Higher

He opened his eyes after 7 hours. It was a much needed sleep. The last week was hectic n, goes without saying,overloaded with work.A break had become necessity.These days he was beginning to realise that some necessities were becoming luxuries..n luxuries, he treauserd..just like this sleep today.

He got out of the bed with an understandable struggle, n like a dead man walked into the bathroom.'I should've slept more' he thought. 'I need a vacation'he thought some more. He stared blankly into the mirror over the basin..n looked without looking...as a habitual routine, opened the tap n splashed the cold water on to his face. He loved this sensation. The water in his eyes made the reflection in the mirror blur, slowly it got clearer. He saw the same face everyday.Was he complaining?Could he complain? Looking into his eyes reminded him of last night's dream. Like many of his dreams, this one was weird too. But there was something more to this one.There was a light out of the dark and the voice clearly said that he could fly today!! He thought about the movies he had seen where the protagonist becomes god for a day or a man who can see the future. He just wished that he could really fly but immediately threw the thought away. He had to attend his routine. He was never sure what he was living for. The meaningless routine or for the dreams he always put aside. He got ready for his work, locked his room behind him and stepped outside.

The elevator was 11 steps away. Like many other things he had counted the number of steps to the elevator too. He pressed the button and wandered off in his thoughts. The lift door opened. He didn’t respond for a moment. 'Wanna come inside' the voice of the person inside brought him into reality again. He stepped inside and found the lift unusually empty. The lone person in the elevator stared at the buttons racked in a matrix from 0 to 11. He stared at the buttons for a minute. His thoughts fighting between the last night's dream and his work. There is something to this dream. There has to be. The fight came to an end and he made his decision. He pressed the button and the lift started moving. It opened on the top floor. He quickly made his way to the open terrace. He had decided that he will see if his crazy dream was true. Somehow he started believing that he could fly today!!He wondered how he would start. This was going to be really crazy, but he knew life is not full of logic, sometimes you have to work it out on your own. He took a deep breath and jumped. He fell back with the same speed. He tried again and this time jumped even higher with all his energy. He hardly rose 2ft from ground n fell back. He thought it was just a foolish dream after all. He had to get out of the terrace before people from adjacent building start starring at him for the weird thing he was doing. He looked around to check if someone was watching him. In the far corner he saw a chair. He thought of giving it one more try. He ran towards the chair and climbed upon it. Looking up into the sky he really wished to get closer. He jumped again and fell back. But wait... this time the fall was unusual. It took longer than usual to reach the ground. His eyes glowed. He looked at the sun right above him and said “Am coming”.

Now he knew how he could do it. He needed more lift so that he can float longer and then he would be able to fly. or would he? There was only one way to get this. He had to jump over the edge. If it didn’t work then people will call it a successful suicide attempt. Doing this just in the name of a dream was pure insanity. That is how people will call it. But did he care about what people said? He remembered what his mother told him once.

“Sometimes in life you cannot listen to anyone, anyone except what your heart says.”

He jumped and flied.