Nowhere Man

A man is standing in the middle of nowhere. He looks all around but he sees nothing. He sees nothing of importance, nothing of value. He looks around only to see the motionless structures- the abandoned houses, the empty shopping malls, the barren lands, the dead trees and little else. Nothing else! He looks up at the sky and, even though it is scorching hot, he does not see the sun. Confused, he looks beneath him. Things turn even stranger. He is standing and yet, there is no land. What is happening? Is he losing his mind? Terrified, he closes his eyes. Darkness.

He opens his eyes hoping to be “somewhere”. But no! He is still in the same place, in the middle of the same nowhere. He knows it is the same place, the same nowhere. He can feel it. Also, he recognizes the building, the tree, the barren land and the same absence of land below and that of the sun above him. Terror and confusion.

His brain is hurting. Certainly, this cannot be real. How can it be? There is no logic to it. No logic! It is beyond reason. It is impossible. This has to be a dream- a nightmare. He tries waking up. However, despite his best efforts, he cannot. How does one wake up from a dream? He cannot wake up and he cannot grasp this reality. Here heat and light exists and yet, there is no sign of the sun. There is no land but everything else that should be on a land exists- the tree, the field, and the buildings. It is beyond comprehension. Then all of a sudden, he realizes there is no air either. He suffocates at the thought of it. The suffocation, however, does not kill him. How? How can there be no air? How is he still alive? He now realizes he is no longer breathing. He does not remember ever breathing at all. Still, he is living. How? Moreover, why are the buildings empty? Where is everyone else? Are they dead? More importantly, how can there be a barren land when there is no land at all? How can there anything at all? How? How??  It does not make sense. He is petrified.

He feels something. He does not know what. He knows that because he has never felt something like that before. Suddenly he realizes it is his brain exploding. He is petrified and he is amazed- the brain is telling itself that it is exploding. How? It is beyond his understanding. The brain explodes. However, he is intact. He does not have a scratch. He is alive and well, except for the fact that he is clueless about his whereabouts and everything else for that matter.

He remembers something. He is starting to remember a world with land below the feet, a sun above, air to breath, green fields, green trees and buildings full of people. It feels like a dream. A pleasant dream. Is it a dream? It cannot be. This is real, “that” was not. So pleasant, so unreal, this has to be real. He basks in the glory of reality.

He tries to move, but he cannot. He knows he is not paralyzed. He is sure of it. Still, he cannot walk. He wants to go to the field, the green trees and meet the people in the shopping mall but he cannot move at all. Is it real? No, it cannot be. Then, he realizes sleeping takes him to a more real world. Therefore, he sleeps.

He wakes up. And this time, he is already walking. Being able to walk feels like heaven. He walks and walks and walks. He, then, remembers he wants to meet people. He walks towards the shopping malls. After a while, he realizes something else- as much as he walks, he does not cover any distance at all. He walks but he does not move forward. As much as he walks, he always ends up at the same place.

He wakes up again. This time he is already in the shopping mall. Something has changed this time. He is not standing as he did before. He is on a bench in the mall. It appears he had dozed off. He is relieved. That was a weird dream.

He looks around. He is searching for someone, anyone. He sees a person nearby. He does not recognize the man. He is a stranger but that does not matter.

“I had a weird dream. I dozed off. I’m here to…um...buy things, I suppose. Yes, I’m here to buy things.”
“So am I.”
“You dozed off? You had a weird dream?”
“No. I am here to buy things.”
“Great. Amazing.”
“Amazing. Great”
“So…what…”
“Nothing. I’ll just go and buy things.”
“It’s just that I had never had a conversation before. Or, so I feel…”

He had just had a conversation with a living breathing person. Now, he wanted to go and buy some “things”. He is ecstatic. He wants to know what buying “things” feels like. Must feel wonderful.  Then he feels something not wonderful. He feels a stab at his back. Then, a couple more and even more stabs. He is hurt and he is bleeding. He feels the warm and wet blood dripping. He turns behind. Everyone is smiling at him. They are waving at him. They could not be any friendlier than this. No, they could not have done it. They could not have stabbed him. He is confused. He cannot figure out what is going on. The blood continues to drip. Then, he feels some more stabs. He turns around again.

Yet again, the people are waving at him, smiling at him. What is going on? The blood is still dripping. He feels it and feels the pain. However, no one comes to his aid. He looks around. The people are still smiling and waving at him. But there is no help. Not one person moves. No help at all.
Then, he realizes something. He takes one last glance. Everything is as it was. The smiles -still there. Then, he closes his eyes. And upon closing his eyes he wakes up. He wakes up to a scorching heat. He looks up above but sees no sun, nor does he see any land below him or feel any air around him. He looks around. The buildings are empty, the field barren, and the tree naked and dry. However, he no longer seems to care.