A Girl in the Forest at Dark Rainy Night

   

It was a dark rainy night and a girl was standing beside the road. And the road was portraying a picture of a quiet and spooky ambiance. The slightest rustling sound of trembling leaves with the blow of wind was breaking the silence of the deep night and was also shaking the stagnated night from its slumber. She was standing under the shed of a dilapidated bus stop, her gown was getting wet due to the rain water pouring from the pores of the broken shed above her head.

While, Inside her head, a storm of thoughts was under-way and different faces were flashing in her mind. She couldn't clearly perceive what would happen in the next moment and what to do or how to manage to reach home. She was sweating about it, and it was pouring off her brow. Moreover, due to occasional stress, her breath was getting faster with the unstoppable flow of night which was on its way to cover the remaining path. In the meanwhile, a thought was adding to her troubles that at home her family would be waiting for her anxiously. And this thought was fuelling her desperation and making her more uncomfortable.

After every few seconds, she used to go to the center of the road to see if any vehicle was coming. Because the night was getting deeper and the silence of the night was getting louder as the needle was up ticking. Darkness, around the bus stop, was giving the look of a black shawl wrapped around the whole scene, or like blackness was descending and looking for its place to spend the night under the open sky.

It was a two-way road, meandering through the tropical rain-forest. Where, on both sides of the road, the tallest tropical trees were swirling with each other and talking in voicelessness.

This time she rushed to the road and stood in the middle because intuitively, she was optimistic about the arrival of a helping hand to abandon this aloofness, where she was swamped. But, like every time, she had to return with melancholy to stand under a tin-made shed. Suddenly, she heard a sound drifting far away from her location.

She turned her head promptly and tried her best to listen to where this rumbling noise was coming from and also stressed her eyes to find out the source of this low-pitched engine running sound. Her mouth was fully dry, and it became difficult for her to moisten even her lips or swallow saliva, and also her throat was feeling harsh inside due to dryness.

At last, she succeeded in detecting a dim light emerging from a sharp turning of the road. Her eyes got brighter, and she started gathering her remaining energy to bolster herself in asking for help. As the light was coming nearer and becoming brighter, and her heartbeat was also getting pace.

She was haunted terribly by the uncertainty of “what would happen next” and also dubious about facing the arriving opportunity. Simultaneously, when she was under enormous confusion, a vehicle arrived near her from where she could distinguish that, that was a car of some vintage model with round head-lights. She was standing in the center of the road with open arms to stop the car, certainly.

The car had arrived almost 100 meters from her, but the speed wasn't slowing down, which gave a clear gesture that it hadn't any intention of stopping, even though she was waving her arms unusually. But, as soon as the car reached her without slowing its speed down. At this point, she, somehow, managed to take herself aside from the middle of the road to avoid a terrible hit.

She fumbled and held herself by placing her hands swiftly and firmly on the ground, the hands got scratches, but the major injury to her knees was avoided. After reverting her senses, what she saw was quite unbelievable. The car stopped at some distance and was coming back towards her. She, wearily, managed to stand up and dabbed her hands with the black gown.

The car was an antique model of Mercedes and the color was dark brown, which looked black in the thickness of the night. As the car reached back to her, she heard a screaming sound of brakes. She approached the car rushing and stood beside the front door, the mirror was up fully. In desperation, she knocked at the window glass of the front door, tinted glass got lowered slowly by the yet anonymous driver to the extent one couldn't see his face clearly. And a puff of smoke of Montecristo (a Cuban cigar) was curling up and making way through the space created after lowering the window-glass.

A man of some middle age, clad in a brown shirt with two front pockets, the left pocket seemed half opened. It was like he kept something in his pocket. She took 5 to 10 seconds to break the silence because at first glance she got scared after seeing his grim face, and he didn't utter even a single word, which created more suspense for her. She asked if he could do her a favor, he didn't reply, but unlocked the front door. First she hesitated, an influx of thoughts hijacked her for a while, but she ended up sitting in the car, locked the door promptly. The driver turned his face towards her, an enormous grin spread across his face, and she got horrified after seeing two of his teeth were gold-capped.

