running here?

There is another reason, though, why I don’t run underwater. I love the way the fish tickle your legs. It’s soothing, and also my legs feel as good as new. Some times I think I can’t thank my friend, the nature, enough for what it has done.

These flow of thoughts were irritatingly disturbed my loud snoring, and for a second, the whole world seemed to get sucked into the snorer. I drink a little more, and reluctantly get out of the water. I shake the water off me like a typical, lazy old dog, and my feet automatically start thumping the earth.

The irritating world-sucking snorer was none other than a boar, who looked like he had done something huge that day, and deserved a rest. I was dying to know, what that wondrous thing was, so I woke him up asked him. He proudly said that he had successfully come out of some hole after a week. I left him blabbering to himself, knowing that animals as great as these, can really talk.

As I jog further, and as I felt I must’ve covered a mile at the least, I came across five houses (you might think I’m at it again, but it still is the only number that can fit in here; because I counted), two on one side of the highway, and three on the other. The first and second houses seemed to make me think they are identical twins. The next thing that happened made me believe that they were so. The put their dog out side (even the dogs looked alike), shut their windows, pulled their curtains and switched off the lights, all in the same time. I smiled at how funny the world could get.

The next two houses were exactly the opposite. One seemed to have slept an hour ago, and one seemed to be having a bash in there. Crackpots, I said to myself, not even knowing what that meant. I heard the dog using it once, and it sounds funny too, so that’s why I said it.

The last one was smaller than the other four. A boy, who looked too short for his appearance and other expectations, seemed to be reaching out to a tree. Suddenly, he let out a yelp, and was down flat on the ground. I ran over to help him. I got him to his feet. I realised what he was reaching for. I plucked the mango from the tree and gave it to him. He grinned thankfully and I grinned back.

When I turned to leave, I heard him shout (but apparently, I would call it squeak).

“I’ve never seen you around here! Who are you?”

Who am I?

Who knows!

I run. And I still am.