27867 seconds. That roughly calculated to eight hours. By now, Fallah had become an expert at calculating the time. It was Time (with a capital T). Everyone’s born with a countdown ticking on their wrists. Numbers that can’t be erased and will never disappear until the clock reaches zero. And zero means that you’ve fulfilled your life’s destiny. The reason you were born.
But normally, people had countdowns that lasted decades. Fallah was different. She was born with numbers smaller than most. Fate had woven the tapestry of her life with bold, bright threads. She was born to do something great. Most people didn’t get to know their purpose at the age of 16 years and 2 months.
Most days, Fal felt normal. Normal, like she wasn’t any different from the rest of her town. Like she didn’t have the world balancing on her shoulders. Other days, she would wonder. Wonder why she was the unusual one. How could she be the girl to do something great, so young? And what would it be? What can she do? What power did she have to change the world?
She had read of people whose destiny had made them pioneers, revolutionising the world. And also of people who were born to kill, murder and torture thousands- who had also made it into her history books. Fallah didn’t know which end of the spectrum she fell into. And she would never know until the time came.
Time. Again, that word.
It was always there, always one step ahead. Taunting us with its crooked smile, it’s feathered wings flapping as it flew and flew and flew. Never stopping. Its long cape of past opportunities and lost chances fluttering behind its amorphous figure, brushing past us once in a while to remind us of what was gone. Forever.
And today was the day. Once she had fulfilled whatever was to come, then she could leave behind all the anticipation and live out her life, knowing she had done what she had to do.
So, that’s how she woke up this morning. Though her mind was aflutter with possibilities of what was to come, her heart and soul were at peace. She felt cocooned in the webs of life, as she realised that she was going to experience a convergence of the past aeons of time and the end of all her nerve-wracking anxiousness- in just eight hours.
She didn’t know where to go.
Where was someone to go when they had an appointment with fate? This is what she had prepared herself for. Biographies, blogs, interviews. She had referred them all. And not one person had given her a hint of just where she had to be. They said she’ll be there when she has to be. And that didn’t make any sense to her. And now, she was stuck with a tumultuous conundrum.
Fallah didn’t have school that day. There was no routine for her to sink into. She didn’t know how to spend her time until the moment arrived. There it was again: Time.
Seven hours left. And our hero was armed with her backpack and a plan. She was going to forge into the crowds of her town and see if there was anything she could do to make it a better place to be. Easier said than done.
Her mom gave a smile that conveyed it all: ‘I love you. I’m proud of you. And I’ll always be here when you want me’. Dad was a hugger. And one bear hug later, Fallah walked out of her house, with an extra coating of warmth and security. She was going to conquer the world!
Just before turning the corner, she gave one last, lingering look at her home. And then, she was off.
21595 seconds later, Fallah was no closer to that shimmery veil of destiny than she was that morning. The afternoon sun beat down on the cracked pavement blocks as she slumped dejectedly into a bench under the cool shade of a tree.
She rewound the memories of her last six hours since she left home with a sigh. As far as she knew, she had done nothing.
We live in our own minds. And they can be a lonely place. But the actual, honest truth is that we are not really alone. As long as any action or word of ours collide with another being, we are eternal. At least in that soul’s life. And this is what Fallah didn’t know.
She had helped an old lady with her groceries to cross the road. Smiled at a stranger on the bus, who looked wrapped in his gloom. Picked up a puppy from the streets and took him to a shelter to be taken care of. Gave a little girl a flower she plucked from a bush.
It seemed like little inconsequential things in Fallah’s mind. The Earth hadn’t rocked off its orbit in elation as it rejoiced in something magnificent she had done. Her face wasn’t plastered on the screens of the televisions blaring all over the place. No one had actually taken notice of the petite girl with hope in her eyes. Hope that she can be somebody.
But life had. Life turned its head, creaking and groaning, to take in this girl who had always wanted to do the right thing. And she had. Every day, she would hand out a little bit of kindness to anyone in her way. As Life saw her thrive so beautifully, it started to smile after so long. That was all you had to do to get life going. Live with happiness.
And so Fallah sat. On a bench, tired and disappointed in herself. Believing herself to be not worthy. And the seconds ticked down.
Yet, when the girl on the opposite end of the street caught Fal’s eye, she let a tiny twitch from her mouth- forgetting her worry for a moment. The little girl waved at her shyly. She was the one who Fallah had given a flower to. Her tiny plaits bobbed along as the kid ran to grab a lily from a plant near her and make her way towards Fallah’s bench.
Time let itself slow down. It swivelled its eyes to look back.
Fallah noticed the truck before the girl did.
And she was running.
Tripping over herself.
And at the last moment, she pushed.
Collision.
You would think that she would be able to hear the cacophony around her. But she sat inside a tranquillity of her own. And Fallah felt herself slip away as the sky above her darkened. A life for a life. So in the end, as the time on her wrists reached 000000, she realised what her destiny was: Sacrifice. And that was just as beautiful as revolutionising the world. For she had changed the world. That little girl’s world.
And she thought to herself, “So, this is life”.
Supernova 