Expelled

- It is open to all kinds of interpretation.-

It was a dull evening and I was sitting by the window, drinking whiskey. It had rained heavily a few hours back, the sky was still not clear. I had finished most of the bottle during the rains. This was my last glass. I lit a complementary cigarette. I wondered what the world must be doing on such an evening. Then I laughed because I realized I did not care what the world was up to unless it concerned me. By the time I finished my glass, I was high enough but not sleepy. So, I sat there with my head resting on the ledge, staring outside.

I thought I saw Kaia walk by. I ran out. She ran into one of the forbidden lanes, infested with the ‘invisible’ people. If you were ever passing by, the obnoxious smell would be enough to kill you. However, the alcohol had made me lose my inhibitions, so I carelessly followed. The streets were empty; no life-form in sight. They are actually invisible, I thought with a smug smile. The cobble-stone was still wet from the rains and the sky lit up now and then with randomly patterned flashes of white. Oddly, I never heard the thunderous sound that should have succeeded. A little tipsy, I ran all around the place, going from one lane to another and back. Soon, my head was spinning; I had to take support by a dumpster.

As I stood there, dehydrated and trying to regain stability, someone put a hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t shocked because it felt warm and familiar. I turned around, happy to meet her after such a long time. But when I did turn, I realized it wasn’t her, definitely not her. This person was much taller than Kaia; even the hair was longer although it was in a mess. She was more of a woman.

“Who are you?” I asked
“I am Kaia. You’ve forgotten already?” she said, sounding a little hurt.
“I can never forget her and that is why I know that you are not her,” I said with a tone of surety.

And then, like a revelation, there was another bright flash in the sky and I saw her face – the same intense eyes. It can’t possibly be her, my conscious argued with itself. While I was still struggling to comprehend the moment, I noticed her huge pot-belly.
“Are you… pregnant!?”
“Yes,” she answered calmly.
“This is going faster than I can understand. I mean it’s only been what? A few weeks since I saw you last?”
“No, it isn’t. You’ve been stuck in your skin while the world went on. It is not your fault though,” she tried to comfort me.
This was the weirdest form of consolation I have ever had. I took a deep breath and made an effort to just move along with the situation at hand.
“Can I touch it?” I asked cautiously.
“Of course you can,” she took my hand and put it on her belly. “He is you after all.”

I pulled my hand back as if I had touched fire.

“Look woman, this has already been pretty bizarre so far. Now, I don’t exactly know who you are. Maybe I feel I know you just because I am a little high. Please don’t make it any worse,” I restrained from snapping at her.
Completely ignoring what I had just said, she continued, “You must know. It hurts. His has hands are like vicious claws. He struggles as if he is drowning in his own fluids. My womb is scarred and it bleeds. But still he refuses to come out.”
This time, I heard a blasting thunder when the lightning flashed. And this time, I saw a crying mother with same intense eyes, just red now. I was not angry or shocked. Hell, I had no idea how I felt. I just took her in my arms while she wept incessantly.
“Come, we’ll go inside somewhere. I think it might rain again,” I said. I think she said something like ‘okay’ but it was hardly audible.

We walked a bit till she pointed me to a door in a narrow lane. We went inside. It was the back entrance to some ruined building. We somehow progressed to the second floor despite the dire looking stairway. She opened the door of an apartment that surprisingly had the same flat number as mine.

“Come inside,” she said quite casually. She wasn’t crying any more.

Inside, it was a shit-hole. I kept following her through the long room. There was a sad junkie on the way. Poor guy was desperately trying to find a vein on a hand that already had multiple bleeding orifices. Further down, there were three folks, two girls and one guy, lying under a half torn quilt. I could figure out they were naked, probably a post-orgasm slumber party. And then there was this boy with dirty clothes, black stains all over his hands and face. I think he was trying to make graffiti with a piece of charcoal on a wall that read ‘Floyd fuckin’ rocks!!’

“Help me pick up your stuff. We have to go to the hospital,” Kaia interrupted my casual looking-around.
“My stuff? You mean your stuff.”
“No, I mean your stuff. This is where you’ve lived for so many months now.”
I gave her a puzzled/you-are-loony look.
“I know all this is hard for you but I’ll get you out of this. Just do as I say,” she said, whatever that meant.
She packed some clothes and stuff in a bag and went forward to the other exit of the room. I followed without taxing my mind further. I did see a familiar looking Zippo lighter lying on the floor on my way out. But then, anyone can own a Zippo. Downstairs, a cab was already waiting. We just snuggled in. I managed to sleep through the way.

--

I woke up next in a hospital room with a needle poked in my arm. There was a doctor standing outside.
“Excuse me,” I shouted.
“Ah, you’re finally up. You were in bad shape when you came in. So we charged you up with some good old glucose,” he was quick enough to make an impression of an annoying over-friendly doctor.
“Where is the woman that came in with me?”
“She’s in the maternity ward.”
“Take me there.”

He took me there on a wheel chair. I was happy about that as I was still feeling a little woozy. He told me that she was being operated as there were some complications. He said I could wait in her room. Sitting there, I thought about the strange things that had happened few hours back and how everything somehow seemed calm now. I figured all the strangeness was in my head and now when I meet this woman I would know for real what exactly was happening. Perfectly timed with that conclusion, the nurses wheeled her bed into the room. The doctor came in soon after. He didn’t look very happy.

“I am sorry to inform you that the baby was born dead. It was a healthy boy. We can’t figure out what caused the death,” he turned out to be even worse at delivering bad news, “Are you a relative? Someone has to sign a form.”
“I am… a family friend. I’ll come and sign.”

After completing the formalities I went back to talk to her, if she was up. Although I knew this would be a bad time to ask her for certain explanations. When I was finally near the room I saw nurses running in and out. I grabbed one of them by the arm and inquired what had happened. She said the patient had gone into cardiac arrest. At this point you can call me an insensitive bastard but I ran in because I wanted her to answer some things. As I entered the room I saw she had already flat-lined and the doctors were winding up. Now I felt terrible; not for my unanswered questions but for her. I thought I should see her one last time as I didn’t get to do so ever since I crashed in the cab. So, I slowly removed the white cloth from her face. The moment her face was revealed, I was petrified, stone dead. I couldn’t move a muscle. I didn’t speak. I had no idea who I was anymore. My body felt heavy. I felt as if I was expelled out of my own existence but I was still doomed to be standing there, breathing. Cruel nightmare or a bad trip maybe or just stark reality, I could not say. My eyes were transfixed on the very familiar face, a face which I was seeing after eternity. Finally, I mustered some strength to cry out, “Mother…”, and I collapsed.