It was during the war of 1945 when the incident occurred.
The man was a soldier who survived a plane crash. He lay unconscious near a large water body. As he regained consciousness after some days, he found a black ploughed land. It was bordered by a huge forest and grasslands which were all abnormally large. That was not normal at all. He was wearing a black t-shirt, black pants and spectacles. By now, he had slowly regained his strength. It occurred to him that he was no more in the world of the human. He noticed that there were numerous holes all around him. But he could not understand what those holes were of. All of the holes were much bigger than him. They were enormous. He remained in the unnatural World for quite a long time. He was in a terrible state of mind when he returned back. He was carrying a sharp metal weapon when returned back. The weapon had a blackish red stain on it. He used to document every incident with photograph and in a small diary which he was carrying with him.
I recently met this man with a peculiar voice. When one looked into his eyes, it felt as though he was a harmless being. It is as if one could reach deep into his eyes. He spoke very softly. It seemed as if he was a pure gentleman. Presently, I visit his house regularly. There, within a glass box, a blackish red skin was kept. One day, I was standing in front of the glass box, staring at it. In a strange husky voice, he asked me, ‘What are you looking at?’ I was little awkward and said nothing. Then like other days we spoke about different things and then I went out.
How did I meet this man? “He was peeing in the street corner when he fainted. I was walking by. That’s when I saw him. I rushed to him and splashed some water on his face. As he gained consciousness, he looked at me and asked ‘Who are you?’ ‘You fainted so I rushed in to help you.’ He was quiet for some time. He asked for some water and whether I could take him home. From that day onwards, I started visiting him at home.” Truth be told, I was very keen to know about his life. It was the way he spoke and his behavior which intrigued me to know more about him. It was not exactly strange, but also not usual to that of a normal person.
As visits grew regular, over cups of tea, he told me about many events from his life. It never occurred to me to crosscheck incidents because I intuitively trusted him. One day, around 12.30 to 12. 45p.m I went to his house and I asked him out of the blue, whether I could work on his stories and incidents. On hearing this, he stared at me for a while and enquired about what I would do with them. Are these worth enough to do anything? I suggested him to display his story as documentary artwork. I asked whether he had any issues with me working on them. In any case, his story needs to come out to the public. We generally, had our everyday conversations in English. Initially, he started shouting and asked me why this story had to be taken out to the ‘Fucker society.’ ‘They are not worthy to see it,’ he roared. I did not have a reply. In the end, after a long pause he gave his consent to let me to do the work. To this day I wonder, what extracted such a rude response from him. On hearing my proposal, he had asked me
‘Is documentary an important part in the human world?’
I said, ‘No it is not like that, now the humans do not have that much time. But their urge to know the truth has also increased. For that reason, I wanted some handwritten documents like letter or images which would be used for the purpose of evidence’.
He stared for a while and said, ‘Are you mad or do you not have any sense?’
‘Why?’
He replied with a wit, ‘Do you think that somebody has documented the images of the incidents that I am telling you?’
‘Oh! that means you do not have anything with you?’
He said, ‘No, No.’
I did not believe what he said because a person who had so many antique collections must have kept some documented images of his life.
Suddenly he told, ‘Does document mean the original things.’
‘Yes.’
Then with his husky voice he told if ‘I will give the things that you want..’
‘Do you have them with you?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘If it is with you then why did you create such a fuss?’
He replied in a sad tone that nowadays sometimes his brain does not work, so he does not realize what he says. He asked whether the police would arrest him for this?
‘Can I be hanged for this?’ he asked
‘Why would you think the police would get involved?’
Then suddenly in a distracted way he told “Nanook of the North, by Robert Flaherty, 1922, documentary, you know?”
I replied “Yes, that means you know what a documentary is?”
He replied “Yes, some I know”
I was a little surprised as to why he felt the police would get involved if he revealed his past life. I do not know why he was afraid.
