The Bridge

Hi, my name is Shantanu. I don't know my fathers name. If family is a word then for me family would be the owner of the grocery store I work at. The only thing this world has given me is a name, the other things I have got are things I never wanted.
The grocery store I work in is in the heart of the city. The city is a concrete jungle painted in grey. I have lived here all my life.Its scary during the nights, the grey becomes black and the shadows under the simmering road lights chase you.The thin lanes are home to everything which the human civilization has admonished.

I can see the city from window of the store. Every one here is in a rush, to reach their destination. They don't know why they have been doing this all their lives, but they don't have time to think about it. Every one is in a rush, to reach their destination.

My day starts when the dark sky turns into grey. The sun never rises. It is the sound of people rushing to their destinations that wakes me up. I dont know how they get up, maybe they hear other people, maybe they can see the sunrise somewhere...But in my world here there is no sunrise.

Talking about my work, the store I work in is not that big, but because it is in the heart of the city there is a lot of business.It is very monotonous, I remember the prices of all the things we sell, to the extent that , I can tell the cost of a chocolate biscuit in semi consciousness.

When I am not packing bags for customers or collecting money, I am dreaming. I am dreaming of walking on the bridge right across the road. People say that only losers walk on that bridge. That is why I have not told anyone about my desire of walking on this bridge. I have sat in the lane opposite the mouth of the bridge, trying to see what is at the end of it, but I couldn't. The bridge had something magnetic about it. It wasn't grey, and was surrounded by the blue of the ocean and the sky, an occasional white cloud added to the beauty of the bridge. This bridge was for losers and I was one of them, but something stopped me from going there.

There are days when the grey was grayer and the black was darker, but this day the bridge was more beautiful. The blue, white and blue was enticing but something was stopping me . I entered my grey world not knowing that today would be different.

A few men forced their way into the store. Their faces were covered with a black cloth, and they were armed. It looked like a heist. They would take away everything costly from the store, I thought. But they were looking for something else or maybe someone. Who could it be?..I asked myself hidden under the counter, trying to see through the glass below. Their footsteps rushed rapidly towards the counter. A hand went round my collar and pulled me over the counter. Their eyes rested on me for a moment, and after a quick acknowledge by one of them, I was thrown out of the store, through the glass panes.

I lay on the footpath, with blood gushing from my hand and head. My blood fell on the asphalt road and the red slowly mixed with the black. It made a path of its own on this road, the path was headed towards the bridge.
I smiled. I could see the sun rise from the other side of the bridge. I pulled myself up, the blood was gone, the wound was no longer there.I could see what was on the end of the bridge.

All my questions were answered as  I walked on the bridge

Footnotes:


Image courtesy: www.smashingapps.com


To vote for this post on Indivine click here
I have attempted to write an Allegory. Allegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal.
I don't know how successful I have been in this attempt, so guys do let me know.