CHAPTER 7: The Roaming Soul

What could I do? After all, I was just a soul roaming about in the city. I looked here and there in search of some work to pass my time with, but where could I have found something in this human world? I mean, what else could a soul do apart from roaming about and haunting someone.

I decided to cross the main street as I remembered there was a park right around the corner on the opposite side of the road. I looked first at my right side, then towards my left. There was not much traffic on the road so it was easy for me to cross it.

I started walking slowly, then I rushed to the other end. I got somewhat of triggered at the end of crossing a road every time. I don't know why that happened. I, once again, had completely forgotten that I couldn't be hit by a car anymore.

There was a small market, built alongside the road. I started walking towards the right side. I crossed many small shops before I reached a butcher's shop. I saw a dog running out of the shop with a piece of meat in his mouth. It was followed by a fat butcher who had a large knife in his hand.

"You come back, you bastard," the butcher shouted while chasing the dog.

As the dog crossed my side, I shouted, "Run doggy run."

It was like I was experiencing a scene from a famous story based on the moral of "greed is curse" with my own eyes.

The butcher and dog ran all the way up the street. The dog was too fast to be captured by the butcher. He got tired when he reached the end of the road and stopped there. He put both his hands on his knees to aid his breathing. I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction once again.

There were a lot of children gathered around the ice cream shop. As I was walking past them, a little boy dropped his ice cream. He was about 5 to 6 years old and had blonde curly hair. When the ice cream fell, the boy started crying.

His mother was standing beside him. She was talking with someone on her mobile and instead of taking care of the baby she shushed him. The boy kept on crying and pulled his mother's bag to draw her attention towards him but she kept on ignoring him.

I bent down to grab the cone he had dropped. I moved my head up while picking it up, when my eyes met the crying child. He was staring at me with his eyes wide open and had stopped crying. It looked as if he had seen a ghost.

That is when I realized I was the ghost he had seen. I saw a bug on the child's shoulder so I tried taking it off with my hand, but the boy started screaming out of fright. His mother got off the call and picked him up, but he kept on screaming and crying while staring at me.

I got a lot nervous, so I jumped a few steps to get away from that area. I guess it was true that children could see ghosts and spirits.

After a minute of walking I caught a glimpse of the garden. I was in much need of refreshing my mind and being in nature for a while.

Of course I couldn't breathe the fresh air or smell the fragrance of the wet grass or watered soil, but I needed a place to think and I could find no place better than that.

I reached the garden after a minute of walking. I walked over the stony path. There were very few people in sight. Probably because it was too late in the evening.

I saw a bench under a tree. A couple was sitting on it already. The woman was fighting with the man over some family issues perhaps. There was a small bag on the bench beside them.

An idea struck me. I walked towards the back of the bench, grabbed the bag and picked it up softly and nicely. The man's eyes got stuck on the bag as he was seeing it rising up in the air.

The woman asked the man angrily, "what are you staring at? I am talking with you. Can't you just pay attention once in your life towards what I have to say? These are things about you that irritate me the most David."

The man didn't reply, but kept staring at the bag which I was holding. The girl turned her head to see what he was looking at. Her eyes got wider when she saw the bag in the air. Her mouth remained open out of shock.

I started moving the bag a little up and down and sometimes right and left in the air. Their eyeballs moved with the movement of the bag. After about 6 to 7 seconds I placed the bag on its original spot while the couple stared at it, all terrified.

The girl moved her hand towards the bag to touch it. As soon as her finger touched it, I moved the bag a little towards her side. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She reached for her handbag, placed underneath the bench and ran away from there. A second later when the man got his senses back, he followed the woman and ran away too.

I laughed like the craziest person on the planet at that moment. I sat on the bench laughing unstoppably. The expressions of both of them were too hilarious to control myself. It was so much fun to see two fully grown people run away like children.

I opened the bag to see what was inside it. There was a half-eaten sandwich with some fries in it. I threw the bag in the trash can which was on the right side of the bench.

There was a freshly mowed ground in front of me lined with trees on its left and right sides. Out of nowhere a small fire started right in the middle of the ground. I sat up straight as I couldn't understand how it had commenced. Some ashes started rising from the small fire. The ashes started moving in small circles above it and Valek appeared out of the fire.

"What..," I said when I stood up from the bench to walk towards him.

He remained on his knees with his large black wings folded behind him. He didn't move his head or his arms. I put my hand on his shoulder, "Valek?"

He turned his head towards me. Some blood was coming out of a small cut on his face. One of the wings had blood coming from it as well.

"What has happened to you?" I asked out of shock.

"Nothing," he said while trying to stand, but he couldn't.

"How did this happen Valek?" I asked him, but he nodded his head while refusing to tell me anything.

"Wait right here I will be back."

I walked towards the bench and pulled out the bag I had thrown in the trash can. I threw the leftover food in it again and took the bag towards the entry point of the garden. I thought I had seen a water tank there.

I was right. I could see the water tank from a few feet away. I ran towards it with the bag in my hand, opened the tap and filled the bag with water. There was a piece of cloth on the tank. Someone must have forgotten it here. I picked up the cloth, closed the tap when the bag got filled up and ran my way back to Valek.

He had gotten up and was resting his back with the bench, sitting on the ground. I sat beside him on the ground with the water and the cloth.

"You don't have to do this."

"You are my only chance to get a new life. I think I owe you this."

"No, not anymore."

"What do you mean?" I didn't quite understand what he meant, but he was in much pain so, I ignored asking him anything else.

Valek's wings had taken up a lot of space on the sides. I moved forwards a little and sat in front of the one which had the cuts. I wet the cloth with the water in the bag and started cleaning the blood of his wings.

It was like cleaning a bird's feather. Only it was a lot bigger bird and the wings weren't of a bird but a man's.

"Can't you just close them, like making them vanish? Maybe it will help them heal faster."

"I can't do that unless I have enough energy."

I pushed the bag of water towards him.

"Here wash your face with this and get some rest."

"Thanks" while saying this he picked some water from the bag with both his hands and splashed it on his face. He poured some water on his arms as well. There were burn marks on them.

"By the way do you spirits sleep? I mean I don't.."

"Yeah, we do."

"Ok," I replied awkwardly.

He picked up his body and dragged himself up the bench. He laid down over it and immediately went to sleep.

What had happened to him? I thought he had gone to meet with his father. Did his father do this with him? There were thousands of unexplained questions in my mind. I thought of asking him about these in the morning.

I saw another bench just about 10 feet away from this one. I walked towards it. It was getting dark. I didn't know if I could sleep or not, but I laid down on the bench and started looking towards the sky.

It had been a long time since I had seen the sky like this at night. There were a million bright stars. It was really peaceful. I don't know when I closed my eyes and went to sleep as well.