, A slight breeze whispers in my ears and laughs with the rustling leaves of the trees that tower over me. I walk quietly. Unnoticed. Invisible. A plastic bag swings in my hand nonchalantly.

A sigh escapes from the depths of my redundant existence and blends into the loud chatter of the birds and people surrounding me.

Where did I go wrong I think. Something in my head tells me…..this will take more than just a walk home to figure out.

A dog senses my despair and decides in his kind heart to give me company and walks alongside quietly but faithfully, all the while his tail limp, his head bowed in tune with my mood.

I thank him inwardly.

I see motorbikes speeding past me….i can catch some lewd comments. I ignore. I see cars with people inside, laughing, almost mocking at me. I still ignore.

A small kid is playing with his football, he seems happy even when he has no company. He loses control of his ball and it rolls towards the road. On instinct I run towards it to get it back, I kick it back to him just before a vehicle was about to run it over. Instead I almost get run over. The abuses from the driver comes flying to me. I stick out the finger and wave. No one notices, except the driver.

All this while, the dog is playing the role of the silent spectator. He wags his tail in applause for my performance. I thank him again.

My home is approaching…. ‘home’ I say…I feel secure in my home and yet so trapped…I can’t say why….i don’t know why.

How? How is it that I can see perfect normalcy all around me, when I have gross distortions of reality inside of me. How is it that no one notices? How is it that it doesn’t matter to anyone? How come the world doesn’t stop? Doesn’t every life in this universe count as important? And yet such insignificance?! It frustrates me that I can’t figure it all out. I kick a stone hard in retaliation. It bounces off my foot and lands 5 ft away from me, staring at me, teasing me to try again, harder this time. I refrain.

My faithful partner of the journey decides to take leave of me; he has to go his own way now. I respect it. I pat him on the head gratefully. He quietly ambles away. Adios dear freind.

Home sweet home. Ding dong. Mum opens the door. “What took you so long???” she asks irritated. “Nothing ma, just met a friend while coming so was chatting with her” I say with a smile on my face, as I hand her the groceries.