Me and Him

April 29th, 2005 1:30 am

I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and felt like not sleeping. As I was wondering why, I heard a familiar noise. Did the noise wake me up or was I already awake when I heard the sound, I could not tell. But like other nights, he was out there, groping around - trying to enter my territory.

I could hear him loud and clear. Darkness had made my ears very receptive. He was at my left and right, trying to reach and attack me. He usually comes in numbers, although I fail to count how many exactly. One thing I am sure is that he can never reach me through the impregnable walls surrounding me. No matter how many of him may come and try, he could never breach my defense. It’s simply too strong for him.

Occasionally, one of him would manage to enter through a loophole – which I would overlook before letting my guards down. In such a case, a bloody battle would ensue.

Tac…tac…..tac….. I would charge at him. But it is futile to aim at someone so nimble in so dark an environment. He would easily dodge me. At times, he would get lucky and manage to stab at me, thanks to my habit of sleeping deeply. However, I would always squash him once I get awake.

Anyway, he was still there, moving about vigorously, trying to lunge at me. At that time, I was forcing myself to sleep, but was not able to. After fifteen minutes I though of listening to the Panasonic Walkman. I was about to put on the earpiece when I heard the noise getting increasingly louder as I felt him coming near me. Oh no! Not again. The trespasser had found himself an entrance through my walls. However he could not find me immediately and went to the other end of my territory. I knew he would come again so I prepared for his next visit. But for the next five minutes nothing happened. I waited for him but met only silence of the night. I began to wonder whether he will return.

Suddenly I heard him again coming towards me. Not sure about my exact location though, he had to gauge where I was. I was ready for him this time. He came so close that I got the whiff of the air from his body. Tac…… I charged. I prepared myself for around round, concentrating hard to listen to his movement. I could hear nothing. There was only a dead silence. After a moment I took a deep breath. I knew I got him this time. I killed him!

The next thing I did was to blindly arrange the mosquito net around my pillow- the weakest breach point. Then I felt secure. I inserted that earpiece and played the Walkman. Enigma was singing: I love you, I'll kill you”. I don’t remember when I fell asleep.