“We shouldn’t have decided to start the journey at night. A better option was to start early morning, may be around five thirty or six thirty” she told him.
“It is easier to reach there before midnight. The traffic will be less, and as we usually sleep after midnight, this is not going to be a problem. We will reach the destination before midnight easily. The total distance we have to travel is around one hundred and seventy five kilometres, and according to my plans, we are going to be there as expected” he replied.
“But it is very dark out there. Whatever remains of the street lights are not working and the road has just enough width for two cars. We are traveling towards a mountainous area and there is rain outside. Can you see much in this fog?” she asked.
Darkness spreads. What lies beyond those which the human eyes can catch?
“I don’t understand why you are so worried. I have traveled through such areas throughout my life, and I have driven so much through the dangerous areas. I have driven even through those places where there remained almost no trace of road. You should just take your mobile and log in to Facebook and check a few status updates instead of being tensed. Or may be you can talk to one of your friends on Whatsapp” he said with confidence.
“The rain is only getting stronger, and so is the wind. I think there is complete power failure in the area. There is no light anywhere. I think that this area doesn’t have houses or shops too. We shouldn’t have taken the shortcut; the direct route had more width, better quality roads and some shops and houses. This is like a deserted world. I think that you have discovered the road less traveled and it has created all the problems” she continued.
“Still, I have saved so much of fuel by traveling through this route. Is it so difficult for you to use Facebook or Whatsapp?” he asked her.
“There is no range here, and you are asking me to check Facebook and Whatsapp. Do you even know if we are going in the right direction? There hasn’t been a signboard for the last one hour. The only vehicles that we have seen are some trucks, most of them carrying timber” she said in a worried tone.
“I believe that we have traveled about a quarter of the total distance. The journey was slower than expected because of the rain and the curves on the road. But as soon as the rain is over and a few more kilometers pass, we can go at a higher speed and once we can continuously travel at the desired pace, the destination will feel closer” he assured her.
“This is the last time I am coming with you on a drive. I am going to remember this big mistake for a long time. Next time, I shall choose one of those AC low floor buses or at least take a taxi” she complained.
Suddenly, an SUV appeared from the corner in high speed with its high intensity lights falling right into his eyes along with all those extra lights which were added to the front side of the vehicle. Blinded by the lights and trying to avoid the SUV from coming too close to the car, he took a left which brought the vehicle to the edge which was slippery due to the rain. The SUV vanished from the sight as it took the next turn while the car found it in the air until the people of a neighbourhood under the hill heard a huge noise. They got out of their houses to find the local vegetarian restaurant without its roof and on fire.
“It is the restaurant. There will be no Special Masala Dosa for a few days” one of the men was heard saying.
The rain had stopped and the dark clouds were slowly moving away. The moon had returned from under the clouds. On the top of the hill, two people were having tea. One of them, a lady was wearing black and the man was was wearing a combination of black and red. They finished the tea and looked down to see the fire.
So there is a lot of beauty there, but death has power over everything else.
“I feel for these common people, but I can’t do anything about it. See, I try to have a certain number of souls to finish the month meeting the requirements, but these just add to them and provide me some extra souls. These road accidents caused by bright and high intensity lights give me those souls who were never supposed to come to me so early. It is disappointing that they die. I think about not taking their souls, but I do some mercy killing because I can’t stand their pain” Lady Death said.
“It is the common problem with these humans. They can’t dim the lights and make it better for the other drivers. They only think about themselves. This is why we vampires don’t drive at night. Vampire Bat always talks about this. About seventy five percent of the people never dim the lights even if we warn them using the horn. Unless there is a camera to catch these people, and a restriction against using the extra high intensity lights, these accidents can’t be prevented. But when the rich people use all the high intensity lights in the world, who can stop them in the human world which is governed by money alone?” Dracula asked.
***The images used in this blog post were taken by me.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
TeNy
The Tea Cerebrations 