A Short Story- The Factory
THE FACTORY
Deepak suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, shivering and sweating profusely. Cold sweat ran down his temples onto his pyjamas as he frightfully rose up from his bed and moved towards the nearest window.
It was not something unusual for him. He couldn’t really remember a night that passed without nightmares. Sometimes he wondered whether he even sleeps at all. Each night, he would open the window and feel the cold wind rush through his hair. Then he would stand in the dark balcony for the remainder of the night. He felt that his fear was unwarranted and there was no pragmatic reason for him to be scared, yet he would never cease tormenting himself every night. He had been living this way ever since he got separated from his mother which was a long time back. He just remembered her blue eyes and nothing else. He had never known his father. His life revolved around a group of friends and co-workers whose lives and personalities were strikingly similar to his. All of them had no parents and led solitary lives in their respective dormitories. They all worked together in a factory. There was no way of knowing the exact age but it was easy to fathom that all factory workers were of the same age group. In fact the entire town had no babies, no infants and no senile men or women. Everyone was eligible and was required to devote one’s complete daytime to the upkeep of the factory. No one was sure of the final product that was produced in the factory. No one knew how it was run and who the owner was. The one ruling over the town and the society was thought to be the capitalist behind the factory but that was just a speculation. There was ambivalence as to who was really ruling over the town’s people as there was no one who was not enrolled in the factory. Who was looking
after the town when everyone was busy with the factory work?
Deepak had waited for the morning sun long enough, while standing all night in his balcony. He thought it prudent to stay out of bed as he was too afraid and perturbed to go back to sleep. The sun finally rose from a direction which Deepak thought to be east, recollecting from the faintest memory of a conversation that he had had with his mother a long time back, but he was not completely sure of the direction. Now it was time to get ready and reach the workplace on time, otherwise the ramifications would be lethal. Deepak never thought that he was actually going for work, rather the prospect of meeting Soniya seemed to him very inviting and drove him to the factory before time each day. With this wonderful feeling, he left his dormitory for work just like any other day. Such humane feelings of friendship, love and emotions kept alive the human in him and probably in all other factory workers.
The factory alarm went off in unison with the setting of the sun and the workers were given a reprieve until the next morning. With a sense of freedom, all the workers strolled casually towards their homes and Deepak once again got a chance to meet and talk to Soniya. It seemed to them as if an eternity had passed since they had last talked to each other and they behaved in exactly the same manner as they had done before. Deepak believed that they were the only humans alive in town with unaffected emotions and feelings, and all the rest were like the boring products produced in a factory.
Deepak and Soniya had been seeing each other endlessly and without fail since the past few years and they continued to do so for another two years. One day, fortunately or unfortunately, the mysterious owner of the factory came to know of their love affair. The efficiency and the factory output could not be compromised at any cost. The two lovers had to be separated and evaporated as early as possible. It had become dangerous for the establishment even to let the two of them remain close to each other as their love and humane feelings could easily spark a revolution among others, embolden them to commit the same heresy and this could spell doom for the future of the factory.
Deepak was uninformed of what was about to transpire. He had already made up his mind and was about to do something which hadn’t been done before in town. He was about to propose to Soniya.
Just like any other day, he got ready after a terrible night and was all set to go to the factory where he would meet his love and talk to her about consummating their relationship. He was confident that she would not say no. As always, he reached the entrance before time and started practising his conversation as the dialogues had to be impeccable to impress the beautiful girl. Time went by but Soniya didn’t turn up. All workers had moved in and then there was a final call for Deepak. His heart sank and he felt like a statue as all his vitality, hopes and happiness slowly drained out of him. Like a banal mass produced product of a factory, he too moved into the factory. While doing the mundane chores in the factory, he kept on thinking about Soniya and imagining a life without her.
It was a rule of their land that anyone who dared to play truant would be evaporated and he/she would cease to exist. Deepak knew this well. He had lost her forever.
Many days passed by but Deepak couldn’t forget Soniya and how much he loved her. He became more morose and depressed which began to show in his work output. The head of the state finally decided to deal with this problem.
After completing yet another day at the factory without Soniya, Deepak casually strolled back towards his dormitory, had dinner and went to sleep. He actually slept that night and it was a sound sleep sans any troubling nightmares. He felt in his sleep intense bursts of light, roaring of heavy metallic engines, some awkward movements and strange voices. Then he felt like flying in mid air and then a familiar experience of weightlessness of which he had dim memories from his childhood. For the very first time in his entire life, he felt happy while asleep. He just didn’t feel the need to get up. He was enjoying every moment of this dream. At last, he opened his eyes with difficulty after what felt like years of uninterrupted slumber. He found himself in a well lit room and he could see a much bigger sun at the horizon from the French window. There was a digital clock at the bedside table which showed 6:30 AM. He didn’t know what to make of it. He heard someone working downstairs, probably in the kitchen. As he gathered his wits and got out of his bed to find some answers, he saw a very old yet beautiful lady coming upstairs with a tray full of sumptuous breakfast in her hand. She had unmistakably familiar blue eyes.
END
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