An Unexpected Return

     There is always that one friend or group of friends, who are so carefree that even if the house is collapsing, they will first finish their pizza slice, before escaping. You always try to avoid them, but they somehow, inevitably find you.

   Similar were my friends Steve and Alex. Were they adventurous? Well, that would be an understatement, considering that Alex had once jumped into a well to catch a butterfly! Or that part, when I had once hit the cricket ball too hard. It went into James’ house. “Go and get it!” They stormed at me. But I was too speechless to even look at them. “Fine, pussy. I’ll do it myself,” saying so, Steve went away and brought back the ball in a minute, as stealth as a thief.

   So anyway, the story begins here. Our school had arranged a field trip to National Park. After an excited night successfully lacking sleep, I woke up. It was 5:30 AM. We were to reach school till 6:30. Within half an hour’s time, I reached. I located my friends, or rather, they located me. Before long, I was trapped in slang remarks about what we would do over there.

   And that’s how we entered the bus. I was so fed up with their talking, that for one second, I actually thought about sleeping. But Steve and Alex found me and literally pulled me away from them. For the first time, I felt grateful towards this act of theirs.

   On reaching, the teachers shepherded us through the herd of citizens visiting the place. We were asked to form a line, as they guided us. One by one, all the places were shown to us. Then we went hiking. It was a beautiful mountain until the butterflies started dancing around us, mid-air. Everybody went “Wow they’re so beautiful” But I, due to my slight fear of lepidopterans, stayed silent. Suddenly, Steve caught hold of one of them. “Yo, you two. Come here,” he said to us. Everyone went ahead, but I, him and Alex stayed behind. I, dumbstruck, watched the revolting sight of Alex tickling the fluttering creature held tightly in Steve’s hands.

   Suddenly, somehow, the butterfly escaped and flew ten feet above us. We ran behind it. Actually, Steve and Alex were chasing it, and I was only running behind them, who looked precisely like evolved monkeys under the afternoon sun. But then, disaster struck. They were running, running and suddenly, in the blink of my eye, they vanished. I ran towards the place where I last saw them, only to find out that it was a cliff! I couldn’t see it, standing 20 metres away, because of the afternoon sun!

   I yelled for help. Oh god, where are all the people when you actually need their help? I thought about climbing down. There was no other way; Alex and Steve had definitely fallen inside. I lowered myself and felt my feet touch the soil. When everything seemed to be perfect, the soil gave way and I was falling. Thankfully, the slope wasn’t too steep and it slowly curved to meet the ground. Thank God! But then my head struck a rock and I fainted.

   When I came to, I thought desperately, hoping against hope, that this was one of those bad dreams that you get before an exciting day. That I would get up on the bed, with a pillow at my head and covered under a blanket. Instead, I awoke on the moist soil, with the rock at my head, and covered head to foot with dust and twigs.

   I stood up and looked around me. I was at the bottom of the valley. Stuck. Like an ant inside a bucket. There were two ways to save myself now. Risk climbing the mountain wall again, or go in the open, where the houses of the tribal community were clearly visible. Both the options were risky. So I decided to look for my friends.

   “Steve! Alex!” I strained my ears for their panicked voices, but the frail, defeated echo coming off the cliff wall, was definitely my own. When all hope was lost, I looked upon the cliff-top. There was an outline of three people. Standing dark against the bright sunlight, they waved to me. I waved back, muttering foolishly “oh look. The angels are here. My time has come.” But then, even more of those outlines appeared. They were so many in number, that they covered the whole perimeter of the cliff-top. Some were pointing, some were just standing, and others were waving like mad. Then a man was lowered down by a rope. He came, tied another rope around my waist, and signalled the others to pull us up, which they did with great power together.

   When we reached the top, I saw that the people were my teachers and classmates. They had unexpectedly returned where they had heard my shout! I also noticed that among them were Steve and Alex. When everyone started their rapid-fire of questions, I told them what had happened. When I came to the part where I fell, Steve said, “But we never fell to the extreme bottom.” “What?” I was shocked. “Yes,” said Alex. “We found this cool little cave in the mountain wall. And it had this nice tunnel which opened to the mountain top. It was sick! That’s how we got out.”

   Mesmerized, I was brought back to the bus and we all went home one hour before we were supposed to leave. You should have seen what a tantrum the dramatic kids made. But they saved my life. They were more than my friends; they were as good as family.

   Which reminded me, when my parents hear about this, and they will, they are going to ground me. Shakespeare mentioned it accurately ‘Heaven works in ways man does not understand. I mean, I made it through the panicky situation, but now…

May God bless me.