Lady in white

[Lady in White can you tell me how I got here?]

"Shit! Where were you?" said Scott with a smile and an expression of relief.
"Just late! Just late!" replied Ratin.
"I am taking a break, your turn to get this place up!" Scott said as he cleared out the vinyl and CDs from the decks.
"No problem. As long as they don’t dig Punjabi MC, I am fine with it." Ratin said with a wink, "and I’ll see you back here within an hour."
"Sure thing! If the music doesn’t kill you and the floor first!"
They both laughed as Scott picked up his jacket and made his way backstage.

[Lady in White, can you tell me why you treat me as if I were a baby? I sure don’t like it.]

There were hundreds of people on the floor. Some were here to get away from things, others mostly to celebrate. The getting away part never helped, he knew that, he had tried it. The drugs, the alcohol, the music eventually made you come back full circle. Left you wondering why you started that circle in the first place. But the music alone had the power and he felt it, every time he played here or was on his way back home; the music drifting in his earphones. It was the one thing that made everything else sublime and made life worth living.
He looked at the people on the dance floor. A lot of them did not know how to dance; they were flaying their arms in all directions. Hell! There were those who were way too good at it. There were some who were just standing there listening to the music, probably under influence. And of course there was that one pretty female as always whom he noticed in the crowd. As usual he placed a bet in his head; as to whether she would at some point of time smile at him.

[Lady in White, what’s there in that bottle you carry? It tastes sick!]

Life passes you by, a sort of fast-forward in between the pauses of your plans. His was no rags to riches story. Good family, good life. Some people, like him, get the generous genie of life that lets one live his dreams. Others, at times, get a genie that just kicks you in the face and tells you to live your own life. One that tells you that dreaming is for dreamers. He had the money, and the itsy-bitsy fame that came with his profession, but the music was the only real thing while it all lasted.

[Lady in White, turn the light off. It’s too white and bright!]

The song was slowly reaching its peak. The beats, the people, the kaleidoscope of lasers and lights, his Console made a beautiful and serene scene. A sense of serenity that does not come with silence but with the rush of the blood through your veins and into your head.
He smiled to himself. He could live forever like this. To live is beautiful and to live life the way you want to, even more so.

[Lady in White, can you tell me what am I doing here? I want to go back. It took me a long time to get to the end of the rainbow.]

"Embrace me! Surround me! As the rush comes!" the vocals screamed.
He felt the music surround him; he felt the colours dance with him. He looked down. The pretty face in the crowd smiled back at him. He won the bet this time too (he always won either way). He threw his head back and spread his arms and jumped up with the beats. He was the sultan of his rainbow kingdom, the sultanate of music, lights and colour.

[Lady in White, we are all mortals aren’t we? Why is it so? Can’t we go on living forever?]

No one saw it coming. He felt himself thrown back. There was a sharp pain in his abdomen, as if someone had just squeezed his guts out. He heard the deafening noise of the explosion and the fireball that engulfed the dance floor. He thought he heard himself scream in anguish, in pain, in a desperate attempt not to let go.
Strange, if he were dying shouldn’t the scenes from his life flash past him? Or was it all just a cliché, something that happened only in the movies. Worse still, had they already flashed past and that pretty smile in the crowd was all that now remained of them.
The roof caved in. He felt the dust and cement mix with the gushing blood in his mouth. He tasted death. Then the darkness engulfed him.

[Lady in White, I am screaming! Can you not hear me? I don’t want to let go!]

The nurse, dressed immaculately in her whites picked up the crying baby. The mother looked on tired, but glad, the happiness stemming from the act of creation.
"He must have had a bad dream," said the nurse, "they say little babies dream of their previous life, the first few days."
"And you believe that?" the mother asked.
"It makes it reassuring you know, you mess up in this life, you can always cover up in the other," she replied. The mother smiled. The baby stopped screaming.
The nurse put the baby back in its crib. On television an ordinary looking newsreader said in an excited tone:
"The Police are yet to find any leads in the twin club bombings in Goa. The two simultaneous attacks during the New Year celebrations have left, till date, 173 dead and almost 450 severely injured. No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet…"

[Lady in White, what use is a second shot when you know the first one was your best?]