She screened her fear by controlling the nerve and tried her best to behave normally, turned her head in front and clinched both her fists. He grabbed a cigar from his half-open left pocket, lit it and started puffing out smoke. Simultaneously, the car also started running on the wet road. She got harnessed by the grave concern that, “had she taken the right step or this blind trust would pay her back a heavy price”. After some rumination, an answer emerged from her rationality that “when no option left, then no need to weigh right or wrong, right is what you got at first”. To some extent, she made herself complacent about the step she had ascended to.

The scene turned quite smoky inside the car. It was becoming difficult for her to breathe so, she veiled her face to avoid the direct inhalation of such thick smoke. At this, the driver gazed at her and lifted his brow, then smilingly rubbed the burning cigar in an ashtray, and lowered the window-glass for the entrance of fresh air. This gesture, by the still anonymous driver, raised her contentment level. She unveiled her face and inhaled fresh air as much as she could, but due to the cold and rain outside, the window had to close up.

After getting fresh air into her lungs, she found herself active to the extent that now she could observe her surroundings, including the man sitting next to her and driving in his style. First she looked at his dress, by using her eyeball rotation, she noticed that his shirt and left hand had blots of a color which looked red, but due to dim light she couldn't recognize the color exactly. But she perceived that if these were reddish spots then, suddenly, she presupposed, it could also be blood as well.

The thought of blood, within no time, made her distraught, and she felt herself again in menace. Whilst fuelling her stress by over-imagining the scenario, she heard a sound coming nearer. As the sound hit her eardrums, she turned her head swiftly to trace the sound source. She deciphered the sound, and it was a police siren, which was becoming louder and reaching from behind. As the intense light of the siren impacted her eyes, she turned her head in front and then gazed at the driver for his reaction to the arrival of the police. But she didn't observe any haste in his reaction, and then she looked outside to see where the police were heading. And she saw, the police had overtaken their car and were moving forward, and then she took a sigh of relief. Because her thoughts were playing a blame game and making her more intense that she had taken the wrong decision.

In response, she started chattering in her head, “it didn't matter what would happen, there wasn't any other option left, so you opted for this one” just to make herself confident, that nothing would happen or nobody could down her until she barred the resistance by herself to cope the uninvited situations.

This self generated motivation had given her rid of distressing thoughts. And she felt more comfy than earlier and started looking at the road going under the car.

The car was moving smoothly on the rainy road, and the girl had completely engrossed into the abyss of thoughts like she had landed in some other world. Suddenly, the driver applied the brakes and the car stopped with a massive jerk and the girl awakened out of her reverie. What she saw was the scene, the driver got out of the car to inspect the front right side tyre and found it flat. He, promptly, reached at the back of the car, collected the tool kit and jacked up the car to replace the flat tyre with a new one, which he had detached from the lower side of the car floor. On the other hand, the girl was pondering whether she should go for his help or not because the driver was doing his job expediently and not even uttered a single word and looked up. He was seemingly unaware of or disinterested in his surroundings. From the very first moment, she was astounded seeing his behavior, which was calm and cool as a stream flowing in a cold night.

Meanwhile, he packed up and placed everything in its place, and she was still in a dilemma. As he seated the car, looking a little waned and exhausted, his eyes expressed that he was searching for something in the back seat and on the sides of the seats. Then he got the one which he was looking for, it was a bottle with little water in it. He uncorked the bottle hastily and raised the bottle up to his mouth, but suddenly, he stopped there and looked at her, and offered her to drink first if she wanted to. But she refused and suggested he had to drink, saying, “You drink first because you need it the most.” He offered her twice, but her response was the same as the first. However, deep inside, she was also thirsty, but she couldn't drink first because he was looking in more need of water. Then he drank water and put the bottle down on the dashboard and also left some water for her. While she was thinking of him, how sensible he is, even after doing an exhausting task, he exhibited decency.

