A Page From The Old Man’s Diary…

The fire cracked in front of him as he sat quietly staring into the flames, smoking his cigar with Frank Sinatra playing on the record player
in the background. The walls on either side of him were lined up with books from top to bottom. He had been collecting them for years now and was proud of his library. He had books which had been gifted to him as a child, to books he had bought from garage sales to collectibles which had cost him a bomb. His receding hairline was just an indication that he was growing old, even though he was still believed that he was still 18 but his body seemed to disagree. He grabbed his robe as he felt the chilly air blowing through the nearby open window. He got up to close it and cause of his shivering hands he knocked over the book kept on the shelf right next to the window.

 

I’ll Be Waiting

Loneliness is just a wall you walk into very often. You stumble your way through this gruesome forest of life just to encounter this
wall once in a while and you don’t have an answer. You prepared yourself for this situation for years. You thought that when time would come and you would need help there will be these few people standing next to you ready to break down the wall with you and you never checked to look back cause you always believed they were there behind you. But now they are gone. They are nowhere to be seen when the time of reckoning comes. They leave you standing there helpless and alone, unprepared for what might be there behind that wall. You just stand there looking up trying to look for ways to fight this war alone as the suns coming down in the distance. You just wasted countless number of months preparing for the inevitable just to be left alone on the lonesome day.

 

High On Pain

As I lay there with smoke rising like a heap of cloud above my head, my thoughts gave way to clearer facts about life. I felt light. I felt free. As the smoke found its way out of my lungs into the clean air of the room, I felt as if I was letting go. My mind for once had gone blank, no thoughts, no worries and thankfully no pain. I was alone and the world was there for me to carve it the way I wanted to. I lay there mind purified and for the first time I really heard the lyrics of the song which was playing in the background.

I had heard the song before a million times but somehow never cared to really understand it. Till now it had never made so much sense. Every word the dude sang engraved its way into my heart and fit like lost pieces of puzzle of my life. The way he talked about love and hurt and pain made complete sense. Our life was just another joke for the man sitting above us, laughing his way as we tortured our way through this unbelievable painful path.

 

Snapshots Of Life …

Alan sat in front of me with a cast on his hand and a shoulder support. I had seen him come to the bar every Friday for the last six months. He was a young enthusiastic lad who was always smiling and was full of energy. The people around him always seemed to love him and he was an amazing listener. I had seen how he had always been there for his friends when they really needed him.

 

But today he seemed to be in physical pain. He looked tired but still the smile never left his face. I turned towards him and asked him the reason for his tattered condition. He had a few bruises on his face and well the cast seemed to be from a serious injury. Alan didn’t seem to be a guy who got too much into fights but well my curiosity got the better of me so I had to ask. He insisted it was nothing but my curious face was jus irresistible for a story.