Susan was blankly staring at the rain drops falling down from the window.
"Susan!"
"yeah?...ya what?"
"This is the fourth time I'm calling out your name. Can you please give your imagination a halt and come back here."
Susan kept quiet.
"I bought some snacks. Mom and Dad will be late again.", Rachel said taking out the snacks from the bag.
Susan picked up a can of juice and chips and left the room.
She was aware what she was doing. Degrading herself. She knew that living in her imagination would feed her nothing but it seemed satisfactory..somewhat better than reality.
Once Rachel saw her sitting alone near the bedside, talking to a table kept in front. This was usual, Susan loved talking to non-living things, imagining them to be someone else- a character from a movie, a celebrity, a person that she herself created in her thoughts, or sometimes even herself. Standing in front of the mirror, imitating her favorite character from a book or movie, dancing, singing, imagining different scenes and living in them, this is how she used to spend her days. Maybe she liked the peace in there, where no one talked but her imagination.
It was two weeks back when Mrs. Gilbert was switching off the lights when she heard someone sobbing. She followed the voice, Rachel also came out of her room half asleep. Voice was coming from the backyard.
Susan was sitting alone in the dark, weeping and hugging her pillow tightly.
"What happened Susan?" asked her mother with concern.
"He died! He is dead", Susan replied, still crying.
"Who died?", Mrs. Gilbert and Rachel asked together.
"He is dead..My..my bestfriend is dead", Susan answered pointing at her pillow. "We were playing at the terrace and he fell down. He is dead". Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Not stopping for a single second.
"Hey! Heyy! Look at me" Rachel took the pillow from Susan's hand and hugged her tightly, "No one is dead okay! It's just a pillow..stop crying..it's okay..."
Susan was taken to the hospital that night itself. Mr. Gilbert reached the hospital directly from his office.
"Don't let her be alone..Some people tend to imagine themselves into some situations when they are alone and create their own world. It's normal, there's nothing to worry about. Just try to spend as much time with her as you could.", the doctor said handing over the list of some anti-depressant and sleeping pills.
They knew it wasn't normal.
Rachel entered Susan's room with some more snacks. She took the can of juice from her hand and sat beside her.
"Go away", Susan said almost whispering
"What?", Rachel asked in a confused tone.
"Go away..I can't talk to you anymore"
"Why?" Rachel sensed something weird.
"Because I can't live like this. I have to abandon my imagination." Susan replied calmly
"Wait..what? , Rachel asked worriedly."You think this is your imagination..this..Me sitting here beside you, you think this is not real?",
Silence filled the room. Susan stared at her sister blankly. Without any expression she replied..
"I don't know.."
** 'Walter Mitty', I suppose most of you are aware of the movie 'The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty' in which Walter,the male protagonist, used to imagine himself as a war-time pilot or as an emergency room surgeon within fraction of seconds forgetting what's happening around him.
Same was the case with Stacy, where her life was affected by her own imagination and her vivid fantasies which grew up to that extent that she herself couldn't distinguish between her imagination and reality.
Having thoughts about future, dreaming about random things, imagining situations in which we want to be is good but sometimes we get fascinated with details so much that we forget what we are actually after. We keep lying to ourselves, we keep hiding from the reality because the lie seems acceptable but that's not how it works.
Walter and Susan need to wake up and acknowledge the truth because no matter how much one tries to escape one day or the other they have to deal with reality. And that's the beauty of life.**
P.S:- Any new ideas are most welcome. You may comment below.
