Ghost King

There is a puff of dust following me. World around is dismal. Distant crows are audible. Occasional water splashes. I am drenched with sweat and I am running. I am running far. I am running fast. I am running from people. I am running from my life. I hated it. It was one with cheerful people. All happy, all filled with energy and between all of them was I, miserable! Yuck! Even the thought makes me sick. Wherever I go, mingle and interact. People gather around me. They always seem to be giving me things. Not normal things. Damn! It’s so hard to explain! Nobody ever believes me though. They say I am making things up! They say I am a crazy kid! Once a guy approached me, offering me a knife. The guy looked so weird that I obviously passed out. When I woke up I was surrounded by my folks. I immediately told them what happened.  They told its just too much TV! Can you believe that!

Let me tell you it was not just a one off incident. In fact since this knife incident people regularly come to me and try giving me weird stuff. Like for example, once when I was playing in the park, this guy walks upto me and tells me to take his car! I told him what a kid will do with a car?! He just knelt down, started sobbing and pleaded me to take the car. I obviously threw my ball & bat and ran back to the orphanage. I even fetched my friends to the park, pointed the man to them but all they could see was grass! Half an hour later I found my self in front of a doctor! My folks obviously thought I need medical attention. To hell with telling them I thought.

It just went on routinely. I encountered people like twice a week. There was this lady with the rope, and this guy with a bag full of money, Oh! and ya how can I forget this girl who tried giving me a rose. First I thought, “Awesome day!” but, as soon as I took the rose she smiled, said thank you and vanished away! The rose withered away too! It went on with this crazy stuff until, when I visited the hospital today and I was approached by a guy who tried to give me a piece of flesh! He told me it was the fetus of his wife that he had forced her to abort. Horrorified, I had just turned around when this guy comes and offers me his eyes! That was it. I have had it enough. I just ran. Ran far. Ran fast.

Damn! I just can’t run anymore. I am almost away from civilization. Resting on this rock under the tree would probably give solace to the troubled and weeping me! Oh dying Sun! Give me the strength to be at peace…. The strength to be at peace…peace…peace. The cool breeze sent a chill down my spine. The moons up? I dozed off! Geez who are these people again! How the hell did they ever find me?? And not one, not two, hundreds of them. Surrounding me. Staring at me. All having something in their hands.

“Who the hell are you people?!”

“What do you want??!!”

“Leave me alone!!!”

One of them came forward. He had medicines in his hands. He started “Apologies sire”.

“I am no sire!! You have me confused with some one else!”

“Of course not. There is no confusion. You are the ghost king. Sent upon to free us lingering ghosts”

“Ghosts?!”

“Yes ghosts. Don’t be afraid. We know you are human. We are not here to harm you. I’ll answer all the questions you have. Be satisfied.”

“Finally!”  “Why me?”

“Nobody knows sire. Destiny may be.”

“Okay! Why do you guys keep coming offering me these weird things?”

“Sire, these are our guilts. Guilts form the deeds we did in human life. The guy with the knife was a murderer. Lady with the rope had hung her self. Person with the car ran over a guy. Girl with the rose could never give it to a boy. You already know about the man with a fetus and the guy over there standing with his eyes, stood mute and saw injustice” “As for me I could not reach my wife with medicines in time” “You see we are not here to hurt you, in fact it is just that we have carried  it far too long. Every one among these hundreds has guilts, take it and let us go. Let us go sire. Let us go”

I am actually feeling sorry for these guys. If I could I would let them go. “What do I have to do?”

“Just take what we offer, the same as you did for that girl with the rose”

“And that’s it? You’ll be free?”

“Well… yes we will be free… but as you keep taking our offerings you’ll feel worse and worse”

I guess, ability to wash away sins comes with a price. Moreover mum always used to teach “live for other people”. Funny, she forgot to mention about ghosts! 

“Well, if I don’t do it probably my hands won’t be enough for my guilt.” “Bring it on then, be free.”