It was a dark, subtle and starless night.
The large moon's light fell on the still yet pure water, creating sparkles on the water surface.
Inducing ripples on the clear crystal like water, was a boat.
On it were 3 souls.
The old rower, the young man and the little girl.
The old rower seated at the very back of the boat, not saying a word, not Making any noise,
All he did was row the boat. Looking in the direction of the little girl. Saying nothing at all
Just rowing. The only sounds he would induce would be the splashes of water and the sounds of the ripples.
The only distortions he would create would be the ones in the water that would emerge in forms of beautiful yet unlasting ripples.
Then there was the little girl, seated at the very front, facing the rower. She too did not say a word.
She won't lift a finger, she won't move her feet.
All she would do is sit,
Sit in a corner and listen.
To the silence and shadows,
To the ripplings and to the meadows.
The meadows of her dreams,
For she shall never see them again.
Then there was the man, right in the middle of it all, to where he was supposed to be.
At rest, not comprehending the world.
Too young to comprehend.
Not overwhelmed by the world.
Too old to feel overwhelmed.
Asleep, not knowing where he was.
Sleeping soundly, snoring but he too did not make any sound.
It was as if the perfect equilibria of the world prevented any sound from eating away its perfect silence. At least the ones that were too underwhelming.
The man opened his eyes slowly and gently.
'For how long was I asleep?' he asked, but he did not gain any answer.
He knew this well.
The child was unable to speak.
While the old was just not willing to.
They kept on moving, both forward and backward at the same time. Though the boat moved it was just not clear where the starting point was and where the ending one was.
The boat just kept on moving.
For a long while, the young man didnot say a thing.
Then the old man broke the silence, 'there's a monster amongst us.'
'A monster? What do you mean? What monster? What are you talking about you old geezer?' the young man replied.
The girl on the other hand said nothing. She remained completely and utterly silent.
The man kept on staring into the same direction as the old man.
Though the girl and the men were all looking in different directions, they were staring into the same abyss.
ONE, where the past was present, the present was future and the future was just another past.
Occasionally the young man would make some sort of a noise. It would un-equlibrate the world, for sometime, then everything would become the same, the young man's echos would fade and the equilibrium of the shadows, of the abyss and of the world would return.
Occasionally the old rippler would repeat himself, he would say, 'there's a monster amongst us.'
And each time, the man would reply with
'A monster? What do you mean? What monster? What are you talking about you old geezer?'
And each time the girl would silently sit there not saying a word.
They continued this for all eternity until the girl spoke up and the first thing she said, was, 'indeed there's a monster amongst us.'
And then she would go silent for another eternity. And then she would say it again.
The man would go to sleep again, snoring peacefully. Living his dreams. Away from reality.
A life of satisfactions and glories.
Then he would wake up again. But never he would behave like the child or the elderly.
The girl was too young to comprehend him.
While the rippler was too old to give a f*ck.
They perceived the moon differently.
They saw the shadows differently.
They perceived the eternity differently.
Yet there was something that they all shared, something that held all 3 of them together, afloat over the still chaos, afloat over the unflowing River.
It was the boat.
Their little chaotic actions would go on, and so would the boat, creating ripples in the unflowing River, nor having a start neither beholding and end.
It would keep the world in a soothing rhythm of unsettling hymns.
In this beautiful landscape there was the sky, the moon, the shadows and the boat.
On the boat there was the little girl, the young man, the old rower and the monster.
And they stayed that way for all eternity.