Tuesday January 23rd 8.30P.M
“People call me weird. Do I look all that weird???” shot the kid at me from the far end of the room.
I felt awkward. I couldn’t actually answer that question as I have been acquainted with the kid only for about ten minutes. Moreover I do not wish to get acquainted at all as I would be staying with the kids for no more than two whole days. I haven’t even completely understood why I was there with the kid in the first place yet, when I was promised total privacy on the trip!!!
I can’t help but curse myself when I think about how it all started. I had been through quite a lot of stress at work off late. I was no longer doing things well. I was getting lousy even at doing things for which I was lauded to be the best at. I suddenly felt the surging need to replenish and revive my sinking senses which were taking an uncontrollable steep plunge into the deep dark well of ‘Monotonicity’. I had to rescue it before it got lost in its murky waters.
Also for a while now I had been thinking of setting aside time to find a way to come to terms with my growing up process. I was getting old and that was happening pretty fast. I knew I can’t keep eluding the fact for long and sooner or later I will have to face it like a grown up.
So I, out of mere impulse decided to take a break from all that I was doing, all that was causing me so much stress and proceed with the rescue operation to regain my senses and also do some soul searching to sort out the growing up issue. That is exactly when I came across ‘Trust Us’- the tourism company which had proclaimed itself to be the pioneers in the blind tourism industry.
Yeah, blind tourism has become a big thing these days. It is creating a big buzz all around the country. People have even started comparing the feel of being on a blind tour to the feel of being to the legendary ‘Burning Man’ event, though the ‘Burning Man’ has lost its charm in recent years. Over the years it has become just, “This is going to be my last trip to the ‘Burning Man’. What about you?” thing. In fact people were getting bored of the ‘Burning Man’ and it had become such a common thing to which everyone had been to. No more belonging to the unique club stuff. I knew that was the destiny the ‘Burning Man’ was heading towards for a long time now. As the saying goes, “Atlantis is alluring to the archaeologists only as long as it remains hidden”, the same goes for the ‘Burning Man’ too. No wonder it has lost its charm.
Uh, where was I? Yeah well, so I went ahead and booked this trip with ‘Trust Us’. I have never been a brand conscious jerk and was in no way under any pressure of jumping into the blind tour bandwagon just because of all those analogies to the ‘Burning Man’. But I still ended up booking the trip because of the novelty of the idea behind the concept of blind tours offered by ‘Trust Us’. Trust me. You will be blown over by their concept of no-agenda agenda. It is such an innovative concept that the moment you begin to understand the basics behind the concept, you would want to give up whatever you were doing before and go for it right away. It is such a wild and weird thing which anybody in want of real adventure would opt for without even batting an eyelid.
Yeah I guess now you sort of understand where I am driving at with all this. I am a little weird myself. I may not be a brand conscious jerk but I am a weirdo who goes crazy about everything weird in this world. Anything that is weird I am game for it. In short I am weird, I do things that are weird and love things/people which/who are weird.
“I am not sure whether I am weird but I do talk a lot” shot the kid again at me from the far end.
I guess that the kid had assumed the long silence when I was pondering over all the things I have said so far, to be an acknowledgement to whatever it was blabbering. God help me.
“People have always been bothered by it. But I am not able to help it. I have this queer feeling that every moment I spend not talking, I lose a small portion of my right to live in this world. Imagine what would happen if slowly all the small portions add to one big portion and I lose my entire right to live in this world. It is so scary, isn’t it? That’s why I always make sure that there is someone staying with me all the time. The current deal with ‘Trust Us’ helps a great deal to serve the purpose.”
Oh my God what have I gotten myself into? I can’t take any more stress. I came all the way here to run away from it, not to get into a deeper mess. To hell with ‘Trust Us’. The first thing I do tomorrow morning is cancel the trip and get back home. There are much better things to do back there than here. What a fool I have been. Panic and distress was slowly creeping through my veins. Their effect was so ominous that the state I was in should have been discernable from the way I looked, for the kid stopped its ramblings all of a sudden. I heard a chuckle and saw a twinkle in its eyes.
“Got you terrified didn’t I? Is that a hint of horror I see in your eyes? Strangely you all seem to give exactly the same dumb expression. Though I love to see that look on all my guests, I am really getting weary of it. I honestly wish someday one of my guests would give me a completely different expression. I never thought you would cave in this quick though. My first opinion of you was that you were made of much tougher material. But you proved me wrong. First impressions are not always right, aren’t they?"
I could feel that my panic was slowly turning into rage. The kid has no idea what I have been through to be there at that moment and what effect the supposedly horrible turn of events was having on me.
“Don’t worry. It was just a joke I pull on most of my guests. I love to see the way they react when I tell them all those horrible stuff. Horrible weren’t they?"
You little imp. A joke! All this was a joke? What a creative genius you have been to have orchestrated such a fiendish little plot, I would love to wrench your neck on the first chance I get. Though my initial reaction/thoughts bordered on the above said lines, by now I had gotten a lot relaxed as panic receded and was beginning to appreciate the joke. After all it was part of the adventure. What good is an adventure without horror and humour?
“You see all those books there?” the kid pointed out to a table nearby which was stacked with a lot of weird looking books. “I am reading them now and have to finish them all before the end of the week. So you need not worry. I would be buried deep inside those books almost the entire duration of your stay here. You wouldn’t even notice my presence in the house. The house is all yours for the time being."
That sounds like a real good deal. I am beginning to get a glimpse of the lighter side of life for the first time ever since I stepped into the house.
“I will give you a tour of the house the first thing in the morning tomorrow. It is already late now and you should be really tired after the long journey. The second room on the corridor to your left is where you would be staying. Feel free and help yourself with anything in the fridge.”
Having said this, the little imp stuck its head into a huge book which it had put aside to have that wonderful host-guest conversation with me. I was too tired. To go over the events of the day and make my regular journal entry would be more demanding on my mental and physical strengths. It had been a horribly long day and I need a lot of energy to even contemplate thinking about them. They could wait till I have had enough rest.
