Writer's note->I have posted this story two times before with different names but everytime delete it because I wasn't satisfied. Hope you like it. I have brought in minor changes. Feel free to comment and please if you like it then don't forget to click 'LIKE' button.Many of the stiff is same. But please read it.
“Melanie, stop,” I cried. I was running after her on a dark street in my pajamas. She was running breathlessly, afraid to look back. She was sure that it was one of the Iraqis trying to kill her and I was sure that it was Melanie. How could I forget my own figure and the dress I wore on my last birthday? It had to be Melanie. How could she not recognize her own voice? Her body was now mine and mine was hers.
“Melanie, it's me, Jemima." I shouted to make myself audible against the howling winds. She turned back, and I could just make out that she was happy to see me here, but facial features weren't clear. I could hear an animal’s cry as if to mark our reunion. But why were they crying? We were going to meet after nine months so why did they mourn? Maybe we weren’t going to meet.
I could hear a horn blowing somewhere, and then appeared a rusty truck. I felt the bright headlights flash into my eyes and Mel's too, disrupting our meeting. Some soldiers wearing desert camouflaged uniform got out of the truck and pointed their guns at Melanie. I don't know from where, but a light flashed on her face making her facial features clear. Her eyes were locked on to my face asking for help. Her horrified visage added to my misery. I had caused all this trouble to my friend. The next thing I knew was that she was shot dead by these soldiers while I stood there, watching them do this. I didn't think about anything else or they didn't give a chance, so I began running to an unfamiliar place. I had proved that I am such a coward. She was gone. I was gone. Forever and ever. I started evaporating and in the next moment I wasn't there anymore. She died. I died. I had trifled with the last chance I had got. The howls of the birds were the only living thing present on the silent, dark road. That was the end. It was the end of the story that had started nine months ago. No more Melanie Stone and Jemima Rover would ever haunt the Iraq streets again.
I woke up from this nightmare which formed a very much part of my existence after they had left. I was gasping for breath and adjusting my eyes to the sudden bright light of the sun. Although the same nightmare had been haunting me for months, each time it scared me more than the previous time. Every night, I would go to sleep praying the dream not to come again but somehow my prayer went unanswered and my every morning was wasted in consoling myself. I looked at the clock which showed the time 06:30 PM and threw it away in disgust. Couldn’t the clock go to the last day of my life and show me with all the people I loved, from my parents to Melanie? I think dying once is easier than dying everyday with guilt stored within me; maybe that wasn’t a good idea. What if they didn’t exist then? It would be even more heart-breaking . No; I would have to wait for them and keep on praying.
I cleared my throat and gathered myself for a busy day ahead, a day as Melanie Stone.. The door didn’t open so I assumed that Mel’s parents were still asleep and hadn’t heard the voice. I couldn’t even think of hurting them again with this hysterical behaviour of mine.
I went down to the kitchen thinking the same thing again and again: Why did I ever agree to it? The pain to go there was curling up inside me. I wanted to be there with them, feel what they were feeling, listen to what they were listening. But not now. It wasn't possible now. I had to fight a lot with destiny. The fight might have been going on between two countries: USA and Iraq but I was fighting another war, the one with destiny. If I fail now, I won't ever get another chance to fight. Melanie and I had changed bodies nine months ago with each other so she could go to Iraq and I could stay here.
“You are awake?” a female voice made me jump as I retrieved a bottle from refrigerator. The bottle fell from my hand to scare me even more. I was quivering with fear and my throat was dry. The after- effect of the dream had not yet vanished.
“Yes mom. Why do you ask? It’s the usual time I get up, isn’t it? I just came down to drink water. Why are you awake?” I inquired when I saw Mel’s mom dressed in her pink nightgown standing right next to the kitchen entrance. Her mom never used to get up before 8:00 so each day I had to go without greeting her.
Her face was still like a statue, expressionless, but a beautiful one with all the godly beauty.
“Actually, I have a project to complete so I was just working on it. You know how stressed I am these days,” she said and looked at me carefully. There was no sweat now, only tension which couldn’t be hidden from her. I turned to the other side so she could know that her inspection was irritating me.” Had that dream again?” she guessed.
“No mom,” I lied.
“Don’t lie to me. I heard the sound of something you broke,” she was angry. She wasn’t angry because I had not forgotten my past but because I was lying to her. Mel’s mom (Mrs Stone) was the most truthful person I had ever come across. She was what one could call the‘American Gandhi’.
But now she had forgotten her Gandhi avatar and had lied to me. There was no project to complete but an inspection which she had to make. She was coming upstairs to see me. I turned back at her to see that serene her face looked. Her heart shaped face, with no wrinkles to mark her age was flawless. How could one manage to be so pretty at this time of morning when even the most beautiful models are lost in a world of dreams, oblivious to their surrounding world? Her hair was tied in a perfect pony and no strand of hair was out of its place. How much I admired her!
“I was just taking my medicines, mom,” I said. By now I had practiced a lot to call Mel’s mom mine. Time and time I called her by this name so I could never make a mistake and get used to it.
“You should take them now. I’ll give those to you .Wait here,” she had a command over her voice. She went to a cabinet near the crockery rack.” Was Jemima again in the dream?" she called out from there.
Couldn't I tell her that I was Jemima and her daughter had gone there? Jemima is here, Melanie is there, I shouted in my mind. We had changed bodies and hadn't anyone know of this.
“Yes,” was all I could manage .Why didn’t I have the courage to go to her and say that I don’t need her help and let me be me. Maybe this was because I was hiding something from her. She brought the pills that I had to take and I gulped them with a glass of water in one go.
“Now, you go and sleep. I think you can miss school today. You are looking really tired. Don’t roam around." She said and then paused for a moment. “Try to forget Jemima. I know it's tough... but you have to, for your own good,” she said as her usual bright smile returned on her face.
“I want to go to school, mom. That is the only place where I can concentrate,” I said.
"Fine, as you wish. I won't stop you." She patted me on my back and hugged me. Her grip was too tight that I couldn’t break myself free.
“Let me go,” I demanded and she released me and then smiled. I think I had been too rude to her. She just wanted to hug her own daughter. What was wrong with that? Maybe I felt so claustrophobic because she wasn’t my mom after all. She made a sad face and then walked back to her own room, thus not giving me a chance to apologise and leaving me there all alone.
Melanie wanted it, I didn’t. Or did I? Did I want to be in her shoes and see the world as Melanie? No, never, I was okay being Jemima. What if I was a little bit less popular than Melanie and no one would want to be my friend except for her and Kara? I got good grades and had a bright future so why would I want to be Mel, an average. It was Melanie who insisted on this. Not me. It was her idea and she wanted it to be executed.” I am not guilty, judge." I had to get her back even if that meant going to hell.
Gender:
Points: 58538
Reviews: 553