1.
As my back touched the ground, I
realized how tired my journey had already gotten me. My belly is shouting at me
to feed it and my legs are vibrating from fatigue. However, lying down allows
me to see the sky above me and marvel at how enchantingly beautiful it can be.
This is a special night. There is no moon in the sky and only the shine of the
stars light the world around me and the path to my destination.
When I was a little boy no taller
than his waist, my father ordered me to never stare at the night sky for too
long. When I asked him why he told me with a stern voice, “Everything is not to
be questioned or explained, Kalidasa.” The order would not have been so
difficult to follow if he had not given me such incomplete reasoning. That very
night, I ran out to the edge of the village and climbed the biggest tree I
could find. When I reached the top, I immediately looked up and fixed my gaze
towards the heavens. It’s just the sky, I thought, with stars, half a moon, and
darkness. Guided by my juvenile curiosity however, I decided to watch for a
little longer. As my eyelids started to get heavy from sleepiness, I started
considering giving up on finding an answer. I felt a little silly for coming
all this way only to risk getting into trouble. Just a few seconds before
deciding that it was getting too hard for me to keep my eyes open, it happened.
The sky started to move around and form a spiral. The night sky no longer
seemed like a bed for the moon and stars to rest on. I rubbed my eyes in
disbelief as everything above me began to swirl and be pulled into a hole in
the sky that seemed to be right above my head. I lost grip on myself, and the
tree, as the sight became too much for me to handle. The tree appeared to be
angry at me for not being able to hold the weight of the night and threw me to
the ground.
The next thing I remember is
opening my eyes at home and seeing three figures towering above me.
My father would have beaten me to
a pulp if I didn’t already have broken bones in my body. The look on his face
showed a level of anger and disappointment that confused me. It was clear that
he did not feel this way because I hurt myself but because he knew that I
confidently disobeyed his order.
The village elder was examining
me in a manner that made me feel like my face looked different from what it did
yesterday. I did not like this old man. I had always seen him telling people
something but never listening to them in return. He was stubborn in his beliefs
and was always too strict about the village rules, which, conveniently for him,
only he and his forefathers were allowed to create and alter.
I felt sorry for my mother. Tears
flowed down her cheeks, not due to any pride or rules, but merely due to the
love and care she felt or me. I wanted to get up and comfort her but I wasn’t
able to leave my bed for another few weeks.
When I was healed, I decided to
go ask the village elder about why it was so wrong to stare at the night sky.
No matter what kind of a person he was, he had to have the most experience and
knowledge among all the villagers. I found him strolling with his stick towards
the village center. He must have definitely scolded some people on his way
there. I walked up to him, bowed and conveyed my inquiry. Instead of giving an
answer to my question, he lashed out and hit me with his stick. As I ran away
from him, I heard him shouting at the top of his lungs, “Curse you Abram! Your
spirit does not leave this village even after your banishment!”
Abram? Who was Abram? What did he
do to get banished?
These questions, along with my
initial inquiry, formed the much needed baseline for the journey I am on now.
It has been ten years since I fell from that tree and twenty days since I snuck
out of my village, forever.
To my surprise, there were a few
children of my age that had also heard Abram’s name. Some had heard their
parents or older siblings talk about him. Others had heard stories about him
that were a little hard to believe. These stories included incidents like how
he once extinguished all the fires lit in the village with one scream so that
he could watch the night sky without any obstructions and how he once stretched
his arms to the clouds to push them away from the village to see the moon,
frightening the rain away or years.
My interest in Abram and his mystery annoyed not
only my elders but also my friends. They had developed a perception of him that
highlighted his villainous intent and thought that my questions were a clear
indication of my admiration for him rather than simple curiosity. At one point,
I simply stopped talking about the matter.https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/197340536-secret-sky
https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/197340536/write/771950311
https://medium.com/@farhung/secret-sky-1-9e4d74d62ad9
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