Shake'em off, bub!

It was a serene morning at the beach of Wasalpur. They called it Wasalpur-at-sea. Was it to strip it off its identity, the one where roads bustled with two-wheelers; drains opened to the main drain and ultimately into the sea; stagnant freshwater pools reeked of putrefaction; garbage mound aimed to touch sky; nobody knew. At least I didn’t. Like a human being, my town also had its shades of personality. People shed attitude, like I changed pens, or Gauri changed clothes. Some brought the lasting sympathy, others took it away with their bands of ghouls loitering around to recover loans. It was not a law and order problem though.

The constant hum of water ebbing in and away produced a symphony of the orchestra. A soft, piecemeal segue into something calming. It was as if it wanted me to drift away to sleep along to complete my night-long sleep. I had woken up after a meagre 2 hours. And then I just ambled around the kitchen, the dining room, the patio trying to be as soft on my feet. But, with the first crack of dawn, I knew I had to go out. Something woke me up today. I simply couldn’t remember what that was, but in my heart, I knew it was an affect of my past.

It was the anniversary of my neighbour’s death. Sunny had hanged himself. And it was just a coincidence that he did it at the first crack of dawn. We weren't close or anything but we would cross each other sometimes at the curb. There would be acknowledgements and nods. He would bite his lips to force out a smile. And I would complement it with a raised eyebrow and cheery smile. It was as if I tried hard to tell him in those express moments that things go on at their own pace. "Shake’em off bub, things happen!" He was just a kid with voices in his head judging him. Or so I thought. How much can anyone really know the other person? But, I didn’t want to be too away from the real fact. I was the only one probably who could empathize with his predicaments and refrain from calling him a coward.

The whrr….whrrr… of the waves simply took my mind away from all those dreading thoughts. Atleast for some time. It was morning. The sun was breaking into the sky-wide tapestry. But my mind again trolled around for some time. A jaunt to nowhere, just trying to play around. A pool of water here, a wisp of foam there. The familiar anchor and the jetty were all in my sight. The jetty was closed. They must be doing some repairs. And those boards for the tourists. Atleast some-thing must warn them against any kind of mishap.

I started out to move towards one of those boards. It stood nestled in between the rocks. A little away from the regular wash of seawater, yet not too far. That’s must be how it survived even after so many years. It had an element of me. I had painted in few of those words in class VIII as part of SUPW. The town committee wanted twenty such boards to strew around the beaches. And the students I think were the cheapest resource. It still had the major scrawl of black around the ‘T’ desperately shadowed by white.

Those memories barely  had me in their clutches and the words started to falter. They started to change. Jump! Dive! From Pier! … occupied the whole length and breadth. I was not sure what was happening. The sudden flashes of the grains like those on TV when cable doesn’t respond tried to coax me into believing it might not have been real. The words were very clear though.

“What does this mean?”, a searing pain ruffled through my head.

Timing was certainly eerie. I had been reckless but to dive off would have been a little dramatic for my taste. It would have been easier to feel the thrill before I go. If it were left to me.

I held my head, sunk it between my legs. Maybe I was having a panic-attack. I didn’t see the words anymore. So, I was still able to make choices for me. I still had my head working straight as opposed to the popular conviction that I had lost it.

I got up and returned home. I wanted to send flowers to Sunny’s parents but there was no memorial. I didn’t want to do something I was not sure of so I decided to skip that. I took out a small piece of paper just enough to scrawl “Shake’em off,bub!” and sealed it inside the bottle. This bottle then I threw into the sea.

I could feel him laughing with his teeth coming out. Broadest he ever smiled! I knew for sure. Thank God!

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For OWS' prompt: No Diving. + The picture below.