disheartened (Aakriti Mishra

Disheartened

By Aakriti Mishra ('23)

At one point he stopped walking. He looked around, and saw something entirely alien. In the moment, he knew three obvious truths: nature is cruel, nature is brutal, and nature is the reason he has become lost. He thought he knew where he was going, he had marked each tree he passed, one by one. Trees are not very helpful beings, and as to no avail, he had found himself around trees with no markings, and surrounded with a strangeness he could not describe. Surprisingly, he was not frightened, but oddly comforted. He went into the forest to escape, so he supposed he had gotten what he wanted. He wanted to escape, but could not say from what, as he himself did not know. He walked on, not finding any value in just standing.

He walked on, the wet leaves both sticking to and leaving from his shoes. He found even more alien territory, some of which was fascinating, some that was disturbing.

The sun had long been gone, and the moon was approaching the night sky, peeking out from the leaves of the trees. He walked on, trying to find someplace where he could rest, or at least sit for sometime before he walked on. He found a fence, which was surrounding something that resembled a cemetery.

He found what looked like an open entrance, and went in. As he strode on, he found gravestones, and read the engravings. A young man who died from the war, an old woman who died from tuberculosis, and a little girl who was found dead in a village massacre. The place reeked of tribulation from the victims of the tragic events, and he could feel the melancholy settling into his bones.

He stood there, wallowing and grieving for people who were strangers to him, when he heard a sound. A sound of anguish which he felt compelled to follow. He wandered, trying to find that sound.

He found a girl sitting atop a gravestone, crying that same sound of anguish he heard.

He walks up to her. “Is something wrong?” , he asks, with a concerned look on his face.

She says, while crying, “Nobody came. ”

“Came to what?” , he replied

She finally looks up at him and his concerned face, and her face turns white, as if she was shocked at his presence, and she curls into herself, as if breaking down, and she cries harder.

“Nobody came to my funeral”