And this recent gesture really hit her deeply, and she forgot of being stranded in the chaos. She picked the bottle up and drank desperately, like she was striving for. After finishing the water, she looked at him with little affection because now her notions were quite shifted. She thought that “a little good gesture could develop a considerable point of view about your personality”. In the meanwhile, the driver was looking outside and driving the car, and now they had entered the dense forest area. Where the road got shrunk more than before because on both sides of the road trees were portraying the picture of tremendously taller walls. It seemed that they were holding the sky on their tips and also dwindling the road to make it exceedingly narrow.

The scene had changed and palpably intensified too. It was due to the terrain where they had entered, but this time when the situation, in reality, had become worse than before and needed to be concerned about it. But the girl didn't pay any heed to the outer environment because she had developed confidence in her accompanier. Another thought dawned on her, when she observed the surroundings, “why am I not getting horrified?” After looking at the driver, who didn't break his silence so far. So, the answer surfaced in her mind that the driver had become a source of encouragement for her without uttering any of the single motivational words, but merely exhibiting his values. This thought provided her with the answer to the question of which she had been looking for such a long time: how could we influence others without verbosity? Her eyes got brighter after learning the most awaited lesson in such a dramatic way.

She was looking at the road, but her mind was wandering somewhere else. And then, with a little shake, she felt that the driver had increased the speed of the car. She gazed at the driver for any response, but he didn't react. So, she looked outside the car and also at the backside to spot abnormalities in the surroundings, which triggered him to drive fast.  However, he was driving gently earlier. She observed that since they crossed the bridge and entered a dense forest, the speed gradually increased, but the reason was unknown to her yet. Eventually, after observing meticulously the whole scenario and also facial expressions of the driver, she came to the conclusion that there is something which she needed to learn about. For the purpose of getting aware of the background story, she asked, ”What happened why you looked strained ?” After a while, she reiterated the same question because she wasn't given any response by the mysterious man sitting next to her. Third time, the girl raised the pitch of her voice and asked again the same question by adding the phrase “please excuse me if there is something I must know”.

This time what she experienced was unprecedented because on her demand the driver broke the ice and uttered the word “relax”. And then he looked outside the car with little curiosity, and his facial expressions shifted a bit. The girl was witnessing all, and also that the tension inside the car was mounting perceptibly. She sensed that the speed needle started lowering down, and the driver was looking around with a grimace. Suddenly, he stopped the car on the left side of the road under the cover of compact trees and switched off the head-lights. It really stirred her curiosity and was also bursting with inquisitiveness. She wanted to unveil the ambiguity of matter, which is wrapped in mystery.

As soon as the driver switched off the car abruptly, she turned to him to inquire about the sudden stop. But before the opening of her jaws, he pointed out his finger so as not to open your mouth. The girl just got stunned and stifled her queries hard to remain mum. But her eyes expressed numerous questions to be asked. She closed her eyes in annoyance because of not letting her ask, and a thought of being late triggered her to abandon the car. As she opened her eyes and was just intending to go off the car, but the driver quickly gripped her hand, and again he gestured with his other hand not to move. She got numb and forgot everything she was intending for, and her throat felt dry too. The driver left her hand after a while and looked ahead, but she was still in shock due to the unexpectedness of the matter.

She was still feeling his grip over her hand and after a while she felt that the quietness of this moment had a lot to utter, but it would reveal the fact at the time decided by the mighty planner. Reversion of senses took some time to happen, and she started sensing something bizarre in the environment around. The girl listened to a rustling sound and some unidentifiable voices and felt them coming nearer and becoming more audible, but couldn't trace the location from which side it was coming out. After a short interval, she heard a heavy tread coming closer and becoming more vibrational. She turned to the driver with inquiring eyes, but in a sudden she spotted something unusual behind the driver out in the forest and her eyes got stretched fully and her mouth too. The driver again intimated her to remain silent and also pressed her head down to be invisible. But she was senseless and couldn't decipher the sign-language which the driver was using to convey his message. He shook her to be in her senses to face the situation. She was trying to say something, but her voice reeds were not helping her to produce any voice.

