Random Story #5

 

 FREE FALL:AN ATTEMPTED SUICIDE
It was a sunny morning, the bright sun provided for a beautiful sight but sadly very few people noticed it, most found it’s arrogant brightness slightly harsh and cruel. He was sitting in the balcony enjoying the beautiful morning, the heat was slightly uncomfortable but it did not bother him, he was not his usual agitated self, complaining about every little thing that went wrong in his life, he felt at peace with himself. I guess the knowledge of the future does that to people, the day had finally arrived 11th of February, he was apprehensive the night before but today he was sure like he had never been in his entire life, probably it was the effect of the date, it was the same date when it all began and he was going to end it today once and for all, the irony of the situation appealed to him. Life didn’t exactly turn out the way he had wanted it to, at least his death would.
The past few years had been disastrous for him, it’s been a free fall down to the dumps, after passing out of college he thought his life would take off but that just never happened, he tried hard to get a job for an year or so, then recession arrived and things went from bad to worse, he was disappointed but not disheartened because he never really wanted any job, he had an idea but he needed some financing, his father was reluctant. His mobile rang, ‘happy birthday kiddo, I am busy now will meet you in the evening’ the message said, it was his elder brother, the model son a his father would say, his brother did agree to give him 1 lac bucks but that wasn’t enough, he invested the money in the share market hoping to increase his capital, unfortunately not only did he loose all the money, he had a debt of 75,000, which he had not informed anyone about. There were other messages from his friends, none of them had called, they never really talked, it was way too awkward, most of them were married, they all had their professional lives, they were all quite successful and were on their way to becoming rich, occasionally he would bump into one of them on the road, they would have the formal chat but he found that little span of time unbearably condescending.
He was a bright student once, but the thought of the success that could have been his was too much to bear. ‘He is a very talented kid, he just needs to concentrate’, the teachers would say to his parents, he was once what every kid in the class wanted to be, but somewhere down the line he lost interest in everything remotely academic. The only thing good in his life was his girlfriend, she was the only one who trusted him but even she broke up with him 4 months ago and a week ago he heard she was getting married to one of the guys he went school with, who now worked for some IT firm, since then he had developed an unhealthy hatred against the IT guys. It was after this news that he had decided that he had enough and it was time he took pity on himself and ended his misery. He was 27 unemployed and still living with his parents, he couldn’t justify his living anymore.
His parents were awake now, mother wanted him to take a bath and say a little prayer, it was time to leave he decided, ignoring whatever his parents had to say he left his house. He reached the place he was born, in those days it was a small two storey hospital now it was a huge complex housing three modern buildings each catering to different parts of a human body, it was the sign of how the country has been developing and how he had somehow missed out, it was the symbol of his failure. He reached the terrace of one of the buildings, he never thought he would quit but he liked the fact that he could still surprise himself. When he was on the edge of the roof he realized something he did not know about himself, he was afraid of heights. All of a sudden he got frightened, he began having second thoughts, maybe he should give himself another year but before he could get carried away he got a hold of himself, he closed his eyes and thought about the happiest day of his life, the day he won the 100 meter race beating his champion elder brother for the first time, it was that day that he had realized he could achieve anything he put his mind to, he was calm once again, he felt his body go in a free fall, he heard a few voices but they all seemed very distant and soon faded in the background, he felt the sweet morning air hit his face and for the first time felt free in a several years, he felt like a kid again, crossing the finishing line.
Apparently a hospital is not the best place to attempt a suicide, a few people had seen him on the roof and had made a last minute attempt to save him, he did manage to survive but not before suffering a broken spinal cord, a crushed hip and hundreds of broken bones and fractures, he woke up to see the faces of his parents , brother and a pain so intense and excruciating he couldn’t believe a living man could bear, he was not sure what had happened but he knew he was in hell.