Life and Beyond

Life and Beyond

Image Courtesy Karina Zhukovskaya on Pexels.com

The loud cries of the cow requesting for her calf to be released to suckle her began even before everyone could wake up.

He found sleep deluding him after the repeated pleas reverberated in his head and continued unabated without a pause.

His mind stressed with the struggles of life, could now only think of the calf and the cow; he yearned to run over to the shed and free the mother-son duo to let the mother feed her child.

His still body, however, still lay on the bed impassively; the thoughts continued wrestling in his mind. He wanted to jump out of the bed but somehow couldn’t.

The loud cries started again after a brief pause and continued before stopping suddenly, surprising him as he was now getting used to this noise.

A sudden thought of someone having freed the calf calmed his agitated mind.

He was back to thinking about his own life now as the silence prodded him to look inwards; The biggest question bickering him was; where was he heading in his life?

The depressing thoughts began taking a concrete shape when the cow suddenly mooed again.

‘Why is she complaining now’, he pondered while also feeling a little irritated and unsure of the reason?

But the cries kept getting shriller and louder.

‘What’s happening’ the anxiety seized over the reins from rationality and reason.

The calf also began making frantic calls for his mother, it felt as if the two were crying in unison.

His legs began to tremble, and his hands started shaking while the eyes suddenly moved rapidly.

He wanted to run out and find out what’s happening outside.

It was already 5 am.

The cries of the calf receded in the background, but the frantic calls of the mother continued.

His wife also woke up, but his body was still shaking.

‘Are you alright’ she asked; the rapid and continuous blinking of his eyes though indicated he wasn’t.

‘She immediately clasped his hands and rubbed them frantically against hers; they were cold as ice.

‘Must have been a nightmare,’ she thought. The paralytic body of her husband moved for the first time after a year of that fateful accident; but a nightmare-inducing these freaky movements, she wondered.

Immediately bringing in some water, she began putting it drop by drop in the tube hanging outside his body; the lips and mind praying for him to calm down.

His eyes were closing again but suddenly opened as the cow mooed loudly.

The calf had stopped responding a long time ago.

He tried opening his eyes, but couldn’t. 

Experiencing as if he was falling into a deep dark abyss, he strained to hold on to his wife’s hands; the more he tried, however, the deeper he would slip inside.

Gathering all his energy to open them once more, he managed to witness a flickering image of her wife’s face; it was brimming with a small drop streaking down both her cheeks.

The eyes closed once again; the darkness was gone; he was floating in the light. He could see the calf, sure he was the one, crying for his mother.

The wife still waited for him to open his eyes; the body, however, went cold. He continued to move towards the light, while darkness enveloped her eyes and life.