She was winded because she saw a gigantic and horrific being out there. It was the animal which she never even imagined that this level of colossal and horrendous animals existed on this planet. When he shook her and that helped her to revert her senses to some extent, but not fully. She followed his instruction of lowering her head down, but she managed to see the anonymous animal fully. That animal resembled the rhinoceros, but it was taller and bigger than the normal one. It had a long and spiky horn over its bigger mouth and eyes were also wider and more frightening. An ordinary man could lose his senses just in one glance if he saw from that near as she experienced.

For approximately five minutes, they remained breathless in a sense like they didn't even produce the sound of a sigh. Although, when it disappeared in overgrown forest and in the blackness of night, the driver speedily switched on the car and in a while the car was running on the road. The driver looked at her and smiled in a way she could again see his gold-capped teeth. On the other hand, she hadn't reverted to her consciousness fully yet.

The driver lowered the windows because after the rain the weather had become mesmerizing, and also he wanted to inhale the fresh air. She was still haunted by the uncertainty that had happened, but when a cool breeze kissed her face, she felt herself again in the real world. And thereafter, she made herself comfortable because she wanted to take a nap. So, she closed her eyes, but her mind was still wandering there, and it was difficult for her to focus on a particular matter. But after some time, the turmoil in her head got smoother, and she started revising things from the very start of circumstances she had weathered.

Actually, she wanted to resurrect and accumulate the learnings through which she had gone, since embarking on the journey. Her mind conceived of the scene in which she was stranded at the bus stop. And she was overwhelmed with the distressing thoughts, but not giving up was the reason which took her to the verge where she reached. She extracted the lesson out of it that if we keep on striving for any purpose then, no matter when, our time comes, and we cross the hurdles laid in our ways, surely.

Then, her mind jumped to the scene in which she saw the driver for the first time and got scared due to his ugly look. But now she discovered that looks don't matter, what matters are the manners and the values you exhibit through behavior. She heartily remembers the way, how carefully and prudently he brings her through all hazards safely. He didn't present logic, arguments or motivational stuff, except a single word, and succeeded in raising her confidence level through his actions. It reveals to her that "there is not a language stronger than actions which can oblige you to follow anyone."

A flashback of a scene surfaced in her mind, when she had seen the police vain and her mind deluded her that It might be chasing their car. But that was not more than an illusion created by her mind. Therefore, she concluded that our mind plays some evil games with us, especially when we are going through dreadful circumstances. Although, the maximum situations which we face in our life are illusions, some are cognitive and others are visuals, which try to make our visions obscure.

The next flashback appears in her mind, that without paying heed to the unnecessary things around, we can do our job expediently and judiciously. This was about the time when the driver replaced the tyre without any hesitation and expectation from anyone to assist him, not even from his accompanier. The lesson she learned from this moment was that expectation holds you back from taking initiative, and it develops your hesitation muscle stronger.

The next scene she thought about was when she felt the speed of the car was slowing down and how hastily she reacted to it. She learned after this experience that if we can hold our nerves for a while before reacting and give time to our mind for contemplation, then the results can be different and fruitful. Simply, she was thinking of having patience in any uncertain situation before bursting and over-thinking.

Another thing she deeply realized and learned from the mysterious man was, “how to deal with an impatient person?” It's easy, but if we don't give him a reaction. Because if we react the same as he does, then the new debate will be started and the essential task will be lost.

While pondering about the time gone by, she felt that darkness was no more because her closed eyes could feel the brightness of the day after such a stretched night. Meanwhile, she slightly felt the warmth on her face. She thought it might be sunlight, so she opened her eyes to see nature in daylight. But suddenly, she got baffled, and it was no less than somewhat perplexing because she found herself in her bed-room and through the window the sunlight was kissing her face. She jumped out of her bed abruptly to see if she was really at her home or somewhere else.  She peered out of the room, she saw her mother in the kitchen doing some house chores. Her mother gave her an affectionate smile, and she smiled too. Then she came back to her room again and sat on her bed. And one thing was surfacing in her mind, and It was none other than the still anonymous driver who had taught her a lot, but unfortunately, she didn't unearth his reality.

 Al last, she admitted that it was a dream, or a nightmare, but there were countless lessons too, which she needed to remember for life. It is because we can't hold dreams longer into our memory. With this thought, she abandoned her bed to go for a new day with new learnings and ambitions.