Unfair or just Lucky?

I put down my bag and take a seat. It’s freaking hot outside. Thankfully, the cool air from the office air conditioner is on full blast and it takes a whole minute for my body to really feel the coolness of the office. At the press of a button, my laptop is switching on.

The first thing I did was check my email, just another day at the office.

Any clients screaming at me? Did I mess up any work? Oh, what’s this?

The pointer moves on the screen and the new mail is opened.

What’s this….

“40,000”, I read. More a moment I was taken aback. So I read it again.

“40,000”.

Damn, it sounds the same.

I get up from my seat and head over the boss’s office. Everyone is already engrossed in their work.

“Did you just give me a raise?” I asked.

She quickly nodded her and went back to her phone.

It was the start of a new month, so I expect my salary slip, but not an increment.

Was that luck? Was that fair?

***

My feet are moving swiftly. I didn’t go to office. You shouldn’t go to office, if you’re sick, so I didn’t go to office. The illness is upon me.

Oh shit.

I’m sitting on the throne in the toilet.

Do. Not. Imagine. This.

Shit happens, literally.

Bad loose motions can have a terrible effect on a person and I had the bad kind.

Did I eat something? That’s can’t be, don’t remember.

Am I unlucky? Is this fair to me? I did nothing to deserve this. I drop another load.

It’s not pleasant.

I did nothing to deserve this.

***

Death hides behinds the clouds and when no one is looking, it swoops in and kills someone.

His father, brother and some other close cousins are carrying a coffin to the graveyard.

What did my friend do? The fool was stupid enough not wear a helmet while riding his motorcycle. Now he’s dead.

The coffin was lowered into the grave.

Hundreds of people ride in the city without their helmets, they try riskier things, they even come closer to death. I, we, his family, friends, we are not burying a single one 'them', we’re burying my friend, the safest rider I’ve known, except he never wore a helmet.

Fair? Unfair? Lucky? Unlucky?

Why did God allow this?

I didn’t know.

The only thing I can do is keeping moving forward. Luck, fair unfair, unlucky… who the fuck knows – just. keep. moving. forward.

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Rats on the Track

Long and tall creatures with four arms, that’s what I saw. They were standing on a high and long platform. All looking out and staring into the infinity beyond, I wouldn’t know. My world was down here.  Stone pebbles all around, stone pillars stuck in the ground and two shinny bars stretched on the stone pillar. Food, that’s what I came up for. Using my short limbs and claws, I navigated the rough, unstable pebbles, but they were loose so my claws did not get caught in them.

In the middle of this abyss lay a piece of bread.

Food!

Immediately, I scrambled on to the stone pillar where my claws scraped on top of it, then, contracting my muscles, I leaped across the bar. It was a quick scrambled as I sprinted to the piece of bread, dug my teeth in and dragged the piece back.

Once again, my muscles contracted and I jumped across. The food was savoured in my mouth. I was rushing across, taking the bread piece with me. That’s when my obstacle jumped across from the other side and blocked the way. It was another rat, slightly bigger than me. The long creatures on top were shuffling on their feet.

From infinity the rolling box will come, I need to go back in my hole!

I charged forward only to see him raise up his claws. Claws sharp enough to dig into my face and rip it off. I stopped. My peripheral vision told me those long creatures were getting agitated, coming closer to the edge of the platform. The rolling box is coming.

In my obstacles eye, I could see the desperation and hunger that I’ve seen so many times.

We’re all caught in a rat race. A never ending one just trying to eat every day. What do I do now?

The pebbles were rumbling, the rolling box was far way. It was not that I would crush a rat. Those vibrations were not meant for a rat’s body to bear.  

The rolling box came into my peripheral vision. The vibration and rumblings were getting stronger. My bones could feel it.

There was not much I could, I threw the bread piece and rushed for the hole as the rat went for the bread.

Even underneath I could feel the vibrations. How long it lasted as I huddled and protected myself.

Then, I emerged. The rat, my obstacle, was dying, cut in two by the rolling box. There was nothing to do, I picked up the bread piece and went back to the hole.

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