A Journey Back in Time

A Journey Back in Time

For a moment Abbas thought that he was visiting his home town back in the Himalayas, but the scenery of this area was something stranger than the one he had in his mind about his native village. Neither he had heard from his grandfather that the Himalayas are lighted with fires at night, nor he had any knowledge about the frequent screams coming from the mountains. While he wondered about the place, he never did notice his own dress. Suddenly, a bleak breeze made him feel for warmth. Oh God! He was naked.

For a minute Abbas searched here and there for something to cover his body, but except for some fallen leaves he found nothing. “What in the world has brought me here in this situation”, he thought. Though it wasn’t dawn yet, still he suspected that somebody might come and watch him nude.

The chirping of birds and whispering of air signaled sunrise. Though it was something normal to the young lad, grown up among the peace of Clifton (Karachi, Pakistan), still he couldn’t hope for any good, for he was trapped in an all-dark scenario. He wasn’t used to being alone, but today no one was upon his side. Perhaps, he felt there could be no one with him ever again. That made him believe that he was somewhere different to the world he has been living in.

“Ofl, lfl, nfl”, Abbas heard. Being in the woods, it was difficult for him to recognize who exactly was making those sounds. But he didn’t bear guessing, because he was just concerned with the increasing frequency of the voices in his direction. What could he do to avoid being seen? Running away didn’t seem a plausible option, since there were thorny bushes scattered everywhere that could easily pin in the exposed heels of the boy. He didn’t spot any thick enough bark to hide behind either. Neither he got any idea in his mind to trick the strangers and made them run away. In those circumstances he could only hope for the beings to act mercifully over his condition, so he laid down, his face facing the ground. But his hopes didn’t come true. The worst was yet to happen with him.

Three men muttered over Abbas. He couldn’t interpret what they were exactly saying, but he got to understand that they were talking about him, the stranger. He realized that it was the perfect time for him to stand up and to try prove his innocence, so he did exactly. In the next moment he was facing three enormous and abnormally hairy creatures, dressed partially in leafy clothes. They didn’t seem belonging even to the least civilized world of the century or around. In fact, they were the people from early world, may be from the stone age. The persons were equipped with wooden arrows and they looked eager in their eyes to utilize the opportunity to capture the unfortified guy (something Abbas had learned to sense by reading “The Secrets of Desert”). By then, poor Abbas had realized that he was captured. His amazement got converted to fear and the usually talkative Abbas was now a figure of silence in front of his captors.

Off the jungle.

This time, one of the three men hurried away, leaving Abbas with a more troubled mind and an accelerating heart. Abbas couldn’t decide whether he was their prisoner or prey. Where they were heading? It remained a quandary. In the perplexity of the scenario, he didn’t even notice that the path he and his detainers were following wasn’t any kind of streets in villages or towns, but they were walking randomly through natural ditches. Neither did Abbas saw any street in the surroundings. It was as if no one had been living there in the history of time. With each passing moment on his way towards the unknown destination, Abbas was experiencing things he had never imaged before, which infused in him much doubt about the world around him.

Oh Heavens! A crowd was awaiting the alien’s arrival. All of a sudden, children having catapults and women taking pebbles in their hands emerged out of the crowd and fiercely attacked Abbas. The intensity of their yells watching their victim indicated as if they had remained hungry for centuries. Mysteriously, that didn’t prove to be enough to handle the apparently fragile victim. Abbas took the bullet speed and flashed away like a breeze.

In the next moment, Abbas found himself over his bed. He took a sigh of relief, but couldn’t avoid thinking of the dream. It wasn’t any normal experience for him. He thought, “Either the magic or some miracle had taken me back in time. Surely, it has something to do with my life. But what?” With each further attempt to resolve the dilemma, Abbas got more puzzled about the secret behind his nightmare.