Premonition

It was very dark. Ameya could not see much beyond in the dense forest, although he could feel the path under his feet. He was not sure if this path will take him to the road and then the civilisation. He decided to wait out the night. Morning was not very far.

 

He sat on the side of the path. As the sunlight started peering out of the canopy of the tall trees, he could make out the path. He started walking towards the downward direction as that was surely to take him to the road. After walking for about ten minutes, he could see that he was walking in the right direction. He could even catch a glimpse of the road.

 

Soon he arrived on the road. It was early morning, so there were not many cars on the road. He could not hope for the lift at this time. There was no option but to start walking. He did not know how much he walked, probably for half an hour, when he reached at the crossroads with the roads coming from all the four directions.

 

He was on the left side of the road. He saw that some people were crowding around something. It must be some accident. Early morning accidents are quite common, particularly at the crossroads as people do not reduce their speed, thinking there won't be any traffic coming from the opposite direction. Since traffic lights were yet to be switched on, chances of a vehicle coming from the opposite direction hitting another vehicle or a person increase substantially.

 

As he reached near the site of commotion, he saw that someone was lying on the road, badly injured. He gently pushed some people aside to see if someone known to him was there. The face of the person was covered with blood, so it was not possible to know the identity of the person.

 

As he looked closely, he could make out that it was some female. He tried to talk to some people about the accident, but nobody seemed to know anything, except the fact that it was a bad accident. There was no vehicle around, so it was probably a 'hit and run' case.

 

He felt sad at the loss of young life. There was nothing he could do to help the person who was beyond any help.

 

He crossed the road and looked for a lift to go home. Suddenly it occurred to him that he did not even remember where home was.

 

….

Ameya's eyes tried to adjust to the light coming through the curtains. It was really a bad dream, a nightmare. He hoped that he did not have to witness such an accident in reality.

He looked for the time at his mobile screen. The nightmare had made sure that he would be late for office. He got up and got ready in twenty minutes. He will still be late by half an hour.

….

He walked up to his cubicle. He looked at the workstation facing him. It was a surprise that it was still not occupied. Neena used to always arrive before him and before starting their work they used to talk for a while. Many a time, Neena used to share home cooked food items with him. Perhaps she was on leave.

Just when he was starting the work, Aman who was sitting diagonal to him, nudged him.

"Let us go."

He was mildly irritated, "Whereto?"

"You did not hear the announcement?" Then it dawned upon him. "Oh! You came late, you must have missed the announcement. Neena met with a fatal accident. A condolence meeting is being held in the hall."

He got up and started walking towards the hall. Still shocked, he wondered if he had premonition of the accident. Perhaps the unrecognisable face of the nightmare belonged to Neena.