Meteor Showers
I am lying down on my bed watching reels on my phone when I hear a sharp noise, the doors leading to the balcony slams shut abruptly. I jolted in shock as I stand upright. I walk towards it to take a closer look, assuming it to be due to high speed winds I reach out to shut them when I realize the sky has turned dark red. The red hue is trickling to the surroundings, the leaves, and stray animals.
A loud bursting sound emanates. I assume it to be of a fire cracker. But the sound intensifies. I see a big black boulder of the size of a car, blazing as it falls from the sky rapidly. These celestial objects are meteors but they aren’t like any ones we have seen before since wherever they fall, they cast a large hole in the ground. A woman screams as she falls right into one while walking. My jaw drops and I froze, unsure how to react, I hope and pray it to be a bad dream. But everything seems too real and tangible.
In that instant, a meteor falls next to me, it comes like a rocket, splits the balcony I am standing into two, I immediately starts descending, I grab the water pipe to barely hold myself. I look down to see what’s left of my building. There is a large crater underneath me. I have started to slip, now hanging by the end of the pipe, my whole body starts to ache, unable to hold on any longer. I never thought this is how I would die. It’s strange that in one instant your whole world can turn upside down. One minute I was on my bed and now I am hanging by a pole only seconds away from dying. I need to think fast to live. Have to pull myself up. I feel like my muscles are going to rip apart as I try to climb up. My hands starts trembling, unable to breathe, I start hyperventilating, the fingers lose grip, the vision turns blurry, everything fades out as I close my eyes and accept my fate…
“Do not just give up”, my father yelled at 12 year old me as I stood there suspended in mid air hanging by the palm of my hand onto the rock. He urged me to finish the ascent as I was close enough but feeling fatigued. I replied in negative, was exhausted and frustrated why my father brought me there every year on these hills just outside our village. I never realized when it became my passion too. Finishing that climb was one of the hardest ones I ever did. But his words still echo till this day.
BOOM! Another meteor on the ground! The loud bursting noise brought me back into the present. I took a deep breath and with a large grunt I pulled myself up gradually. There’s not much time to spare. I have to evacuate immediately before another meteor hits here. I prepare a small bag to carry essentials when I see my phone vibrating..
I opened my eyes to realize it was a dream after all. I sigh with relief, checks phone.. It’s 7:30 AM.. an hour before I have to get ready. I close my eyes shut.. The balcony doors slam tight. My eyes pop open in horror.
