Cat Man

We live on the first floor and there are two more floors in our building. Our apartment is spacey and located in a very peaceful area. The top two floors of our building have two offices and during the day, many people come to these offices.

One fine day, I got my daughter ready to go to school and we were locking the door of our apartment when a man with a long beard climbed the stairs and reached our floor on his way to one of the offices in the top two floors. My daughter was very curious about this new comer and let go of my hand. As I was trying to lock the door, I didn’t pay much attention either. After locking the door I looked up saw the man going towards the second floor.

Suddenly, she screamed, “Mommy, look! Cat Man!” 

My face must have resembled a ripe tomato, I was so embarrassed. I quickly looked up to see whether that man heard my daughters scream. Of course he did, he wasn’t deaf after all. I looked at him apologetically and mind you, he did resemble a cat. His hair was long and sort of frizzy and puffed up. His beard was even worse. It was long and ruffled, unkempt would be a better word to describe his hair and beard.

By then, my daughter was very excited, she could hardly contain herself. She kept on jumping on the spot and chanted, “Cat Man, Cat Man, Cat Man!” 

The man stopped and turned towards us. Oh dear, he was hurt for sure. I thought he would say something at me. I tried to deviate my little chatterbox’s attention to something else, but she didn’t seem to hear me at all. Just then, he waved at her and smiled before he climbed the steps. However, my excited little hyper ball, kept on screaming at the top of her voice.

On our way to school, I thought of explaining to her that it was not nice to call people names, but she was just two years old back then. How can I make her understand?

After a couple of days, I was on my way out when I bumped into someone. He waited for me to recognize him, but I didn’t. Then he sort of cleared his throat and smiled. Just then it hit me, it was the Cat Man. My god, he had cut his hair and trimmed his beard. He looked quit smart, neat and clean. He lingered for a bit more, his eyes shone with happiness. Like last time, he didn’t talk and dashed towards the staircase.

Well, my little girls chatter had definitely made this Cat Man realize that he looked ridiculous and he has changed his appearance. Maybe he didn’t realize that he looked messy with his long hair and beard that reached his tummy, which looked all greasy and dirty. I had a feeling that this time he smiled at me to thank me. He should actually thank my little girl.

Aliens

It was another boring day. I tried to pay attention to what this person was explaining but as usual I lost interest and thought about what has happened and how my life has changed ever since that incident.

This whole this started two weeks ago when I discovered that my parents were aliens. Yes, this might be something totally ballistic and unreal but it is true. I remember our trip to Add last holidays and it was in this beautiful island that my parents got abducted.

You might be wondering why I’m blabbing nonsense, so please kindly read on and you will come to know the reasons. Firstly, my parents are not ordinary people, yes, my father is the president of this country and my mother is the first lady. Since my parents forgot about my birthday, they were willing to do anything that I requested to make it up to me. So one fine morning while we were having breakfast, I realized that I wanted to visit Addu and told my parents. Luckily they agreed and I waited patiently for the mid-term holidays.

When we reached the island, the bridge was empty and the usual crowd that gathered where ever my father went to welcome him was not there. I smiled happily to myself because I wouldn’t have to force myself to smile and stand for an hour. It’s not that I didn’t like the well wishers it's just that I have this phobia about meeting strangers. I usually take a while to get to know other people and befriend them.

The first two days were amazing, I played in the beach while my parents rested and then together we swam and built sandcastles. After having lunch, we went for a walk and then at about six in the afternoon, I looked outside and I saw a huge metal ball sort of thing in the sky. I quickly ran to tell my mom and together we went outside to check. Since the spaceship was not there, my mother thought that I was pulling her leg but I wasn’t and she wouldn’t even listen to me.

However, that night, they came for us. Oh yes they did! How can I forget? My mom woke me up and spoke to me in a hushed tone. Instantly, I knew that something was very wrong. She asked me to be very quiet and showed me the window. Just then I heard my father talking to someone, he didn't sound happy at all. 

Then my mom said, "Hurry, get out, don’t look back". 

"What about you and dad", I blurted out.

"We'll be right behind you", she said. 