The next day we sat down. He took out an old diary. The diary was old. The pages had dried up and turned yellow. He started reading from it.
“There were big green leaves all around. Inside them lived huge caterpillars. As I gained consciousness and opened my eyes, I saw the caterpillars walking around. I did not realize what these things were. I could not understand why the insects were biologically enormous. I did not have any relationship with these insects. It was because the insects never took me to be on their team. But they wanted to eat me up.”
‘The caterpillar is bigger than a human?’ I asked
He replied ‘Yes’ and started reading.
“I started running but did not know where to go. The mud was very wet under my legs. It had not rained and yet the mud was very wet. I did not know what would I eat and suddenly my eyes caught glimpse of a huge pumpkin creeper. There was a huge pumpkin hanging on it. Some of it was eaten by a bird. I could not eat it as I did not have the habit of eating raw vegetables. I woke up the next day to find that the pumpkin had completely dried up. It was very dry and seemed that with a single touch it would break into numerous pieces. I couldn’t help staring at the pumpkin constantly. To my surprise, the leaves beside the pumpkin were bright green. It seemed to call upon me ‘come and look at me as I am still live. Other than the birds I have not seen any other animals or insects. Who would have eaten the pumpkin? I kept moving forward. The more I moved, the more I felt the wet ground under me. Suddenly I came upon many big holes on the ground. I did not know what is there inside it.
’Did you think of entering into any of the holes to check them out?’, I stopped him.
‘No.’
He went back to his diary and started reading:
I kept staring at the holes. In a while, an insect came out from the big hole. The skin of the insect was reddish white. I could not find the head. He was covered with mud all over and was moving slowly. The insect did not seem to have any backbone or even a skeletal structure. I did not want to go in front of it. I kept on moving ahead and soon came across numerous dead human bodies lying around. It took me a second to realise that these were soldiers. They must have also come to this land like me. All that was left were their bodies left from the War. All of them had died during the crash. Perhaps the earthworms were feeding on those dead bodies living on them. Perhaps they grew big in size after engulfing those dead humans. To my shock I found a human skeleton near the hole of the earthworm. It was still wearing black pants and a shirt. A few guns also lay beside him.
16th February
8:30 a.m.
I am sitting beside huge rocks which were covered by the moss. I do not know where I will go, I do not know what I will eat. I was just roaming around. My mind and body were not working. I was entirely engulfed by the power of negativity. Though till now earthworms have not seen me. I think the earthworms used to feed on animals other than humans. But I had not seen that through my own eyes. I was simply guessing it.
At that point I interjected, ‘So according to you the earthworms were so big that they fed on humans as well?’
‘Yes’
‘Huh’
‘Do you think all of this is a lie, a made-up story?’
‘I am merely surprised it does seem odd in today’s world to imagine that something like this really did happen. But I believe you. However, is there a slight chance that the entire thing was imagined?’
He became furious. There was an awkward silence in the room. I apologized. I told him that I should not have reacted. ‘If you want to listen then can sit or you can leave.’’ I kept quiet and he started again.
11:35p.m.
I have still not eaten anything. I could not find any water to and my throat had begun to dry up. I was felt nauseated. I thought that I would not be able to live anymore would die of starvation. Nearby there was a long tree but it was so long that I could not reach it. My lighter was present inside my pocket. I had fire with me, but nothing to roast in that fire. The world was becoming hazy as the times passed. I became unconscious once again.
I regained consciousness and this time found some cockroach like insects crawling about. The cockroaches were big and I gathered that if I killed some of them, I would have enough to save me from dying of hunger. After a while I killed the cockroach with the sharp weapon, present in my hands. A splash of fluid came out. I was not at all sorry for killing the cockroach. It was nature’s rule to survive. To survive I had to kill. That was the first time in my life that I killed any insect, roasted it and ate it. I was full after having the insects. That day, the taste of life changed. I started thinking that maybe I would be able to survive further now.
