An Eye For An Eye

It was then, I knew this moment going to be my last. This moment going to be the end. This moment going to be my death.

After all it all begun today, a perfect Friday. Living alone in a 3 bedroom house with a private garden in high neighborhood already jump started my day to be the best of all. Or at least that was what I thought.

That morning, as I started to get out from my humble but yet rich abode, the weather girl just blabbed that somehow later that evening it would be raining cats and dogs and she also said that a strong wind would huff and puffed by. I wondered what made god so angry.

Pushing the mother nature tantrums aside, I set out from my house and went to my pride; Porshe Cayenne, metallic black, fully automatic and most importantly hybrid and limited edition. All of sudden, out of nowhere came a beggar begging for a change  I scowled.

This woman, who apparently a hag in a rag that smells like a gym socks after a soccer tournament with a hint of cats urine and I swore; dried feces daringly asking me for a dime. I simply shrugged her off and told her to take her kind to the dump site where she might have a chance to score. But she remained persistence and still adhere to her primary objective. Adamant to her holy cause, she got physical. She pulled my black Armani shirt until the left shoulder seam teared.

Hot headed by such act and not to mention the reek of scum and muck, I pushed her down and flailed at her a mountainous of french in my mother tongue. I could be a potty mouth especially when I lose my cool.

Down there she slouched down, in pain, aghast by my "explosions". Then, she pulled her self up with a grunt, hissing and mumbling about something an eye for an eye which didn't make any sense at all to me, and stormed off limping away to her next victim.

I drove my car around to my favorite coffee place and got my usual order when I heard a news on the telly talking about an old beggar woman died in a freak accident. And according to law enforcement, the old woman was a gypsy and known to travel around to get some money for some provisions and giving some fortune reading services at a price.

All I heard was the freak accident and a gypsy. I'm not a superstitious person but being a Romani, we were thought not to mess with curses and omens. Not that I'm an avid believer nor I practice my Romani teachings but this news suddenly sent a bile down my throat which made my knees all wobbly and my face all white as a sheet.

I ran out from the cafe into the curb. I vomited onto the street. I was choking to a point where I need to draw a heavy breath into my lung as if I just came out from a deep sea dive. Then, I laughed. I hollered out like a maniac saying that this was nothing but a coy and a play and a coincidence. This was not something like the universal karmic way saying I would pay what I had done to that hag. No. No way.

Not wanting to succumb to the will of my inner fear I ran to my car, pushed the start button and started the 45 minutes journey back to my sanctuary. Suddenly, drops of rain hammered down the car window pane. Slowly at first, and suddenly it all gushed down in a defeaning noise with a display of thunder and lightning as if God is having a muse with his mood. The driving was not comfortable, let alone my field of visions were limited to a point all I could see in front of me was a glimmer or a shape or a light.

Passing the city line, I made my way to suburbs but out of nowhere my car loses its grips and skidded over hitting a tree, sending me face first kissing with an exploded air bag in front of me. Stars exploded in my eyes and the darkness engulfed me. I must had been passed out because when I came to my senses it was dark out and it was still raining. But the rain already dragged along a friend, the wind.

Starting back my car, but to no avail I got out my phone from my back pocket and called the AA. Machine chimed in as the call picked up. I cursed at my misfortune and I babbled to the machine about the problem I had and pushed call end button and threw the phone into the adjacent sit.

After a while I realise this would not end well for me or my car and I should head back to the comfort of my home where there was the warm bed, the warm food and the security. The thought of having a warm food, made my mouth ran and my stomach all bubbly with hunger. So, I picked my coat from the back of the car, stuffed the phone back in into my jeans back pocket, pulled up the collar of my coat, opened the car door and busted out head on into the darkness into the rain and the demonic wind.

The wind was so strong and made my body hurt as it flails about the sharp water from the rain onto me as if it were bomb shapranel.  I dodged, jumped about and even came to a point where I screamed as a mighty oak tree fell down from its gracein front of me as if it was rooted by a brobdingnagian giant. I knew deep in my heart I was just a corner nearby to my home. So I dig my heels to the ground and gave out my lungs.

However, mother nature god seems to play a cruel joke when I saw from a far an eye of hurricane storm formed wreaking havoc along its path. And it came over here. Too late to go further so I started to head back to my car in hope I would be safe and search and rescue would find me later as the storm withered out. But, as I turn back I didn't know either it was because blood sugar thing or the lack of sleep or was it that my eyes playing trick on me, when I saw the same old hag who cursed at me.

In my head I reminisced her words, her bony fingers and her hisses. And suddenly, she laughed. In my head, she laughed. Blinking away my fears I backed away from the ghostly projection of my mind towards my home, but to be impaled by one of my wood fence that had been blew out by the storm.

As the wood fence menacing its way towards me, my life flashed before my eye. How it would be different if I just gave her the money, if I just gave her what she needs. It was then, I knew this moment going to be my last. This moment going to be the end. This moment going to be my death.

The wood fence strung true to my chest and I dropped down to what it seems my death the laughter in my head changed into a sarcastic notion as a final reminder of my life, an eye for an eye.

Story by,

 Dr. Abdul Hafiz Idris

Alexandria, Egypt.