'JUST' A WALK

I walked a Lonely road, or was it a Road that was walked by a lonely Me.....two sides of a coin i guess. But then i was looking onto only one side, ignorant of the other. Not long away, the presence of another side was intimated to me by a total stanger with whom i had this apprehensive-encounter of meeting once but comes repercussing to my mind for all times to come.

So as a lonely Me walked through the street also lonely as I, a distant energy hit on me. I wasn't lonely afterall(neither was the street) and my eyes prodded to focus on a relatively (compared to me) small brute transfixed with his glazzies(eyes) on me. First shot, ran through my nerves clanging the alarm tone in my heart. Next 2 seconds, the apprehensiveness created a sort of paralysis and i stood like a statue. As the shock died down and a few milliseconds of involuntarily searching my built-in encyclopedia i came to know that the person staring so hard at me was a Dog!.....Of Course, what else could live by the roadside having four legs, with a long pointed head, sharp teeth and most distinctively a curved tail!. But then he seemed to look virtually gigantic. (I wonder how just a distinctive stare could kindle so many emotions!!)

So, is this guy gonna attack me?....He was staring at me so hard, it just paralysed me as if caught in a spider's web. Racking my mind, time running out(i was so goddamn scared) i had to decide...Run! or Retaliate!. Run would have been the move, but then luckily my receptors being quite strong brought in loads of 'Never run in front of a Dog!' stuff. So i did not run, but Stood, rooted.

What was this guy upto?...I went searching for, When i had caused harm to such a fellow-ecological friend. I found None. The heavy adrenaline that ran through that column subsided..I was relieved. This wasn't about Revenge. However the Coup was still on and i had to find the problem. Funny! that at times problems seem more important than solutions. But there was my head, suddenly more hot than the sun itself. What should i do now?... All my thoughts were running helter-skelter except one perceivable enough to understand, Escape!. But how?
Retaliate!...someone was telling from inside my ears. Bend down to pick a stone?....I didn't. Not that i was a fan of the Mahatma, (I would have made HITLER sound kind instance) i didn't know how this psycho would react to such an overwhelm of emotion. So i took the safer side...I stood still, rooted.

Desperation was at its forte...'React you monster!' i shouted in the vaacum within me. I rationalised and decided to act, I wanted to take the upper-edge, I wanted to intimidate. So there came my first act of bravery. I closened my brows faking angry eyes and looked directly into the eyes of my adversary. Futile!!!. A grumpy sound that followed vibrated my eardrum and shook the nuts out of me. My faithful encyclopedia immediately decoded this to be the 'bark' with a detailed explanation of it symbolising Anger!. However there was my proud self still standing like Alexander, rooted.

'Help Me', I thought. 'Damn', I said....A couple of calm moments. 'Face it', I decided. Then came the history of my redemption, I took the first step....with my right leg. A pretty short one i guess, about half a foot in distance.

No reaction from my opponent!.

Then came the second step, my left seemed to co-ordinate. Good!

Still No reaction!. I refused to look.

Now the right came more easily. The left followed, then the right and left alternatively.

Within 10 seconds i reached the adjoining street, bustling with activity a long way from my resister. I saw him turn back, walk and take a place at the mound of sand that lay alongside the pavement. I walked my road - embarassed, shaken and relived.

'What a damned escape!', I thought. I was ashamed of having been beaten by a passive intimidator. "Sixth Sense!!", I confounded myself, "No idea where that useless fellow of mine had gone. I was there competing with a dog with no use of my most valuble sense standing undecided what to do. The final way for my escape being a simple straight-forward Walk!. I smirked, irritated by my incompetence.

I took the stairs that led me to my destination. I pulled open the gates and entered the safe boundaries of my house. As i opened the door, my sister came running towards me.

"Did you see?", she asked. I made a questioning look.

"The dog!..", she said. "...down the road. Its gone berserk. Bit two men from the corporation who tried to capture it and even a kid who tried to run away from it."

"Oh!.. ", I reflected "...I avoided it!"

"How?", she asked with curious eyes.

I paused. A smile evaporated my lips.

"Not bothered", I guessed.