Fishing Rod : Short story collection

Wake up

She stood surprised in front of the mirror.

She was sixteen again. Wearing the blue pajamas she had burned a hole through on her seventeenth birthday via the cake's candle, she was definitely sixteen. Her wrists were lean and smooth and her hair was long enough to reach down her elbows. She was sixteen again.

Had she been brought back in time to correct her mistakes? Or had she just had a dream of the next few years of her life? In the next five years, she was to gain and lose too much. She looked around for more hints in her room. The cup she used as a pen stand that she had smashed on the floor, was intact. The hair she had angrily chopped into ugly messes, was soft and fragrant. The arms she'd carved out in agony were clean.

The clock read 4 am, the digital clock that had stopped working when she started college.

She walked out of her bedroom, and her parents were sleeping peacefully in one bed. Sharing a bed that they would stop doing soon, because of her. Because someone would have to be responsible for her and make sure she didn't act out again.

Pictures of cousins and friends were decorated in the living room. Glass objects were placed within her range of reach. Even knives in the kitchen were in plain sight. The kind of monster she had become, she'd almost forgotten the sweet space her home used to be, just like it was now.

She rustled through more objects lying around. Books and dresses filled her room. Knickknacks decorated the entire house in a way she only felt in memories.

She thought of a selfish thing again. If she was sixteen again, how did they talk to her when she was sixteen? Were they casual to her like family was supposed to be? Or were they strict like most parents are? Or maybe they were sweet just like this home. Maybe they wouldn't be afraid of her anymore, they wouldn't look at her like she was some dangerous thing. They won't be afraid of getting hit with a chair when they spoke to her.

"Wake up."

She giggled again at the thought and walked into her parents' bedroom.

She slowly nudged her mother. "Ma, wake up." But she was soundly asleep. Right, they were asleep in the middle of the night, she'd have enough time to speak with them tomorrow. She checked the time, 4 am on this bedroom's clock. It would be morning soon and she would talk to her parents again, like a normal girl.

She softly opened the almirah and it creaked to make a loud noise just like it used to. She hissed, thinking her father would wake up hearing that, but he snored loudly instead of waking up. She thought it was funny, how they were both in such deep slumber.

She took out the picture book, containing her parents' wedding photos. She hadn't seen them in years now, she couldn't control her laugh at her older cousins' funny faces.

"You're only dreaming, wake up..."

She wasn't dreaming, she really was sixteen again! Nothing bad had happened yet!

She remembered the one particular photo of her mother, where she looked like she was sleeping, even on her wedding day. She quickly looked through the album to find that one photo. She hadn't ripped this album apart when she was sixteen. "Ma, look. You look like you're sleeping, the photographer took such a bad shot." She fake-showed it to her sleeping mother and laughed by herself again. Being sixteen was so much fun. "Ma, I won't do bad things anymore, okay? Just wake up, please. We'll have fun only, and we'll gossip about school."

"Whatever is making you so happy, isn't real. Wake up now......"

But she really is sixteen again. She really could do it all over again. Change history.

She nudged her mother again, this time with some more force this time. It would be morning soon, right? She checked the time again, 4 am. Yes, it would be morning soon. "Ma, look what I found, look here Baba looks so funny. He's become old and cranky now." She laughed again and gave her stubborn mother another push. She wouldn't budge.

"Wake up, Ma... you're not supposed to sleep right now."

"Wake up... you're not supposed to be there."

She pulled her father's feet to wake him up. That's how he used to wake her up before school, would pull her feet in a funny way, and they would laugh about it. "Listen to me, wake up now." She growled softly, like a wild animal giving a warning. "I'll be mad if you don't wake up, Baba."

"It's dangerous if you don't wake up now." A familiar beep was heard.

She wasn't the one who was asleep, it was her parents who wouldn't wake up. Right, she only had to wake them up and everything would be alright again. She checked the time again, a little panicked because her parents wouldn't listen to her, 4 am. "Ma, it's not funny. Wake up." Her mother breathed calmly and yet she lay lifeless to her shaking attempts.

She shook her father vigorously but he wouldn't open his eyes. Were they playing dead? Was it some game? Did they want to test her, how far she'd go to wake them up?

Two beeps echoed together. "She isn't waking up, doctor."

She hit her father's forehead with the photo album. It was heavy, so she had expected a scream, but only light snoring was heard, even as a purple color started appearing on his forehead.

"Stop it, stop whatever you're doing in there. You need to wake up."

"Baba, doesn't it hurt? I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, it must hurt a lot. But... why won't you wake up?" She sniffled and threw the album on the floor. Baba wouldn't wake up.

She ran towards the kitchen and smashed a glass vase. She ran over the broken pieces and her feet bled, she ran back to her parents' room and they still wouldn't wake up. Tears started to form in her eyes, were they so angry at her? That they wouldn't even wake up?

She checked the time, 4 am, and yet she couldn't wait a few more hours till morning.

"Give her another shot, that could wake her up." A beep.

She walked back to the kitchen, slower this time, and her feet hurt from the glass pieces that got inside and the bleeding hadn't stopped. She grabbed a knife from the drawer and went to the bedroom again. "I'm angry now, you won't wake up." She held the knife in one shaky hand.

"Please wake up, you're gonna lose all progress we've made."

"Ma, wake up now!" She slashed her own finger and it bled out. "It hurts so much!! And it's all your fault! Why won't you wake up, Ma?!" It was 4 am.

"It's not fair if I'm the only one who hurts Ma."

"Patient is highly unstable, wake her up somehow!"

She climbed atop her mother and held the bloody knife above. "Why are you making me do this, Ma? Why don't you wake up? You just have to wake up, just wake up."

"Wake up! You're going to die if you don't wake up!"

Tears fell down her eyes continuously. "You'll have to die if you don't wake up, Ma."

It was still 4 am.

One long beep reverberated in the ICU.