"Hullo".He replied in a half-conscious slumberous tone.He had returned after a long and boring day at work.He had never liked his job and had always suffered undesired stress and physical exhaustion at the end of the day.It had introduced untimely naps in his daily schedule.Whenever he forgot to switch off his cell ,some unknown sense of urgency had made him to answer the call if it was from an unknown number.
"Hullo?"came the reply.He recognized the voice at once.While he was trying to regain his senses,he heard it again with the exact tone of question mark embedded in it.He replied in his normal and never-changing habit of asking-"How are you?" as it was the first thing he had always liked to know whenever they talked.He had never expected this call to become a reality,at least for rest of his life.His conscious part was hit by an ad-hoc emergency to tackle with, and was running amuck in order to decide what,how,where to start."I am alright",he heard.Though he was in a state of pandemonium,he felt the attached sadness in her voice.There was a hint of smothered inability to hide the guilt in the reply and that made a part of him badly disturbed.There was a long pause from both sides and the first sense of complete consciousness came to his ears,which had gradually turned hot and probably red,beyond his control."so...",unable to find anything else, he uttered in order to break the silence."I am sorry", he heard the words clearly.He could not sense the feeling in the reply as the memories of past had deluged his mind.She had disappeared six month ago without any message.He had tried everything in his reach to find what had happened.His calls went unanswered then her number went invalid and perhaps his mails ended up in a junk pile.It had taken him immense strength to come out of the agony of some unknown guilt.That pain resurfaced unannounced and turned into violent outburst eventually.
"Do you really feel that way.Forget about feeling that way,do you have even a part of spirit left intact in you to feel anything at all."I-AM-SORRY",how easy is it to say.I admire that at least you have some decency left in you to pronounce it.Do you have any idea how I have felt all these days.You left a lacuna in me and it had almost gnawed my soul.I did not deserve the apathy you inflicted on me.But perhaps i was a non-existent, useless mite to you which deserved no consideration.But then why you called me?Are you listening?Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Yes but what is gnaw?",came the reply drenched with innocence and piety of curiosity."What?",he could not believe if it really came as a reply.Before he could contemplate it further he broke out laughing hysterically.He heard a faint broken familiar chuckle on phone.It had always set him upbeat in the past and it was his subconscious yearning to hear it again.It wiped the bruises of suffering off his psyche.He heard a sound of door bell in backdrop of their talk."you will get me killed someday for a joke like this.Somebody is on you door.Go,I ll catch you soon"."I don't hear anybody.You are turning crazy.",He heard it backed with a grin.The door bell rang louder followed by a wild knock on the door.He sprang out of his bed and hit the wall fiercely with his head.Concussion brought him out of the sleep.His roommate was at the door.His cell phone was lying quietly beside the pillow.SWITCHED-OFF!
Piktru says- Idiocy of any form,subconscious or otherwise, finally hits the wall!
