THE MIDDLE

I woke up to a golden stream of light pouring in through the train window. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and looked at the time. I have slept a lot less than I usually do. I looked out of the window.

Up until yesterday, for all throughout my journey, I was travelling through a lush green countryside. Green meadows, with varied assortments of flowers decorated the surroundings of the train track. The sky was a wondrous shade of blue, with white clouds swimming in it. We often crossed occasional forests, bustling with life, with unknown birds singing delightful musical tunes and wild animals peering out of the dense thicket of trees. We crossed waterfalls, the clear blue elixir roaring through the channels and gushing out of the cliff. The scenery was as clear as day then. There were many passengers by my side, conversing in hearty tones, laughing, crying and embracing each other.

However, now as I looked out, I saw that the green of the meadows has turned a pale yellow. We were running through the same countryside, but the grass seemed parched. The flowers in the grass have died down, leaving a rather empty look.

I looked at the sky, which too has turned a queer shade of yellow. The clouds were still there, but they also had a soft, golden glow to them.

I looked around the train itself. All the passengers have disappeared. I was sitting in an empty carriage, completely alone, deserted.

I was thunderstruck. I looked around frantically for fellow passengers but could not find a single one of them. How is this possible? They were right here yesterday! I got up from my seat and began searching all the compartments. Not a single soul lurked the corridors. Instead, a golden mist had settled inside the train compartments. The mist blurred my senses, I felt dreamy, but a strange sense of dread overcame me.

I ran and ran and ran, till I reached the end of the carriage. I screamed, but there was no response. My lonesome screams echoed throughout the train compartment, creating curious noises.

I went over to the exit door and looked outside. The yellow fields invited me with open arms, the dead grass coiled up to form hands that beckoned me. I stared at them for a long time, contemplating, and then turned and went back to my seat.

The next day, a slight gold mist appeared outside the fields. The day after, the mist became thicker.

The days passed with me sitting alone in my compartment, trapped in what seemed like an infinite time loop, as the golden-yellow mist completely consumed all surrounding view. Silence was my new companion. I walked over to the exit door every day, staring out at the glaring gold abyss, and came back.

Sleep has become scarce. The limited sleep which I got was filled with nightmares about the golden mist engulfing me, and dark unknown monsters lying beyond the mist.

One day, I heard a distinct knock at my window. I woke up with a jolt, and scanned the mist outside. I could barely make out a yellowish humanoid apparition outside my window. It circled around the window and latched itself onto it.

A squeaky voice shook my senses.

“Hello, Lonely Person, my good old friend!”

I was overjoyed by the prospect of finally being able to talk to someone or something.

“I don’t recognize you. Who are you? I don’t get a lot of visitors, you know.”, I said, almost sobbing.

“Ah yes, that’s how the Middle works, isn’t it?”, the figure said in an understanding tone. “That’s how it happens to everyone.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by the Middle?”

“You are in the Middle now.” The figure giggled. “And I am the Middle Ghost”.

“That does not mean anything to me” I said irritably. What gibberish!

“Tell me how you feel.” The Ghost stopped giggling, and attained a serious tone.

I honestly don’t know how I feel. I have never been this conflicted about my feelings before.

“I don’t know is the generic answer”, the Ghost said without waiting for my reply. “And it is the correct one.”

I nodded my head, at a loss of words.

“Let me put this more coherently for you.”, the Ghost said. “You are feeling very uncertain and strange, and you don’t know what is happening around you. The Mist prevents you from properly understanding the situation and circumstances you are in, and naturally you are scared of what is in the mist.”

I nodded again. Everything was quite accurate.

“This is precisely what the Middle is about. The Middle represents the uncertainty in your journey, when you don’t know where you are going. Every passenger experience this some time or the other, and it is a very important part of the journey.”

“The reason why you see no other passengers is because no one will be with you during this time. You’ll have to experience this by yourself, alone. You’ll have to learn to fight through it. It is hard, but it is what it is.”

I stared in amazement. Everything made so much sense now.

“When does the Middle end?”, I asked.

“It depends on person to person. But it is important to note that it definitely does not last forever. It does come to an end at some point”

“What is beyond the Middle, may I ask?”

The Ghost giggled again.

“Look around you. Is this dawn or dusk?”

I scanned by surroundings, but it was definitely difficult. The golden glow could be dying sunlight or rising sunshine, for all I could know.

“It can be anything”

“You get the point!”, the Ghost exclaimed happily. “Yes, it can be either of them. You either end up in the Dark Night, or the Sunny Morning. It is really unpredictable, you know!”

“What happens in the Dark Night?”

“Oh, that is pretty sad.”, the Ghost shook his head. “Passengers go through a real hard time. Especially at Midnight. Everything is pitch black. There is a constant feeling of hopelessness and dread. Nothing good happens. The train passes through extremely rocky terrain and dark forests. One has to be really tough to persevere through it.”

“Many people can’t stay in the train for long in the Dark Night. So, they get off the train and move on. The ones who don’t move on become Dark Night Ghosts.”

“The ones who survive the Dark Night are some of the strongest passengers. They know that the Dark Night will surely be over one day, and they will live to breathe the fresh air of the Sunny Morning. The hope of Sunny Morning is what keeps them trying, and trying.”

I gave the Ghost a quizzical look.

“So, since you are the Middle Ghost, that means you got off the train in the Middle, am I right?”

The Ghost sighed.

“Yes, your deduction is correct. I could not bear the Middle. I could not stay on the train with so much uncertainty creeping up on me from all directions. I was dead scared of the Dark Night. So, I accepted the invitations from the yellow fields, I got off the train.”

I was too shocked to speak.

“Only after I got off the train, I realized that I had made a mistake. So, I chose to stay as the Middle Ghost, to prevent other passengers from repeating my mistakes.”

“I saw you going over to the exit everyday and standing in front of it. Contemplating whether to get off or not. So, I decided to come and speak to you, just like I did to every other passenger who contemplated the same thing as you.”

Tears welled up in my eyes as I saw the Ghost slowly fading away.

“Promise me that you will never go to the exit again. Promise me that you will keep hopes for the Sunny Morning alive in your heart. Promise me that I’ll never have to see you again.”

“I promise.”, I said.

The Ghost completely faded from the window, leaving me all alone in the mist again.

The train rattled on ferociously towards the Unknown.