I live in a well, a dumping well, like the dumping grounds you have. And I can tell for a fact that I saw it coming. Let me start at the beginning. Our well was gigantic, with no definite ends. Well, we definitely knew it opens at the top. Because things used to fall from there.
We never saw the top with our own eyes. But we knew it existed because we saw the things fall. Unused, broken, discolored, disfigured things. There were books, pages, letters, flowers, leaves, and whatnot. Along with flora, there was fauna. There were also beings, souls, tears, emotions, memories, and thoughts. We have seen it all, over the years, from the ugliest to the most beautiful journeys of the fallen.
There was a spiral passage inside the well to go up and down. Our houses were just behind the spiral passages along the walls. We had neighbors on both the sides. To go anywhere, we used to walk along the passage but we never walked the longer distances until it was absolutely necessary. If needed, we could spread the word through the houses.
On a clear day, we had a distant blurred vision of the other side of the wall. But clear days were not always granted. There were cold eerie days as well, where we saw the most horrifying memories, beings, and thoughts go down. There were days when it burned, when the ashes and fumes fell down, taking their own sweet time, burning everything on the way. Sometimes it rained tears for days.
I can’t exactly pinpoint the day but the remote possibility of the “end” approaching came into existence when the chatters started, chatters about people migrating towards the top end. It quietened after a while and we almost forgot about it till we saw the passageway in front of our houses occupied one fine morning.
It caused two types of reactions. To be honest, we didn’t mind these guests. We somewhere knew no one would voluntarily opt to live in the spherical passage outside our houses. But there were a few who didn’t appreciate this, as they called it, encroachment.
It stirred a conflict that we had never seen before in our society. The order was disturbed. Three basic needs – food, shelter, and happiness – everything was at stake. That state of life became our reality. The one that almost let us overlook how it started and what was coming.
The days passed by though. Until it was a clear day again and for the first time, we could see the “end”. The other end of the well. At first, not all of us saw it or believed it. It started as a rumor. But when the other clear days approached, we kept on seeing it, approaching, closing in on us.
This time there was no doubt. But there were theories around that too. Some of us thought that it has always been there and we saw it for the first time. Irrespective of everything going on around me, I somewhere knew. I knew that it was bad news. The days passed. The end appeared to come closer each passing day. It became the latest and the only topic of discussion.
My house was not an exception. We discussed about what was happening, what the future held, and what should have been our plan of action. We discussed and disagreed. Then we discussed again and disagreed again.
As the end approached, my parents thought that moving out would have been of no use. We would have had to walk large distances and live in the passage for an unforeseeable future. It would have brought a life of despair. A life, not worth living. I argued that saying no to change, waiting for an inevitable end to engulf us was nothing less than embracing death. The ultimate end.
As the end approached, we could not reach to a decision as a family. And as a society, it was nothing but chaos. That’s where I stand at the moment. That’s where this story started and to be honest, I don’t know where it ends. I wait, as each day passes by, hoping that one night would bring me courage.
Courage to follow my instinct, my instinct to survive and search for remnant life that I think is worth pursuing. The next morning, I know my parents wouldn’t be surprised. They have accepted my departure even before it happens. They know, like me, that I would do it at night after they go to sleep. We all wait for the night and dread it at the same time.
