The Storm
Author- Kleio B/ Kleio B'wti

The whooshing wind rattled the windows and the lighting cut through the midnight sky- puncturing the silence of the night with thunder. Oh! The weeping breeze!

Sheil shivering with fear looked at his trembling palm. He picked his phone, now bereft of internet in the ruckus of the night. The battery showed 90% charge although Sheil hadn't charged his phone that day.

Hmm! Even in the middle of a threatening thunderstorm, Sheil being the Gen Z, swiped apps to get to the weather.

Oops!!! Sheil had forgotten the electricity was down and so was the internet. So, the young teen turned on the torch of his phone, and hid under the bed.

He was absorbed in the adventure for the first hour- imagining the world war 1 trenches he had seen on YouTube. But a lonely, thunderous night with no internet felt much worse than the fear of death. 

"Oh God!" Sheil prayed. He didn't know what else to say. He had generally heard prayers on YouTube. He didn't know any by heart. 

It seemed just remembering God was not enough because the weather got all the more boisterous. 

More scared than he could imagine, he decided to have a conversation with God. After all it was better than talking to himself! And it always feels good to blame others for our choices. 

"Believe me. Loneliness is worse than dying. You have people praying to You all the time. I bet You have never felt the way I feel right now. No! You can't do this to me!"

As if on cue, the rain slashed angrily on his window. And miraculously Sheil's phone battery drained to a 10%. The torch light would soon die down as was Sheil's hope for the electricity and the internet to return. 

Mr Gen Z, who had seldom shed tears, who generally fought his worse emotions with a bag full of creative invectives, cried. 

Sheil wept. 

As the tears dampened his cheek, he touched them with his fingers. When had he felt this sensation before? As a child? He didn't remember. But wiping away the moisture felt good. It was as if he was wiping some slate clean. 

To entertain himself Sheil began to hum. He put his mind to recalling happy incidents without scrolling through the phone that now lay dead with no battery. Out of nowhere, he picturized scenes from his class, the picnic, the dinner with his cousins. He could hear the laughter he once shared with his friends somewhere in the back of his mind. 

"How? God, is that magic?" Sheil exclaimed!

As if in answer, his heart replied. 

"Buddy, isn't it fun to look within? We don't need a phone or an internet to remember or to feel. It is all there in our head and heart."

Sheil smiled! The rain drops pelted and the storm grew worse, but Sheil couldn't stop smiling. For the first time in his life the young man he knew he would never be alone or fear loneliness. He had found a true friend. 

He had found himself.

Author: Kleio B'wti