Horizons

by Mariam Sajid

As recent events have unfolded, I have decided that it is now time to accept my fate. I am and shall regretfully always be a beacon for all things odd. When I say I, I am actually referring to my room. A place that I call my sanctuary and a haven has now become something I try to avoid, like a plague.

It all started when I ordered a juicy KFC burger after coming home from school at 8 pm. It was a long day and after convincing my mother of the need for fast food nourishment, I ordered my favorite burger. It is my most firm belief that one should always eat food in the right atmosphere to enjoy it completely.

So, with the DVD movie playing and the pillows fluffed I sat down with my scrumptious burger in hand, on my bed. Wanting to complete the ambiance I turned on the A.C while I opened the lid of the burger box.

*thump*

As I drew the burger towards my mouth, something fell from the A.C.

What was it? I thought. Well, now I curse my very soul for not focusing on eating instead of getting my curiosity the better of me. Thus, I put my food down and inched towards the end of my bed. Craning my neck a little to see what it was, I froze. There it was. A lizard, lying there on my wooden floor, all bloodied up.*gulp*

The horror of seeing such a gruesome image and then being expected to return to eating my burger seemed too much for my stomach to handle. Closing the lid, I rested my head on the headboard, shutting my eyes, while trying to get that image out of my head. In doing so, I fell asleep while the burger remained untouched.

Hours later I woke up. Instantly the image flashed in my mind and I suddenly decided. It was time to act all cowardly and run the heck out. Tip-toeing around the bed from the other side, I ran like there was no tomorrow.

With a broom in one hand, my mom after being told the whole story with a few exaggerations from my part came to my rescue. However, to my utmost horror the lizard was no more there!

I could not believe it. My mom and the servant looked everywhere, from the curtains to the washroom to behind the heater even, but there was no lizard to be found. My mom chalked this event up to be my hallucination as she couldn’t find a trace of that demon anywhere. The whole thing became traumatic for me. So much that I began getting paranoid whenever I would go to my room. For weeks I would walk cautiously around my room, jumping up at the slight movement I could see, fearing that the headless lizard would pounce at me at any second. Though, slowly and gradually, I started to forget about this incident and life in my room continued on.


The next incident took place just a few days later. As I entered my room, I came to witness one of the weirdest things I had yet to encounter. Now, this may seem like I am clueless or something but to be completely honest I had no clue whatsoever that cockroaches could fly. I mean why!!!!

You know that I adore all of God’s creatures and the metaphors they inspire, but a flying cockroach! That was just something that took me completely off guard and I mean, completely.



Okay, now you must all be thinking that I have flown the coop and lost all sanity that I ever had. But I saw what I saw, and what I witnessed was a flying cockroach that was in the vicinity of a flying ant. Yes, ladies and gentleman, an ant that fly’s. Sigh.

If I had known then, that these creatures were actually conspiring against me to takeover my own room, I would have taken action against them instead of letting them go. Soon, I found out the truth when I saw my floorboard covered in every inch with ants galore. They were every where, and I mean EVERYWHERE. The walls the floor, nothing was spared.....

Mom still maintains that the reason for this fiasco was not some weird alliance of the ants with the cockroaches to overthrow my room, but instead was the way I eat. You see, I have this habit of eating in my room and the few crumbs I leave lying around have caused this flood of ants all over my room. Though, I still stand by what I say which seems more plausible to me.



While this entire weird animal invasion was going on I thought back to the time when I was sitting in my room and a bird came in. Yes, a bird. The balcony door was open one time and it flew in. Apparently among all the doors and rooms in my house, it sought my one and only room. Yay! not. The bird was lured out and finally my room became safe, once again.

Sadly, this remained not the case as weeks later The Bee Invasion erupted.

Long story short, I accidentally played a part in the removal of a bee hive. The bees wanted to be avenged. Hence, a bee came in, tried to kill me, I killed it. The end.

All of these seemed random acts of nature on there own. However when you put them all together, including the latest one that I encountered even you can agree that something in the cosmos is going on.

You see last night as I sat watching Ugly Betty at 1 am, I got attacked. I was lying on my bed minding my own business when I felt something moving on top of my head. At first I thought it was a pesky fly, but as I saw its humongous shadow on the wall I was forced to change my mind. It was BIG and it was flying like crazy.

"Another bird" I thought and sighed against my pillow. However, I knew from previous experiences that birds are generally very scared and hence don’t fly haphazardly around the room. I tried to peek up but that thing was flying so close to my head that I was afraid to even look up. If I did, I was sure I would get smacked by it instantly. So, I waited and waited. The more I waited the more petrified I got. With a pillow above my head, I decided my only option was to just hide underneath the covers and just ride this thing out. So, scared out of my mind I blindly tried to grab hold of the blanket behind me. THUMP

I heard this sudden noise and I realized that the creature that I named ‘IT’ was no more flying. Confused and petrified of what happened I looked up and then I suddenly knew! The fan!!

‘ Ergh’ was all I thought as I once again had to peek around the bed to see what the fan hit.

It was lying on the corner and seeing it once confirmed my suspicion.

It was a BAT.

I know what you all are thinking. I mean, what the heck a bat is doing in my room.

Like I said, my room is a beacon for all things odd and out of the ordinary Now I am scared to even step inside that room, fearing what new and unknown thing might be residing inside, biding its time. Waiting for me to come so that it can pounce on me when I least expect it.

Regarding all of this my brother has made two predictions:

a) That I will lose my mind out of paranoia

b) That a turtle will come to my room, the next time around.


To the first thing, I cannot make any promises. However to the turtle invasion, I say why not?

I mean everything else has barged in so why not a turtle. At least it’s slow and can not fly.