A Strange Twist
Akin almost screamed at the top of his lungs in frustration, as the noises in the ceiling resumed once more. He buried his face under his pillow, swearing and cursing at the rats which made all sorts of annoying scratching sounds over his head.
He swung off his seat and grabbed one of his sandals, which he flung at the ceiling, although he was very careful not to throw it too hard.
The sandal hit the ceiling with a loud thud, causing the menaces hiding within it to stop their noise momentarily. For a while it appeared that this technique had worked to silence the nuisances, only for them to resume their noise with renewed aggression.
Akin was tired of this life, with all its rats and their useless trouble. But the rats were hardly to blame for Akin’s apparent problem. They were only there to remind him of the futility of his existence.
Everywhere he turned, there was only degradation, depreciation and depredation. These foul rodents were only a reminder that Life had given him the short end of the stick, and, unlike what many idealistic optimists preferred to believe, life was not fair.
His inability to sleep forced him to ponder on the general happenings that characterized his reality. More often than once, he found himself asking why he had to be born without a silver spoon in his mouth, why he had been relegated, by whatever power that ordered the universe, to an environment that lacked the requirements of ease and plenty.
There was nothing that made him different from those rich, spoiled kids that drove large cars around and oppressed people like him when they tried to cross the road, so what was the reason for these hardships? It surely could not have been anything of his own doing. He shook his head. No, he had done everything by the book, but it seemed the concept of hard work was just a trick to make the poor keep slaving away for the rich.
A loud din from above brought his thoughts crashing back into his cramped room, and his inconsiderate housemates who frolicked over his head. He reached once again for his sandal, but the noise suddenly stopped, as if the rats were aware that he was about to react. He listened for a while in the darkness, a smile slowly spreading across his face as it seemed that his ordeal was finally over. He laid back on his bed and closed his eyes.
No sooner had he relaxed than the exultant crow of a rooster pierced the air. Weary eyed, Akin groped for his torchlight and pointed the beam of light towards the wall clock.
Five thirty in the morning. The rats had kept him awake all night.
“Ah! God will punish all of you for me,” he groaned with heartfelt resentment.
To be continued...
Thanks for coming!
That little boy,