A Human Story

A Trip Down Memory Lane

"Hey, D. Wake up. It's day already." Vijay said, shaking him.

"Where am I?" Deeraj asked, his voice thick, blinking till his eyes adjusted to the light. The room was dimly lit, only the street lamps provided light.

"Day? It's dark. This is when you sleep." Deeraj said and rolled over.

"What? No. Oh, was that how it was before?" Vijay said, his eyes glinting excitedly.

"Before wha-," Deeraj was saying when he finally noticed Vijay's hand. It all came rushing back to him like a speeding bus.

"Oh, right. Before death. Yup. What happened? How am I inside?" he asked. The room was lit in a yellow color at the far corner of the room, then moved towards him and then went out as a car whizzed past the window.

"Oh, you kind of fainted. I carried you inside. Which is pretty commendable, with my hand and all, but well I'm not bragging." Vijay replied, shrugging plenty of times to show he wasn't bragging.

Chitra was seated on a stool, near the door.

"Vijay, not now." she said.

"Not now what? I wasn't bragging." Vijay replied, shrugging once more.

"Okay. Not now to whatever it was that you were doing. You have to ease him in, his world's just been turned upside down. It's about him." Chitra said.

Vijay turned to Deeraj. "She's done this before. Likes to show off a bit." he whispered.

"Done what?" Deeraj asked, sitting up on the bed.

"Been a carrier," he must have noticed the confusion on Deeraj's face and another "What?" coming, for he continued, "Oh, that's someone who's assigned to a newbie to ease them in, teach them the ways and carry their memories onward."

"How about my memories just being 'carried onward' by myself?" Deeraj inquired.

"That's not how it works. Why? I think this is perfectly fine. You can remain a memory to someone else even if you aren't around. They'll carry you with 'em. Just in case you get to the way out - to the door" Vijay said.

"Way out? There's a door? Where?" Deeraj said pulling himself up. Another car whizzed past, lighting the room up briefly once again. Honk. Honk!

"If I knew, why would I be here? Only some find it. The person to whom Chitra was carrier - her carried, we say - she found the way. Just went missing one day," Vijay said. "Come on, we'll take a walk. You can tell me about yourself. Chitra, the humans?" he asked turning to her.

"They're in their room." she said peeking into the hall.

"Shall we?" Vijay asked, his left arm outstretched at Deeraj like an invitation.

"I'd rather not." Deeraj said shyly and got up himself.

The doors had to be very slowly handled, apparently. That was a rule, to not alert the humans. They started out, just the two of them. Chitra remained home. After about ten minutes of silent walking, Vijay asked, "Ready to talk to me?"

"Oh, I was just silent cause you were. Yeah, sure." Deeraj said. Then he told Vijay about his family, his friends. Everyone but his sister skipped past hurriedly.

"She always just had my back, you know. Definitely mean at times, on purpose, but never really let me down when it mattered," Deeraj was saying as Vijay silently nodded. That was all he had done the entire time Deeraj was talking.

"There was this one time. I had come home late. Real late. Not my fault, my cycle tire was airless. My parents, boy they were mad. So my mom's shouting at me, and this little devil, she decides it's the right time to disclose she saw me standing outside my class in school that day. So then, screaming turned to beating."