Radha Rewind

She was just finishing the word document that her boss had dumped on her. This was increasingly becoming the norm with her boss. It was a rainy Friday evening.

Oh! how she hated him.

But, what she hated more was the fact that she did not have a sympathetic ear to talk to. She felt the loneliness around her magnified by the absence of that someone whose shoulder she could take support on.

And the sham she had to put up for all to see - God! it was too much!

The world had relegated her to a role which was 'a successful working woman' - sans emotion and fiercely competitive. She had to play the part. Shakespeare's quote of the world being a stage rang true in her head.

People would shy away from her, taking a look at her profile and and her aspirations.

She felt as if no one understood her.

The document she was working on stopped responding.

"Goddamn Word... hung again!" she thought exasperated.

In a flash of anger, very characteristic of her, she shut the laptop with a loud thud. That drew curious stares from her co workers.

"Go f*** yourselves!" she thought in her head. It must have shown on her face because the nearest guy staring at her hurriedly swiveled on his chair and dove back into his excel sheet.

She stalked out of the office and snapped at the evening security guard. A small voice inside her said otherwise but it was vehemently sidelined by what she was now.

She got into her car and noisily slammed the door shut.

"At least this is enjoyable..." she thought to herself sourly.

Flipping on the radio; she squealed out of the parking lot and into the mainstream suburban traffic.

"God must be a five year old, five year old's are sadists" she thought angrily.

Approaching the intersection, she was supposed to take a right turn home. Realizing that she'd never explored any other route from office - she decided to take the left. It seemed clear of traffic as well.

"So what if I'm half an hour late to home - not like any one's waiting!" she thought to herself gruffly.

Flipping ABS off - she speeded up on the lone stretch of road. It was a beautiful night. The moon was shining down on the wet road. It had just rained and there was  no one on the empty stretch of road. The milestones indicated that she was headed away from her home. But in her current state of mind - she was least bothered.

She kept on going, stepping on the gas. the tires began squealing in the corners as she took them at higher and higher speed.

"More performance.." she thought to herself as she flipped the air con off and rolled down the window.  This was her mantra in life - more performance - at any cost. The beautiful draft of wind that blew in the car cabin invigorated her.

But that did nothing to lift her mood up which was still sour at her boss. Life it seemed had been unfair to her. Her parents had paid more attention to her elder brother, not that he was an idiot. He was doing pretty well for himself in the States.

"Well, he had been sent there by Dad" she thought unkindly.

"otherwise he would have been an electrician or something"

"Couldn't he have spared enough money to send me as well" she thought angrily. The speed of the car picked up even more.

Her thoughts floated to the promotion that her colleague Naresh had just got.

"Bastard hardly works - keeps staring at me - bloody lecher - and gets a promotion. I know i work more than him - I KNOW!" she slammed the steering wheel with her hands. they hurt.

"I should have been a man - I would have torn this guy apart..."

"Why don't I just die..." she thought painfully.

There was a loud noise from somewhere behind her. For a second everything seemed fine...

And then, the car careened wildly - fishtailing on the wet and slippery road at high speed.

Realizing that a Tyre had burst, she fought with the car to regain control - slamming on the brakes - she forgot she had turned ABS off - the wheels locked up on the wet road. The car was an uncontrollable mass of metal traveling at high speed.

She was frozen solid with fear - as she saw a turn in the road. And a bright light engulfed everything...

"You asked for it..." she heard a gentle voice,

Radha could not see anything - it was too bright, she was squinting

"What the hell..." she thought to herself.

"No, not Hell technically. Not yet..." the voice answered reading her thoughts.

"It'll be pretty soon if you keep up at it..." continued the voice.

"Who...what...what the f***..." she was completely disoriented.

"My, my..." the voice said -

"We are grouchy - aren't we now..." 

The voice was getting a bit irritating now.

"Who are you?!" 

She finally shouted.

"God..." 

The voice said simply.

"God?!!!" 

She almost screamed.

"Yes" the voice said.

