Strangers in the rain

'Perhaps I should have provided more money at home this month. I should have tried to earn more, had I done so, dad would not have required to sell our home. Now, what is to happen of them in their old age. The incompetent son that I am, I robbed them off of their only source of comfort. If only I would have stayed away from Ritesh, alcohol would not have consumed me. I would not have added to dad's debt with all of my gambling. I am such a useless person, damn, the most useless person. I do not deserve to have my parents. I do not deserve this life. I do not deserve to live. I must die. Yes, I must. At least, they would be relieved of the stress I am causing for them.'

The loud squeal of the approaching local train disrupted the flow of these plethora of emotions whirling in his mind. He was startled and faced the approaching local. The heavy rains of that monsoon night had already blurred his vision, his eyelids drooping with water. Yet, he failed to recognize, if the water drooping was salty from his tears or it was the sweet rain water. The bright, dirty yellow light of the locals’ headlights pierced through the sheet of rain, slightly contracting his pupils.

Just as he continued staring at the train, a sudden thought crossed his mind. To any other human, that thought would have occurred to be downright terrifying, yet, this thought gladdened him.

'Yes, I must do this. This is the only solution to get rid off their misery and sort out the present predicament.'

He started walking straight, crushing the blearily growing grass blades alongside the train track. When he felt he had approached the train, covering a suitable distance, he leapt in front of the train, waiting for the heavily blaring body to strike him, get rid of life from him. His eyes were shut close, almost forcibly.

As he was waiting for an excruciating pain to traverse through him, all he felt was a sudden jolt, a firm and strong tug on his left arm. For a while, he just kept sensing the passage of the train, it was all his ears could make him sense. As the voice became more distant, a steady rattling of the wheels on the track, and the dampened vibrations alongside him, he stealthily opened his eyes. The train had travelled a significant distance by then. He felt a presence around him, whirling his neck around, he came face to face with a woman. She, he noted, was standing stiffly, huffing slightly, perhaps, due to the sudden activity and glaring at him with an immense anger.

"What the heck were you thinking before jumping in front of this train?", she yelled with an uncanny furiousness.

He flinched at her harsh tone, and then, remembering the reason why he had tried such a thing, a sudden bout of anger surged through his veins.

"Why do you want to know, hmm. Let me do what I wish to. I am a pathetic excuse of a son, had I never been born, they would have been so happy today, without even a hint of stress. Had I not fallen into the abysses of alcohol, gambling, they would not have needed to sell their home today. I am pathetic, so damn useless. I do not want to live. Why did you even interfere? Who are you to interfere? Damn!!", he yelled at her, angry tears of sheer frustration streaming down his cheeks, his eyes blazing with a fire which had the capability of turning his sensibility into ashes. And that, it certainly did.

"Yaa, go ahead and commit the suicide. That's what you will do. Running away from your problems than facing them. Can you even imagine the plight of your parents if you do so? You feel, they hate you for what you have done until, but what shall happen of them if you get yourself killed? Won't they blame themselves for not being strong enough to support you in your predicament, to not console you at your weakest. Do you wish to see them extremely vulnerable and tattered to pieces after you would have been done with your life? Do you wish to see them drowning in the pain which you would inflict on them with your absence? Tell me, would you wish for this?", she confronted him in a stern and firm voice.

He stared at the lady standing before him. Her jaws clenched with anger, her eyes narrowed into slits, the dark pupils almost blazing with fire, her arms stretched forward with exasperation, her forehead etched with creases of worry.

And then, with her words hurled at him, the depth of the situation dawned upon him in sincerity. He wondered if she would not had been here, to save him, just in time, his remains would have been splattered on these very tracks in front of him.

Disappointed with himself, he planted his face in between his palms, they trying to wipe away the salty tears etched on his cheeks, the fresher streaks falling rapidly. He could now only imagine what would have happened to his parents, had she not been here.

"You would not like that, right?", her now soft voice broke his gloomy trance.

He stared at her with his bloodshot eyes, nodding a yes, and then, immediately averted his gaze at his feet, extremely ashamed with his impracticable and incredulous behaviour.

As he began chastising himself, she started speaking.

"You are not the only one. I have been there, helpless, desperate, frustrated with my life.", she chuckled humourlessly at her words, staring faraway into the emptiness of the night. The heavy rains had now morphed into a faint drizzle, with just a faint distant croak of the frogs occasionally.

She then turned to face him.

"You know, I had been hurt the most by the person I trusted the most - my husband. At first it was plain snapping which turned into yelling, angry words, verbal abuses. Then started the beatings, the slaps, the punches, the kicks, initially either of them and them all of them."

He stared into her eyes, which carried the pained expression, which shook something in him.

"I wanted to run away, but he would not let me do so, I wanted to complain, but he was so smart and ahead of me. Anywhere and anytime, I would find an escape route, he would have already blocked it, before I would even be halfway through. One day, I have had enough."

She took a deep breath at that, he said nothing, his eyes gesturing her to continue, almost pleading to do so.

"It was near around midnight, a heavy downpour, same as the one, a few minutes prior. I ran aimlessly on the road, and reached this station. I do not know how, but I kept on walking and reached the same spot where we have been standing now."

He looked at her, puzzled and with an unbelieving expression marring his face.

"I know, you would find it hard to believe, but yes, just one year prior, I was here, in the same predicament as yours. I heard a train approaching and there, I leapt straight away. Except for the fact that unlike you, I had no one to save me. They took away my bloodied corpse the next day, it was exactly this spot."

Her forefinger was pointed at a spot on the railway track. A random weed growing there, with no hint whatsoever of what had transpired at that spot just one year prior.

He looked at her, an alarmed expression on his face, his pupils dilated with extreme fear, his heart thudding heavily, erratically, a gush of adrenaline through his body. Yet, despite of all of this, he could not seem to move, it was, as though, he had been rooted to that place.

"Do not worry, dear friend. I am not here to kill you or anything. If that had to be done, I would have let you die.", she smiled softly glancing at his scared demeanour.

"Just remember one thing. Life is too precious to be gotten rid off. Take care."

With these words, she turned away. He kept staring at her retreating figure. A sudden gush of wind made him drop his eyelids. Though the gust was sudden, it felt soothing, gentle as though, it aimed at cleansing the remnants of gloom from his mind. His mind, now at calm, he opened his eyes. He could just see the endless railway track, glistening in the silvery moon. No hint of the lady or should he say, the ghoul, he had been speaking with.

'Whatever she was, a spirit, a ghost, I don't know, but she was my good samaritan. She saved my life. She made me rethink. She committed that mistake, but she sincerely wished for me to not do so. And, I shall not disappoint her, I shall not disappoint my parents and most important, I shall not disappoint myself. Its my second chance to life, and, I shall live it to the fullest.', he smiled to himself, still gazing along the path which she apparently used for her retreat, however, this time, filled with admiration and gratefulness rather than fear.

"Goodbye stranger.", he muttered, a soft smile grazing his face.