Befriending Death…

One of my efforts to put down a short story I hope my readers like it. I have always written positive stuff and always have inspired people. As a hobby I have always tried and understood human behavior and what pains and emotions a human being goes through in various situations.

Today I have tried to understand the thought process of a person who is in loneliness and approaches his death, an early death.

They were sitting somewhere in the mountains of an unknown land. It had been a long and tiring journey. However, he, the human, looked energetic and all enthusiastic. He was very happy about the journey and the ultimate destination he was going to be at. His fellow traveller, also his captor, Death seemed tired. “Tell me human, how can you not regret meeting me? How can you not fear me? How can you not beg to live one more day?” The human smiled at this. Death had been trying all different ways to get the human to say something but all he did was smile and laugh throughout the road. At intervals he shared small incidents from his life which made even death laugh heartily. He befriended death sharing all those incidents. Death hardly knew that all those incidents were actually not funny at all. They were incidents of deepest hurt and sorrow the human went through but he still made jokes out of them. The human also spoke a lot about how he wanted to one day meet death and make it laugh and how his dream today had come true.

The human said in a firm voice, “My dear friend, I do not trust anyone or anything now. So first deliver me to the final destination as promised and I will reveal the secrets of my smile and laughter.” Death agreed to this.

The next day they started the journey again. The human accidently fell on a rock. To Death’s surprise he laughed out loud. He stood up dusting himself and laughing and asked Death, “Did you see that? Wasn’t it funny? I mean I am dying for sure and I still fall.”

Death just looked at him all confused. Finally, after a lot of turmoil they reached the final destination. The human sat down at the gates. Death told him, “Many come to this point and beg and give up on me. Many sit here and cry and sob. Many ask for forgiveness of sins. What is your reason to sit down here at the gates? Are you scared now?”  The human laughed again. He said without a single hint of fear or a single drop of tear in his eye, “Come sit by me my friend I need to answer your questions. You may have forgotten our bargain but I have not. I will answer your questions first and only then will enter the gates. I do not want to leave anything pending. So come and sit by me my friend.” Death sat at his side.

The human took a deep breath looked down at his life and then said “Death, throughout the road I was laughing and cracking jokes. I made you laugh and I befriended you. All my life I did that. I laughed and made laugh. The moment my laughter had taken away all the sorrow and tears I walked away from people. I met new people to make them laugh. I sat with them shared their bread and bought their sorrow. Some said you are a fool you are charging nothing in return. Yes I have been a fool it is true but it was out of choice. All I wanted was to sit and laugh and mock life because she mocked me right in the face at many instances. When all my dreams were broken, when everyone I loved walked away, when I was so jostled up that I had no guts to love any further and I was scared to say that I loved, my life sat and laughed at me. My tears meant nothing to her. I decide to one day mock her by befriending you and leaving her with a smile on my face and confidence in my heart. So I do not fear you. I do not sob because I have no one left behind who would miss me. I belong to a class of people who are never missed. People immediately replace us and forget us. I am not important to anyone. If you look down the valley you will not see even a single ant praying for me or begging God to bring me back to life. Whom should I sob for? What should I beg for? I have taken memories from everyone. I have not left memories for anyone. I have taken her smiles in my eyes; however I know she does not even remember my face. I have taken the sweetness and cuteness of the kids with me but I know they will grow up and get busy they will forget me. So I am not sobbing. Why would you think I would ask for forgiveness of my sins? I do not want to be reborn or I do not want to have an easy path. So I do not ask for forgiveness or beg to back. Now take me away to wherever you want I will laugh again and again as I want to mock life again and again. "