"Whats with the light?!! I cant even see you..." she picked up an arm to shield herself away from the light - only to realize she didn't have one. She looked down horrified to find no body .All she saw was a shimmering ethereal bluish - black wisp of smoke floating around where her body was supposed to be.

"Its called a soul..." the voice answered reading her thoughts.

"Listen dude..." she snapped...

"God..." the voice interrupted her.

"Yeah...whatever, and turn the darn light off!!" she was hysterical. There was a loud click and the bright light was off. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw a five year old kid with curly hair approaching. She recoiled in terror.

"Yo..you..you are God?!?!?!!" she was hardly able to get it out.

"The child gave a cute naughty smile. he was sprightly and had long silky hair. Fair and well built he came close to Radha. Radha floated away, her smokey body was turbid in appearance.

 The child suddenly turned into her Boss, and then into her father, and then into the security guard.

"STOP IT!!! PLEASE!!!" she was on the verge of tears. Or, within context, welling up water vapor.

"OK, OK.. i thought it would be a cool stunt. But do you get my point?!" the security guard asked. The voice had the same benign quality around it. It seemed to have a calming effect on her. She felt light as well - which felt strange.

"What point??!" she asked puzzled.

"Well, that I am everywhere! Your boss, your father, the security guard you snapped at this evening. Heck - even the imagined five year old..." the voice said.

"Are you showing off??" she asked pugnaciously.

"Look, i gotta wrap up here sweety. So be with me OK? I haven't got all night" the voice was still benign but there was an element of testiness in it now.

"OK..." she said meekly.

"Right! So, you have been dissing me for quite a while now...correct?" the security guard posed a question to her.

"Yeah..."she shrugged.

"I am not going to ask why because you have been telling me the same story for a million years! See, the plain and simple reason for your suffering is that you're being nasty to people."

"That's horseshit!" she exclaimed. And checking herself  "I'm sorry".

"Exactly my point, who in their senses would say 'that's horseshit' to something God's telling them?". the security guard rolled his eyes.

"Not many...and...I said, I am sorry" she said in a small voice.

"Wrong! all of you all" the guard said exasperatedly ignoring her apology.

"You'll are just plain mean to each other all the bloody time - and then say I am doing this! You think i have the time?!?!" he thundered.

"I gotta save humanity from dolts like you, and there are lots of them; billions in fact; everyone of you is a dolt on some level..." the guard looked pretty calm - surprisingly.

"Well, I am sorry..." she began.

"No, no, that's not good enough - Do you know - why you have a bluish-black smoky appearance?" he asked.

"No..."

"Because you always keep thinking dark despairing things!" he exclaimed.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, be positive baby..." his voice softened. He continued.

"Listen, i really have to go, but remember, keep praying. And, stop dissing me heartlessly. I really don't like being called names. Not that ill do something nasty in return, I just like you too much..."

he almost finished...

"Oh yeah, another thing, when you pray - ask for what'll be good for you, not what you want - because you're just plain stupid in asking for the right things.." he smiled broadly. Just looking at the broadly smiling security guard made her feel warm all inside her gaseous state.

"Be good sweetheart...everything will fall in place..."

Before she could react - he stuck a hand inside her Smokey self. The smoke disappeared instantly. There was a loud click in the background as everything was engulfed in the same bright light.

She woke up as usual to the ringing alarm. She eyed the wall clock lazily. It was 8 a.m.

"What a weird dream" she thought hazily.

 "Heh...God - it seems..." she guffawed in her head.

She groggily made coffee and turned on the news. Her brain seemed stiff, almost zombie like.
There was a to-do list stuck with a magnet on the refrigerator.There was something scribbled on it with crayon. She took a closer look and squinted through glazed eyes - It had only two points
1. Be good
2. Pray
The handwriting looked like a five year old's.

"Must be the next door neighbor's son..." she thought stupidly.

She took one long swig of coffee and proceeded to spit it out all over the kitchen counter as she saw the date flashing on the ticker of the news channel. 

Friday 21st May.

P.S. - Due respect to 'Bruce Almighty'.