‘You could not have the raw pumpkin but you had burnt the flesh of the Cockroach?’
‘If I did not kill the cockroach then he would not have survived.’
He went back to the diary. A page dropped out from the diary. No, it was not a page! It was a photograph! No sooner had the photograph touched the ground that he picked it up instantly and put it inside the fold of the diary. I caught a quick glimpse of the photograph as he took it away. It was the image of a person standing in front of a big hole. The photograph was in a very bad condition, one roughly understand from it. Dry mud stuck to the photograph. I got a strange smell from the photograph. The smell was like, when a splash of water fell on the dry land. That smell was very known to me.
9:45a.m.
I slept under rock last night. I was planning on trying to get back home but could not find any. What would I do? I forgot that I was staying in an earthworm world. I had to be cautious while moving forward. I was moving very slowly ahead without making any noise. If there was any involuntary sound or vibration, any insect or animal could out. That would mean the end of me. I have seen earthworms chewing on some human dead bodies. Though I have not witnessed whether they are eating live humans or not. As the earthworms move very slowly I could run and save myself. After a while, I came across no greenery. There was only black mud. I kept moving forward. As I walked I kept thinking of where I would go, what would I eat. All of a sudden, the ground underneath moved. I was scared. The ground kept on moving and as I was not wearing any shoes I felt the temperature change from hot to cold. I could not move forward as the ground was moving terribly creating huge holes in front of me. If I move ahead, I will fall inside those and die. Out of fear, I fainted again.
When I regained my senses, I saw reddish creatures moving beside me slowly on the ground. They did not eat me. I am quite sure that they would have eaten me if I was dead. That time I realized that these creatures do not eat the alive. They were feeding on those dead humans which made them grow in such huge sizes. That means I can survive.’ He stopped for a while and stared at the glass box.
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing’.
He remained silent. I looked at his eyes. It shining with water in it.
‘What happened to you?’
‘Nothing’
He did not say a thing.
‘Please forgive me’.
I did not understand the intention or meaning behind this saying. ‘This is enough for today. You should go’.
I left his house. I felt disturbed by his behavior but understood that the issue was serious. My interest increased a lot. Two days after this, I again went to his place. To my surprise I found some old photographs along with the negatives laid out on his old table. There were some letters also. I did not open the letters. As I entered the room he told me ‘I have kept everything outside, now whatever you need you can take it from there’. I said ‘Why have you brought these out?’ He did not reply.
Before looking at the photographs, I decided to open the letters. There were many things written on the letter but they could not be understood. This may be what we call gibberish, I thought. ‘What are these?’ I asked. He replied that while in the army when he spent his leisure time typing on a typewriter. The rhythm of the typewriter relaxed him. There was no meaning in these letters. Nothing complicated, no War, only peace all of them letters. I told him that by looking at it felt as if many things were written. He replied by saying, that was the joy of doing that. Then I asked nothing and took all the letters.
9:45a.m.
I have already moved forward a lot, but I could not find any river or water body. Now I was really feeling very thirsty. The wet ground beneath my legs was still there. It was damp because the earthworms used to live underneath it. As I moved a bit further, I found a tree. I do not know what its name was but it cast a big shadow. I sat down and took some rest. I saw the earthworms come out of their holes and moved towards the sunshine. Maybe they wanted the direct rays of the sun on them.
