Happy Birthday

It was March 31st and I was lying down on the wet grass in a park with my friends and staring away at the dark sky above me. The trees swayed in the cold breeze that blew lightly and whistled in my ears. We all lied all around each other forming circles whilst all of us silently darted our eyes around the night sky. Someone’s birthday is today! Said my mind in an echo. It reverberated through my skull but I ignored it.

My phone vibrated in my pocket sleeve but I didn’t bother to check. I was too lost in finding my way around the orion constellation. The three stars lined up as the best of him and his long arms covering the vast sky. My mind was roaming around in the vast space provided to it and it found nothing but nothing. It continued to find something to think about but it's efforts were futile. I twitched my fingers to get rid of some insect that crawled upon me. I lifted my head to see what it was but it was nothing. I suddenly felt the urge to check my watch and it showed that it was 12:20 am. April fools day!

The fragrance of green grass floated into my nose and with all the olfactory information my mind had acquired through evolution, I recognised it. But somehow with all the evolution that mankind had been through he always seemed to forget. And that day I forgot a birthday. A birthday of a person who was and still is dear to me.

As the mind seemed to recall the occasion my body almost by itself got up. My friends on the other hand didn’t give a hang of what I did and I simply waltzed away, aimlessly wandering until I reached the entrance of a basement. Or so I thought it was.

I looked long and hard at the entrance, as it vanished into the pitch black basement. My surroundings were as if pushing me to go into it and so, as me being an unmindful person, I went with the flow. I descended down the flight of stairs and embraced the darkness. 

From what seemed like an eternity of going down stairs I finally reached the bottom, almost tripping myself into nothingness. I couldn’t see a thing in front of me and the entrance was nowhere to be seen. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and I began to think of this as a mistake. My hands started to tremble with the sudden fear that quickly arose and I started to think of this as a mistake.

Suddenly with the sound of a flick of a switch, lights flooded the basement. My fear quickly subsided as flood waters receded rapidly. The whole thing was lit up brightly and strangely was divided by a glass wall into two. The glass was quite peculiar and I walked along it with my hand feeling it’s cold nature. 

The glass was very smooth and the basement was very much like that of a hospital where the cadavers were being kept. The smell too was like that of a world war field hospital. Like dead bodies. Nonetheless I didn't recognise the resemblance and kept tracing the glass. Ignorance is bliss. Until I found bullet holes in the glass. They looked fresh and still had smoke coming out of them. But the strange thing about the smoke was that it moved backwards, as if I was watching it work its way through back time.

My mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening when out of the blue a rumbling and grinding noise surprised me. I naturally looked towards the noise in the hope of finding what created it and at the end of the basement opened a turnstile. Out of it emerged a man wearing a black ops suit and a gas mask. On the other side of the glass another man wearing the same thing ran towards the exit.

The man ran at me and out of nowhere in his hand came a gun. The gun simply floated speedily into his hands and the magazine which had lay in one corner of the room spanned the distance and fitted itself into the bottom of the gun. I watched in horror as he advanced towards me, in a panther like fashion and pinned me to the glass, held the gun to my head and let go of the trigger. 

I barely missed the bullet, but as he banged my head against the glass I glanced at the spot he shot me and it was completely normal. Like no bullet had been through, no cracks. My mind snapped and I realised that the bullet hadn’t come out of the gun but instead went back into it. He held me once again and let go of the trigger. My ears rang wildly as the bullet nicked my ear and drew blood. I kicked him with all my strength and screamed. The man let go of me and ran backwards out through the entrance. 

I sat on the cold ground with my back towards the wall, exasperated and astonished at the same time. The man did everything in reverse but it felt real. After calming my breath I slid on my feet and slowly walked to the turnstile. 

It’s cool metal curved all the way inside and made a capsule sort of structure with wheels set in grooves at the hinges. It seemed to open and close and the same structure was on the other side. The capsules seemed to make their way into each other mid-way and give a small window for someone inside to move to the other capsule and assumingly to the other side.

I suddenly saw myself on the other side and watched as I entered the strange capsule. I had no other choice but to do the same and so I went into it. The capsule closed and I moved through the window that was there. The other capsule opened and I walked right out. It was still the same but something felt different. I walked towards the now closed entrance and opened the door.

Instantly I felt the air being kicked out of my lungs as I gasped for breath. I clutched my throat and reached to close the door. I pulled on the handle and shut it with a satisfying boom. I felt the air push itself back forcefully into my lungs. What a relief it was. 

I went back into the basement and searched for anything. All my eyes found were a set of breathing instruments. An oxygen cylinder of sorts and a breathing mask. I ran towards it and wore it on, then advanced to the entrance. I opened it and what I saw would have been something no one else in the history of the world would’ve ever seen.

At first nothing seemed different and everything normal but as time progressed everything came into place. I had travelled into an inverted world where everything that happened in the real world happened in reverse but the only thing that was inverted in this world was me. I saw everything inverted but the people living in that world didn’t. I had entered into a world that I thought was moving into the past. 

Incidentally the encounter with the man replayed in my brain. I started to shiver out of fear. The feeling of helplessness again rose up my throat and formed a lump. I was defenceless against the rash handling. I quickly zapped back to my senses.

I stepped into a puddle and I saw the reverse movement of water as I splashed into it. I smiled as I saw people walk backwards, talk backwards and did everything in reverse. It was kind of creepy at first but I got used to it pretty quick. While the beads of sweat on my forehead moved normally I saw a water balloon remake itself and speed up into a balcony high above me. 

I checked my watch again and saw that time was moving backwards. It was 10 pm, 31st March as the dial continued to reverse. I walked to my house and opened the door. Went to my room and took my phone. I remembered that everything in this world was reversed and whatever I do here has repercussions in my real world. 

So, I messaged my dearest friend a happy birthday but not in the normal way. I first put a full stop in place and then wrote the message backwards and sent it. Ah, the satisfaction. I quickly went back to the basement, avoiding myself and went through the capsule. I came back to the real world.

My watch showed that the time was 9:45. And All I had to do was wait. But then that encounter with the man who tried to kill me replayed in mind. This time I couldn’t shy away from the memory and ran through the whole scene and carefully tried to remember the man’s face through the mask. I remembered the outline and he seemed familiar. 

Suddenly it hit me. It was me. I had tried to kill myself. But why? And I looked quite older as well. Had my travelling back in time done something I regretted in the future? I had absolutely no way of knowing what had happened. And till this date I try and think of the peculiar incident but I never seem to go back to the same basement. It was as the whole thing had just vanished. I had tried to find it again but I had no luck. I had forgotten the place. 

But today I don’t regret what I did. I got the chance to undo my mistake and I did it.

Happy Birthday!