3 A.M. IN HIS BEDROOM

He was a 30 year old fitness trainer. Barely six feet tall but he was very attractive and well-toned. Everything was  going alright for him, I mean, he had a job, he could have any woman he wanted (or so he thought) and he was happy.

The only thing he dreaded was the setting of the sun-the night.

He was as afriad of night time as when he was five years old.

No one would believe this; i mean since when did you hear of a 30 year old physically ‘macho man’ who was afraid of the dark?

Lie still

‘By low, my man, lie still and sleep

It grieves me to see you not able to sleep

If you were still, i’d be glad

Your worry makes me so sad’

One of his ladies spoke out when he realised the mans’ weakness.

Jack was a pretty well known dude. Not only by the gym attendants but by everyone who dealt with him at a certain point of his life.

i mean, even kids would ogle at his massive chest and say, “When i grow up, i want to look like you.’ He loved kids and kids loved him.

But Jack slept with his bedroom lights on every single night. Monday to Sunday. He made sure his boys did not find out. But they eventually did and said,

“Now what is this, i ask thee tell

It is the peak of male weakness?

Where monsters under the bed seem real

Or is it perhaps guilt of sin?

And possibilities of demons and angels

or is it just you Jack and your tight ass dark secrets”

Anyway, not many people knew about Jacks’ darkness issue; he was basically a loner.

it was a month ago that Jack wrote in his journal.

‘As usual i had come home last night around 8pm. I ate and slept leaving the lights on in the bathroom such that i did not feel like i was in total darkness.

There are times i have problems getting some sleep but usually i am very tired by the time i get home. This night however, i get home, eat and get into bed. but i am horny like a bunny-i mean-a rabbit. So i masturbate until sleep overrides me. My entire body drains, even my fingernails are not spared.

I was deep asleep when a shattering sound awoke me. I wake up-totally startled. The house looks pretty much as i left it. I must have been dreaming then. 

I was sure i had heard some noise; you know-like a piece of glass had fallen down and shattered. What kind of dream was that, if at all?

What did it mean? As i was preparing to go back to bed, i looked at the wall-clock and realised it was missing. what was this? Some kind of joke? i thought i was going bonkers until i saw my black and white wall-clock now in pieces on the floor.

that must have been it. Phews!!! I thought!

No need to worry then. But when i looked at the time, my heart skipped a beat. It was 3 am. ‘Unbeleivable’  I thought! It couldn’t be a coincidence, it was just impossible. 3 am is an hour i dread. I would never like to be cuaght awake at 3am. 3am was the hour of pure evil. A time when evil works best, i think… Before i could figure out what this meant the lights went off. It seemed the electricity just disappeared -almost with my conscience.

My heart was beating so fast, i couldn’t move. I started fumbling with some prayers. I thought they’d finally come for me-who?

I finally managed to grab a candle and a match box and i lit my house again. Still , i was trembling and sweating profusely.

What was going on here??

I grabbed the nearest book from my bedside table and buried myself in it.

It was the classic novel by Leo Tolstoy ‘War and Peace’.

But my heart seemed like it threatened to leave the very essense of my body. My mind was clogged and my soul distrurbed. I couldn’t understand  a single word though i started reading the bulky volume like two weeks ago.

I was straining my eyes reading with a candle but thats the only way my sanity would’ve remained. My heart did not stabilise until 15 minutes later when the lights voluntarily came back. Still, that night, i did not manage catch any sleep until 5 O’clock. I had a pretty bad night’

He concluded.

Jack was only open about his isses to one of the lady. Her name was Nini. He doubted that he loved her though (Love? Love was a name he barely understood’)

Anyhow, Nini was the one person Jack could share his ounces or madness with.

Nini was a media consultant and every single detail of life seemed believable to her. She told her friends ‘Anything is possible in this life. Tell me Elijah will come back to earth in a motorbike instead of a charriot and i will believe it,” Her friends thought she was mad.

She liked to think she was too and believed that every aspect of really amazing creativity originated from a bit of madness.

So that evening they had dinner with Jack at Mai Loan restaurant in Westlands. She was besides herself with joy-i mean-not that she was glad that a man like Jack would get his heart into his mouth over a 3am incident.  That was most likely a coincidence. No! It was the possbility of the words that were running around in the mind. The words craving to be wriiten down. Soon as she got home, she flowed:

Chills and Thrills

In the spirit of the night

When the sun is hidding in a desperate fight

a fight of its own, against all thats dark and might

he prays dear me, let everything soon be right

A man in his stead

wishes the same is bred

And prays that the sun should always shine even in bed

And that night never existed

“What is the purpose of night, dear God’

he asked

“By thy strength of me, let it not be night’

Chills run down my spine

as he wishes his wishes came true

Even though he wasn’t with God fine

Shadows arise and it is dark once more

Its a thrill and a chill

To see him so still

why can’t he see the beauty of night that fills

Trains and trains of stars at will

And her great gift of sleep still?”