A Normal Day

After a month off from writing, Prince, a teenager from a loving family, who wakes up every morning to live up his dreams, finally gets some time to write and participate in an online short story writing competition, that he hopes he will win some day. It is almost midnight and he can only hear himself breathing in his room. “Peace is what I want by the end of the day”, he tells himself. While selecting a soothing song on his mobile, he swiftly slides his head over the table and closes his eyes and starts to think what story is he going to write for the prompt.

“Haaaaaaauuuuffffff” (gasping for air) “hack hack hrrrk” (coughing) “how the hell am I here, I thought I was in my room.” Confused and bothered, Prince gets to the shore of the sea and searches for people nearby to ask where is he? “Seems like I am the only one left here”, he soon realizes that he is in an empty world, all alone, free from the outside world. He starts to feel good about the fact that no one is going to disturb him, judge him, interrupt him; he is like the king of this world. Lying on the warm sand under a shade near the shore, he is enjoying the peace, when he suddenly hears someone crying. “Is it a kid? Am I not alone here?” Puzzled, he starts to search where that kid is. “Wuahh, uahh” the sound gets louder. “Here you are, stop crying kiddo, what happened?” he asks. “I was playing hide and seek with my father and now I am unable to find him, uhh wu uahh”, “woah woah, stop crying, we can find your father together, but first, don’t cry!” They start searching.

After a while, Prince asks, “what’s your name kid, and how did you get here, I thought I was alone here” to which the kid replies, “I am Kay, I live in the house near the highway, whenever I feel sad or I want to play, I come here with my father to play. He hardly gets some free time to spare for playing with me...” Kay gets sad but then suddenly jumps with joy, “so I bring him here, here he plays with me and gets no work from his office for the whole day. It is a lot of fun!” , “well, I never thought I will have visitors in my world.” Unable to find Kay’s dad, Prince decides to keep Kay busy and asks him, “Hey what about a game of hide and seek with me? You should go and hide and I am going to find you?” Kay agrees in great excitement and runs to hide. “9...10... and here I come.” After 10 minutes of finding Kay, the game turns mysterious as Kay is missing. Prince gets worried and starts shouting out to Kay that the game is over and wherever he is, he can come out now. But the place seems barren again. “Earlier, Kay’s father got missing while hiding, now Kay is missing the same way.” He is still figuring out what is going on and what he must do now, that suddenly a man appears out of nowhere and asks Prince, “Hey, have you seen a seven year old child, we were playing hide and seek a moment ago.” “A MOMENT AGO? ARE YOU NUTS? Your child and I searched for you everywhere, but you did not show up, and guess what, now your child is missing too!” “Where did he go, can’t you just look after a child?” Annoyed by the behavior, Prince says, “I have not seen a more careless father than you, who is expecting a random stranger to look after his child in his absence. Well I was trying to keep him busy, we were playing hide and seek, he was hiding and now he is not here. Now please start searching, he is still missing.” It’s about sunset and they could not find Kay, with disappointment and regret, Prince asks, “where did you go when you were hiding, didn’t you listen your child was crying?” to which the man replies, “It was not my fault, I remembered some work from my office so I had to go back to the real world and finish it, but I came back here as soon as I finished it!” “Wh...What? Wait did you just say REAL world? So what do you think where are we right now?” “We are in a common DREAM” and suddenly from behind, “daddy, I was searching you outside, where were you?” Kay reappears. Prince is so confused that he can’t explain what is going on, even to his own mind, but seeing the love and bonding between the father and his son and seeing them reunite and enjoy their time together, drives away all his confusion and anxiety and indeed fills him with happiness and joy. He soon realizes, “well, if I am in a dream, then that definitely means, I am sleeping in reality, and if it is so, then who is going to write my story, I must finish it today at any cost”. He asks politely, “sir, can you please tell me how do I get out of this dream, as I have to complete my story today”, to which the man answers, “It is very, just lay down and relax your mind, close your eyes and try to sleep, and when you will open your eyes, you will be back in the real world.” It is already night by now and beautiful stars are twinkling in the night sky. “Nothing can be more realistic than this dream, it is so beautiful, and the space looks so amazing here.” Prince tells the man as all the three enjoy the night sky.

As soon as he opens his eyes, Prince finds himself in his room, he looks up through the window towards the glittering night sky and suddenly and idea strikes his mind and he starts writing, ‘After a month off from writing.......’