It was morning. It seemed that the entire ecology was developed by the earthworms. These creatures dug the ground and gave birth to the greenery. The greenery was very beautiful which nobody must have witnessed before. After sitting for some time, I started moving forward. I was starving, there was nothing much inside my stomach. I was very hungry that day. It was strange for I ate the cockroach earlier. I kept on moving forward with the thought of food in my mind. I did not get any. I saw a raised land when I can sit and see if there was any food or not. As I climbed up the mound, I saw some of the earthworm were constantly crawling about. At that moment a plan come to my mind. If I could kill one earthworm it would curb my hunger for two days. However, another thought disturbed me. All these insects made such a nice world then would not it be nice to kill them. I constantly kept thinking. Two days went by in thought but I reached no solution. Finally, I decided that I have to kill the earthworms otherwise I would not be able to survive. It was 7:45a.m and I decided to kill. I had a sharp weapon with me, which I stared at for quite a sometime. It was because the weapon was not in use for quite a long time that was the reason for not being sure about it. The upper part of the object had rusted. The handle was green in color, mostly likely covered in moss. It took me three hours to shine and sharp the weapon on a rock. Then, it was glazing. Very slowly I got down of the earthen mound as if there was any vibration they would go inside their holes. I would not get my food to eat and I would not survive. I moved forward. I saw one earthworm moving around on its own. As I moved forward, it sensed my presence and started moving fast towards its hole. I did not give any chance. With one heavy strike, within a fraction of a second it gone. The ground beside me started getting wet in blood. I did not care. I carried half of the earthworm to a another area. I cleared the flesh, put of the skin and roasted it on fire. The flesh was very tasty. One thing kept bothering me. I killed one of those who made this wonderful different world. I thought of what else I could have done in order to keep myself alive. I did not have any answer but I could not keep myself away from meat. I came to a point that to survive, I had to kill the earthworms. Day after day, I kept on surviving on the earthworm flesh.
‘Why are you using the word ‘kill’ here?,’ I asked him.
‘Do you think that killing humans alone accounts as killing? Killing earthworms is nothing as they cannot say anything! You should know that as man has the right to create a World so do the earthworms’.
I reframed my concern. ‘Normally we stamp our feet on earthworms but we never call it as’ killing’ or ‘murder’.
‘Humanity has worsened down among the humans. Now humans are the most powerful and intelligent being on earth. They do not stop to consider the death of beings lower than them. The killing of a snake, frog, small bushes etc. does not record as killing for them. What I did was completely for my survival. I act as ‘killing’ because the place where I went was so beautiful that I cannot explain. But yes, it is true, there is a brutal side of this beauty too.’
He continued to read.
I kill an earthworm a day and have it. I did not feel like going back home. As I kept killing the earthworms I saw nature around me was consequently being destroyed. I killed many earthworms, so most areas around me were destroyed. Around me lay scattered many half-bodied earthworms. They reminded me of dead bodies of the War. I could relate to it very easily. I did not pay attention that the nature around constantly decreasing. I did not care because I thought, what if nature was getting over, I am still live. I kept on killing the earthworms and eating it. One thing I forgot to mention that there was no pollution in this World. I am moving forward by stamping on those dead earthworms. It was awful underneath my feet. The days went by. It was almost a year in the earthworm world now. In this one year I killed almost 70 to 80 earthworms. I no longer have problems finding food. I no longer feel the ground underneath me as cold. It feels very hot. There is not enough greenery around. There are not enough insects around me. I looked at my wrist watch.
It was 8:45 p.m.
There was a nice breeze going around. It smelt a bit weird. It was a mixture of the stench of dead earthworms and the ground underneath. Now my work and passion are to kill the earthworms. Beside me, the roasted flesh of the earthworms was hanging.
‘I did not know that earthworms’ were delicious? Do you still keep earthworms in your food habits?’ I joked.
‘Come with me’.
He took me to his kitchen and opened the fridge. There was a pungent smell coming and what I saw was unexpected. There were four bowls of dead earthworms.
‘See, this is my favorite food. I did not just kill earthworms there; I brought back some flesh in my bag.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked nervously. I felt like running away from the site contained myself for the full truth. ‘How does a 20-30-year-old meat still be preserved inside your fridge?’
‘After coming back, I washed them thoroughly and preserved them. After putting salt, a lot of water oozed out. I also smoked it in the sun and then again kept it inside the fridge. I dried the flesh and put it inside the fridge. I know it smells a little but it is as tasty as it was before.’