But I wasn't convinced. She hugged me and promised to follow me. I got out of the window and ran as fast I could. Just then I heard my father's scream followed by my mother's shrill cry and then, my mother screamed one last time. I hid behind a tree and I saw two figures coming out of the house, they were looking for something, they were looking for me, I realized.

One of them said, "Where is that kid?" 

The other figure replied, "I don't think they brought him with them". 

"Fine, let's get out of here", said the first one. 

When they left, I waited for the sun to rise, however, I dozed off in the end…

Shama read the little story Anfal always write and kept it on his night stand. She looked at the sleeping boy sadly. 

"What a way to spend the rest of your life", she whispered. She locked the door and left the room.

“He has written another story”, she told Himna who was sitting in the nurses lounge, enjoying a cup of coffee. 

“Poor little fellow, he saw them murder his parents, poor poor little fellow”, she said. 

“When they found his, he was sitting outside, chanting, “The aliens are here, they took my parents!”. 

He is just nine years old” She mused. 

“Well, at least his story changes gradually, I mean, at first it was the aliens who killed them, but now, they have taken over his parents’ body. May be some day he would come to terms with what has happened and what he has witnessed’ said Himna.

May be it was better for little Anfal to go on like that. His parents murders were never found and neither the body guard who accompanied them for their private holiday. Though Anfal witnessed the murder from the window before he ran for his life, he didn’t see their faces. However, they knew his face well they just couldn’t find him that night!

Looks can deceive you!

It was a hot and a sunny day. As I got out of the taxi, I quickly ran towards the bank to get out of the direct rays if sunlight mercilessly burning my face. I was greeted by a cool atmosphere and noisy chatter of people who were at the bank to retrieve money or deposit money. I quickly scanned the crowd and realized that the place was packed. There was a long queue at the token machine and as I feared, there were about three hundred people waiting to be served before me.

I stood for a good 40 minutes before someone stood up and walked towards the counter. I quickly dashed towards the chair he vacated before someone else could sit on it. On the way, I noticed two men with huge afros looking at me and smirking. I quickly averted my eyes and focused on the chair. If I wasn’t fast enough, I would have to stand for god knows how long.

Once seated, I looked around and noticed that a third guy had joined the afro group and all of them were looking at me. Oh dear, were they planning to harass me? Or worse, rob me? My hands trembled and I started to sweat like a pig. I held on to my bag for dear life and mopped my face with a hankie as I tried to look calm. However, my efforts were wasted and I looked like a scared little mouse.

I looked at them from the corner of my eye and saw them looking at me and saying something. One of them noticed me eyeing them and elbowed the guy who had the biggest afro of all. They all laughed and I quickly looked away. They knew that I was scared and that I was looking at them. I tried to take a few deep breaths in order to calm down. Oh well, they cannot just come and attack me, especially in a public place like this, can they! People would intervene and stop them. Even if people were a bit hesitant to help the victims when especially the attackers were around, they would call an ambulance once they make their grand exit. Wow, that was a relief, I wouldn’t bleed to death for after all!

After some time, I looked up and saw the guy with biggest afro of all marching towards me. There was a little smile slowly spreading over his stubby face. Well, for a partey, this guy looked quite clean though his afro spoke millions about his character. He stopped right in front of me and I stopped breathing for a minute, I was really scared. Alright, this was it, he was going to pull out a knife from his pocket and stab me. I closed my eyes and waited for him to do his dirty work!

Since nothing happened, I opened my eyes and there he was, standing in front me. When I looked up, his slow smile broke into a huge grin and he placed a piece of paper in my hands and when I looked at it, I forgot all my worries. I managed to say thank you and he was gone. His friends’ guffawed loudly when he joined the afro gang, obviously laughing at me, but I was pleased as punch. The guy with the huge afro has given me his token number! There were only ten people ahead of me.

I wonder why they had to go through all that drama to give me the token number! I wonder what they were thinking! Anyway, all the guys with huge afros and skinny’s about to fall off their body because their pants are lowered till their bum line is visible to the person standing or walking behind them, they might actually do something nice for you instead of attacking you.