Story time

My Visit after a Long Time
In the middle of nowhere there was hardship and risk, but it was a low price for a heart’s satisfaction.
When I was a little boy, I used to live with my aunt in town. It was not a big town like the capital, but still big enough to sustain a town’s life style. But all of my family lived in a rural area, or what I like to call an "upcountry". Most of the things a kid of my age had to do while growing up, like studies, happened as I was close to my aunt right in the same town.
My one year schedule would be summarized as: going to school, playing in the weekend and holidays (vacations). After a long time of the same thing happening again and again, I was also growing bigger and bigger, I decided to visit my close relatives in upcountry. Initially it was just a baby thought, but as the time went by, it matured enough to wake me up, board a bus and start my journey.
It was April of 1999 when my vacation was just a few days old. “Ha ha! It will never be another tomorrow,” I said to myself after getting into the bus. I felt the bus moving slower that day. I cannot tell which seat I sat on in that bus till now. The most prominent memory in that bus is that I slept with my eyes open. Almost all of my thoughts were always like five miles ahead, and the more the destination was closer, the faster my thought moved, and the slower was the bus. “This is the final stage, everyone should leave the bus now,” the driver of the bus said to us.
T here I was at the middle of a road, a grade five boy with luggage which looked like a soldier’s, watching the bus as it turned back. I let my eyes wander around, the yellow golden grass here, scattered acacia trees there, hills by the horizon and woodland just before the hills. Waiting to gather all the information my memory could afford, “The place I was to go had a lot of big trees,” I said to myself. Finally I realized that I am to walk a longer distance than I anticipated since there was no public bus or taxi to board, only a private one. At this time I was all alone because the entire crowd of passengers whom we came with was all gone.
“The journey has just started,” I said to myself after deciding to proceed but not to board a return bus, a thought which had flashed a couple of times before then. It was a straight road where I could barely see it end. It looked Just like a needle pointing away from me. The sun was still above me slightly on the sunset side which made my shadow to lead the way. I tried to walk faster but my legs tended to be speed limited by the luggage I was carrying until I could try to walk faster no more.
I felt a little tired but also the dark was beginning to show after few minutes. All land was silence, listening to the sound of crickets, owls and night moth. Soon I approached the wood land. From fear, my ears became alert in a way I could feel even a leaf falling from a tree. My legs never stopped moving. I came across a trail which I guessed to be the right one from an influence of the little memory that I had from the last time I was there. But I was not lucky; the road just took me deep into the woods. I could not imagine myself without a phone in the middle of wilderness where I was not sure how safe I was. Once I thought of making a few screams and listening whether there will be someone to call back. But I corrected myself when I realized animals might respond too. I could just see about a five meter radius. Beyond five meters looked just like black walls. I experienced how human ancestors (the cave men) experienced when they had to stay in the forest. I decided to go back again and use a bigger road to find anybody to ask for assistance. But the larger road turned out to be a long lonely road full of sounds of insects, rodents and unfamiliar animals.
It was 8:00pm when I finally emerged in this shopping centre. Everyone was busy doing something, some buying, others selling or trying to sell, some playing board games under electricity light, others surrounding the best players while they play, others chatting under pressure lamp’s light. Though the centre was lit inside, outside the compound was total darkness. I continued my eye around to see whether I would know any of the people without a success until I introduced myself where a couple of people claim to know where I was going. I took a big sigh when one of them said he is even my relative whom I could not have identified without his knowledge. “Here we will use the bike on the way home” the boy said. “It is a strong bike,“ I complemented after sitting on it. The light was bright; he said that he modified it from a car projector. He continued with stories of his passion to his bike. After some time that seemed not too long, we were in front of a gate. It was wooden, the fence was made from well-pruned live Cyprus tree, with some cows on the other side. “We are home” he said.
My heart felt like his word was music. If after entering I never found myself in between relatives who were happy to see me, I would have asked him to repeat it again and again. Finally I felt the entire struggle with my journey was worthy. We chatted, we ate together, and any time was like a party.