The crowd was genuinely puzzled as no one could grasp what had actually happened. Encircled by this group of temporarily intrigued people, a foreigner lying on the ground was crying with all his might. He was crying and crying and it felt like he would continue crying till eternity. The people had never seen an adult crying like a baby.
——————
I was running. I couldn’t understand what was going on. He was chasing me. I had done him no harm. I had done no one any harm. Yet, he was chasing me and yelling something in his language. I couldn’t understand it but it was very frightening. So, I ran. I ran as fast as I could and then suddenly, I tipped over. The memory then goes blank.
——————
You were strolling leisurely on the market street. Your observations were marked by the curiosity of a first-time traveler. You wanted to stop people on the street so you could tell them how much you liked their place but you were too shy to do so. But you know what? Even if you were not shy, you wouldn’t have talked to them. Because speaking about your admiration for this new place would make you think about the reason for it. And you knew it was not about this place, it was about the place you left. The place you no longer want to think of. The place that was incomprehensible to these charming alien people. There was no way you could explain it, so you just kept strolling quietly, until …
——————
The little blood sprouted from the wound had thickened by now. People were theorizing about the foreigner’s strange crying. A student theorized that the foreigner was maybe having some “condition”. But most clung to the theory that the fall was painful enough to make him cry. A kid suggested the idea of the foreigner crying for being homesick, only to be hurled back by his mother. The crowd was about to get dispersed when they saw a policeman running towards them. “Stop the thief”, he was yelling over the top of his voice, “Thank God you stopped the thief”. He came closer and looked at the sobbing person. “Nah, it’s not him!” he said annoyingly and resumed his running in the same direction. In murmurs, the crowd dispersed carrying the weight of not even a single person being able to theorize the actual case.
As the noisy crowd dispersed, one could hear what the stranger was chanting in between the sobs. “not an … ’m … I’m not an … impostor.” No one heard except an indifferent street lamp.