He took me to another room where the earthworm skin was hanging and some more rotten flesh.
‘I generally do not bring anybody here’.
‘Why did you bring me?’
‘I have told you most of the things and you have the right to know the entire thing.’
I was nauseated. There was a terrible pungent smell in the entire room.
‘How do you live here?’
‘This smell keeps me alive’.
I was surprised. ‘This smells good?’
‘The place where I spent some of the most important time of my life, smells like this and this was the best smell there. The place where I was, filled with dead rotten bodies of the humans and the earthworms.’
He was silent for some time. ‘You did not tell me about the greenery of the earthworm’s kingdom,’ I said.
‘I told you earlier but you must have forgotten.’
He started to look through his diary. While looking he gave me some photographs and told me to read the text beside the images carefully afterwards.
He went back to his diary.
‘The green in the Earthworm Kingdom was not crystal clear, it was cloudy green. As if I clean the smoke then the green would be visible clearly. There were some leaves that were too bright. It was as if someone had poured the entire green color there. The more I entered inside the green the more I felt that I would not see the backside of the green anymore. A small plant caught my eyes. There was a flower but a caterpillar was eating up the small plant’.
‘But you said that the green was disappearing from around,’ I interrupted. He did not reply. He ignored what I said and suddenly changed the topic.
‘I am the king of the earthworm’s kingdom. No living humans could survive there. The sharp weapon I had, was covered with blood stains and slowly those red stains were changing into blackish red in color. I did not recognise but the nature around me was disappearing. Behind me, there was no more of that nice green. The ground underneath was not wet anymore. The ground color and transformed into black. In this black soil, there were no small green plants left. In front of me there was some green left. I was moving and moving but now my speed was much better as there was no scarcity food in my body.
11:45p.m
In this earthworm’s World, I smell the rotten dead earthworms every day. My regular routine was to kill an earthworm a day and collect to preserve food for the next two three days. I could not stop the habit of killing the earthworms.
Five more months passed. Along with the earthworms, the greenery was also finished there. Most of the earthworms died around me and lay along with the dead bodies. I chopped off each earthworm like chopping the vegetables. There was no green around. I had killed nearly 100 earthworms. Due to no green surroundings, I felt like suffocated. There was carbon dioxide all around. I was scavenging all around for earthworms. Though I had much flesh inside my backpack still I wanted to kill living earthworms. That would make me happy. While running suddenly I realized that I stepped onto the hard concrete.’
‘Concrete? That means pitch road?’
‘I destroyed all the green, I am a murderer.’ He broke down. ‘My habit of killing earthworms made me search for it in the concrete land. It was 11:33 a.m. I am no more within the earthworm land. I had already entered the human world.’
“Why human world?’
‘Concrete land means human world. I left the mud land behind me. That means I left the earthworm world behind me. In human world, green is blackish in color. Here is huge amount of pollution. I tried hard but I did not get any earthworms in this concrete. Presently if I find any empty land around my house, I dig a hole in it. But I do not find any earthworms. Even I find some, the size would be very small. They do not meet my appetite. I sometimes collect whatever I find and bring it home. To see the earthworms regularly, I have resorted to cultivating them artificially. My mental state is not in good condition. I cannot smell anymore now. The land is dry here. There is no earthworm in the dry land. I had the sharp weapon in one of my hand and backpack with me. I was running and I wanted to live now. I could smell dead human now. It was 9:45p.m. I came back to my home. The next day was very strange for me. I could not remember any of the previous events of my life. There was black sticky mud on my bed sheet.’
‘It must have taken a lot of time to come out of this trauma, ’ I asked.
‘Yes. Now I am fine.’
He closed his diary. ‘The sound of the police van still makes me shiver.’
‘What are you afraid of?’
‘What if they arrest me?’
‘You are not a murderer that they will arrest you’.
***
