The Bomb

I was sleeping or I was just keeping my eyes closed. I never felt comfortable sitting in buses during long journeys and my back was aching. All of a sudden I heard my seat partner speak on his mobile:"Don't worry, the work will be done." I wouldn't have bothered much but I felt that he was trembling and glancing around to see if everyone was asleep. It took all my will power to keep my mouth and eyes shut after hearing the next few words. "Just remember that, you won't hurt my family if I successfully blast myself along with the bus."

So here I was sitting next to a desperate man who was willing to kill everyone and anyone for his family's safety. I tried hard not to panic, which was really impossible.
Perhaps I could knock him down and make a run for it but these things happened only in stories and movies, not in real life. I made a quick discision for I couldn't just see me along with 30 other innocents just die. I am going to change him.

"Think", I told the person next to me. "Excuse me", came the reply.

"Just think of all your life. Think of all your happy moments and all the happiness that is yet to come in case you see tomorrow. Think of all the times you felt that living life was worth it and what others would be without you. I know very well that even you have had such moments, every person including the darkest of the people have once been happy some time in their life. Just think of all these moments and thoughts."

The person sat gaping at me, I myself was shocked that my words were really affecting him perhaps because he was near to the super consciousness of his mind during his last few momments alive on this planet.

I continued,"Now think of those moments not being there. Think of you your self erasing those magic moments so that in the end nothing remains.......nothing.
And now think of rubbing the very essence of the lives of other people such as this young laughing boy over there and this sweet little infant playing in his mother's lap.
Think of killing them in one go and ending all their hopes, dreams and memories in just one click of a button or one shot of a revolver."

The man now was really very moved, he seemed deep in thought.

I concluded:"Will you be able to kill them all just to save someone dear so that they may always regret that they were exchanged for a thousand dreams and smiles?"

I was panting now. I didn't mean even a fraction of what I had said but I hoped that the man wouldn't realise it.

"No", he said and glared at me as if I was some psycho. I sat motionless, unsure if my work had been completed or not. The guy went to sleep but I couldn't even blink.

Some 7-8 minutes passed and the person sitting diagonally behind me got up and walked to the driver and asked him to stop the bus. When the bus finally came to a hault he opened the gate. Everyone observed in silence.

"Goodbye everybody", he said. Now it all became clear to me. It was actually him who spoke on the mobile. I had changed the wrong man. A sense of doom swept over me. He was our killer. My mind went blank and I closed my eyes.

"Esspecially you",he said and I got a sixth feeling that he was talking to me. I opened my eyes. The guy was smiling, "Thanks for changing my short life."

And just like that he left. So he had actually heard me even though from a third person's view he had got the message. I still coundn't think straight and saw the man walking deeper into the forest on the road-side. The bus began to move and if my ears didn't decieve me then I did hear a distant blast.

That night I prayed for a brave man and his family who according to the newspapers were now together, and thanks to me, happy.