PAYBACK TIME

Saira was standing in her balcony watching a the road ahead .The vehicles ,the pedestrians and the hustle bustle of the street that seemed to be working hard and getting impatient to rest after her evening chore of making the people get back home after office.

And then there were vendors too, the vegetable sellers and the vendors who sold all the stuff that was made up of plastic and crockery for routine use. She had married Aryan six months back, and she had come to this town with its industrial estate because of Aryan’s job.

She had become so used to waiting for Aryan in the balcony before he came from the office. All her routine had started to revolve around his routine as if she was his shadow who followed each and every move of his. It was as if all her day was always planned like the earth that revolves around the sun, all days, all weeks and all the years. Saira revolved around Aryan.

And as she stood gazing absentmindedly at the vendors, some strange images of her last nights dreams started to flash before her eyes. Her dream had a vendor too, but she was a vendor with a difference .She wore a multicolored chick T-SHIRT shirt and a green short, wavy skirt and had a naughty yet an endearing look on her face. Her hair was brown and had sheen to them. As Saira went close to her she smiled and asked her, “Wanna buy a dream?” Saira was bewildered, and she asked, “Can dreams be bought like this?” And the girl replied, “I go to only those people’s sleep, who have lost all their dreams and whose sleep has become dreamless.” Saira looked at her still puzzled and realizing that the girl said, “Dreams were made for a reason, dear, and those who do not have them are sick. You have to buy them in order to be really healthy.” Saira thought for a while and looking at the boxes of dreams asked, “But how do I choose one?” And the girl informed her with a serious look, “Close your eyes and pick up a box that first touches your fingers and the one which you touch is going to be just right for you. But there are conditions to buying it and they are that you have to pay for it later, and currency is not the usual one that you use during the day. And also,each and every dream is not returnable. Once you buy it you just have to use it.” Saira found it very funny and just for the fun of it closed her eyes and put her hand forward to touch the first possible box of a dream .And she got a gift wrapped one with a ribbon on it and it looked like a jewelry box .It looked very interesting, and she was so eager to open it and find out what it contained but then it was morning, and the routine just started, and until evening she had forgotten the dream.

When Aryan arrived she was just about to tell him about her dream, but then thought that he would ridicule her so just decided against the idea. They had dinner that she had made as always and watched TV and then went to sleep. She was today, more eager to sleep than ever for she wished to explore the box of dreams that she had bought the other night. And as expected she really started to again see the same dream with the same ambiance and she was holding the box of dreams that she had purchased, and she opened it and out came flying lots and lots of stones and broken pieces of glass and metal .The pieces of glass were having colors, but they looked all muddy and their colors had faded .The stones looked like the ones that she used to collect wherever she went and brought them home, and metal pieces were all having rust. She was so disappointed by what she got that she went to the dream vendor girl, fuming and as she reached her she almost shrieked and said in a strained voice, “Do you think that you are very smart, and you can fool people by telling your nonsense, and they will believe you? Well, I do not and I don’t care whether you take it back or not, I am sure not to use it.” The dream seller was still non perturbed and said, “Its not about whether you use it or not, it is going to pester you now until you decipher it and pay for it.” Now Saira was almost trembling with anger and shouted at her, “You sell me this useless stuff and now you are imposing it on me, you wicked woman!” But the girl still showed no signs of any change in her attitude and just said very calmly, “Remember, you have to decipher it and pay for it later, there is no way out now since you bought it.”

Saira woke up next morning and told about the strange dream to Aryan. He smiled at her and said, “What Sairu, since when have dreams started bothering you? It was just a dream, and you will forget it after some time. Cheer up, sweety, we will go out to dinner tonight.” And so for the time being Saira did cheer up but deep inside was a little uncomfortable. She talked to her mom on phone and told her how these six months of her marriage had taught her volumes of life and listening to her, her mother just laughed and said,“ You have to learn a lot more ,this is just the beginning.” As promised, Aryan took her out to dinner and as always it was good. But these days, Saira was actually tired of all the goodness around her. She wondered if all those around her eventually got tired of the good things in life.

Today Saira was not eager to sleep and was a little afraid that the dream would trouble her again but after some time she fell asleep anyway. And now in her dream there was not the girl but she was standing and all the metal pieces, the glass pieces and the stones were flying around and hitting her on her head, her arms and her back and she cried with pain and pushed them away and from faraway a voice came and urged, “Be calm, try hard to decipher.” Her sleep was completely disturbed that night .She again got up in the morning and started complaining to Aryan about the dream .Aryan lost his cool now and said, “Why don’t you read something or go out and make some friends.” Saira said to him, “I am not talking about friends; I am talking about a dream and if you don’t want to listen leave it.” Aryan really left it and went to the office.

Again that night she had the same dream and she was disturbed the whole day. Now Aryan took her to their general physician, and he told them that everything is normal about her and he just gave her a dose of tranquilizer and told her that it will help her sleep soundly, and she should take it for fifteen days and after that the dream, and all will disappear.

But the dream did not disappear. It went on haunting her every night. By now Saira had lost interest in all her routine and started looking sick.

But today night the dream seller again came in the dream and asked, “Why are you being so stubborn and not trying to decipher it? Only you can do it, and no one else can do it for you.” So she suddenly started to focus on the things flying around her, and she never noticed it before, but all of them had a sparkle in them. She jumped and caught some of the pieces of metal, glass and stones one by one, and when she had collected enough of them she started looking at them with great concentration and then arranged them one by one in patterns. To her surprise they started looking like a necklace. Then she lifted each one of them and tried to polish them of their dust and found them to be sparkling gems and gold pieces. She arranged them again, and a beautiful necklace was formed. She sat gazing at it for a very long time amused. And then she remembered that she had always wished to be a jewelry designer when she was a child and had somehow lost out on that as she grew up. She had never realized that it was so deeply ingrained in her psyche. She looked up and then said aloud, “I have deciphered it and now what?” And she heard the dream seller’s voice, “You have to pay for it by your courage because if you don’t pay for it then it will again haunt you all your life.”

It was that moment when Saira realized everything in a flash.

Next day morning Saira was ready to go out of the house before Aryan. And when he asked her what was she doing, she calmly replied, “I am going to the city to get admission for a jewelry designing course and from now on you have to take care of your morning routine.”

She knew that she had to pay for the dream by her courage to fulfill it.