The Final Journey of a Centipede

Somehow, we have been branded as one of the creepiest and intimidating creatures, crawling on the ground; centipedes, an unreasonable creature designed by God. Well, that was all about me, it’s good enough to feel that creepiness in your body right away.

I was determined to meet her; at any cost I had to reach my destination in time. As I embarked my journey, I could see in a stone throw away, an army of ants marching steadily carrying something. Presuming to be their dinner for the day I crawled close to them to get a close glimpse of the procession. To my surprise, it was a funeral service of a dragonfly, freely offered by the ants for satiating their hunger though. I dared to interrupt the disciplined ants carrying the dead and crossed the procession with ease. I appreciated my body; it is far bigger than the tiny ants and of course with hundreds of legs to carry my long body in an array. Some angry ants stared at me in fury for disturbing their procession, I must say it never unsettled me. I headed to my destination with maximum pace possible. The goods train passing by, while closely grinding their wheels on the hot tracks provided me with a great background score for my quick crawl. Raising my head, I could see the rusted empty wagons yelling at me with creaking noise. For a moment I felt like the soul of the train entering in me; a possible transmigration. I chuckled and continued my journey, while the train came to an abrupt halt with a terrible thud which passed from one wagon to the other quickly. I was elated to see the train stop over, for I could easily cross over the track under the wagons easily.    

I was reminded of my lady love who is waiting for me on the other side of the road. In order to reach to her, now I have to cross two more hurdles; the busy road and the railway track. There were hundreds of vehicles anxiously waiting for the train to pass on the either side of the level crossing. Once the train crossed the level crossing all the idle vehicles began raising up spewing dark smoke from their dilapidated exhausters. I was terrified by the sight, for they were driven by the ‘humans.’ A centipede waiting to cross over the road is a trivial matter for the human beings rushing towards their unknown terminuses. What is common between us is the probability of reaching the destination; we are prone to freaky accidents. Not bad, I have made myself a good philosopher; I felt euphoric. I waited for a chance to find a possible gap between the vehicles to cross over the road, but I had to withdraw several times. For each time I attempted to cross, there was a vehicle charging towards me indiscreetly. The worst part was the transition from the mud to the tarred road. The mud was rather damp and cool, while the tarred road emitted heat and I felt like crawling on a hot pan.

This time I made it to the half of the road crawling past few white lines and found no vehicles coming close except some pedestrians passing by the side of the road. Hurrying up, I rushed onto a ten rupee note, for a moment I felt like floating on Alladin’s Magic Carpet. Swiftly a shabby dressed passer by grabbed the note while shaking me off from it. I fell on to the middle of the road dashing my back, breaking not less than ten legs. As I crawled towards the other side of the road, I could feel the stench of the blood. I really hate the smell of the spilled gore. I was afraid if I would throw up, but I managed to withhold the uneasiness in my gut. There, right in front of me a decomposed body of a dog, must have been run over by some lorries. The people passed by just ignored it conveniently closing their nostrils. I saw a mother holding the hand of her daughter rushing towards me. They just jumped over the shattered body of the stray dog, recklessly running they almost escaped from being hit by a speeding car. I heard the mother appreciating the driver and advising her daughter stating, “saving the lives is the duty of a driver.” The daughter nodded her head in affirmation, crossed over and walked away with her mother. It was a driving school car, and the master advised the trainee to keep watch for the intruders.

I was almost there at the edge of the road crawling past all the hurdles of the busy road. I had already crawled past a speeding two-wheeler and a car. I even managed to escape from an abandoned chewing gum, if touched it would have been fatal.   I could see my lady love waving her hands at me and I was excited to see her waiting for me for long time. I saw my love steadily waving her hands without any interruptions, I thought she was restless to get close to me. Unaware that she was warning me of a truck charging towards me, I raised my hand and waved back. It was too late, before I could do anything to escape the dark wheels of the truck, they had run over me in haste. I was cut into two my lower part was amputated and was stuck to the road. I felt numbed all over, and saw my love rushing towards me distressed. My eyes began getting darkened, now I could barely see her coming to get me.

With a deep breath I mumbled, “of course, saving the lives is the duty of the driver, but may not be ours.”

The partially decomposed body of the stray dog laughed at the mutilated centipede.
Yet another victim, his love wailed and collapsed.
 “Can I close my eyes now!”     
The curtains of my eyes were lowered forever.