Is that a boat I see?

A story by Hiranshi Mistry

I took in a deep breath. Standing on my balcony that faced a very beautiful ocean, I loved my mornings to start with a deep breath of that fresh air that I missed when I lived in the bustling city. Here, things were way different than it is in the city, but I am happy to let you know that I am settling in well. It’s been a week and every day that I wake up, spend the day and then go to sleep, I only have one thought, and that is that this was the best decision I had ever made. 

It started a month and a half ago when I was yelled at in front of the whole office for something I didn’t do. Now, I would own up to my mistake, but this work was absurd and reliant on external factors. It really was not my fault that I could not get it done. Everyone knew it. But no one said anything. My boss just yelled and didn’t give me a chance to explain. Instead, I was given a suspension. You read that right! A suspension! “You stay at home till you understand what you have done and the damage you have caused this precious organization!” When this was said, I was taken aback. I didn’t understand what was being said. I had to ask my colleague if I was fired or not. A suspension?! Were we in school? Unfortunately for me, this was just the beginning of a very unlucky month. 

On the days that I stayed at home, which, if I am not wrong, was a week before I was called back, unexplainable things happened. Now, I know what you might be thinking. The supernatural! I am sorry to disappoint you that such an exciting phenomenon did not take place. In fact, it was the opposite of exciting that took place and honestly, that’s worse. The first few days of my so-called suspension, I got an email of rules pertaining to this suspension, and one of the things was that I would have a week’s worth of pay cut from my salary. Not just that, but my holidays and sick days would also be cut according to the suspension. I was seething with anger. This just didn’t make any sense! 

Regardless, I kept working and going about my very mundane days. I would wake up at an unprecedented hour, eat the junkiest of food, work with greasy fingers on my laptop, spend most of my free time (and I had a lot of that, thanks to my suspension from organization-school!) on my phone and sleep at an ungodly hour. Some days, no most days, I didn’t know when the sun would rise and set and when the moon and the stars would come out. Most of my friends were my co-workers, and they would check up on me. Still, they would never call me out to hang out because they were constantly worried that if our boss sees us enjoying, they might have the same repercussions as I did, or I might be treated worse than I already am. To be honest, I don’t blame them. That boss of ours was evil. If I could sing the E-V-I-L song from Phineas and Ferb in front of this boss, I would because it’s the perfect description. 

Anyways, a week or so later, I was back in the office. I was sitting on my desk and working. I had to do a couple of late hours to “compensate” my “absence.” Talk about toxic work culture! You might be wondering why I didn’t leave. Well, I am sorry to let you folks know that leaving a job and hunting for another one is not an available option for everyone. I am not going to get into the nitty-gritty of the reasons here, so you can assume what you want to. It was 8:30PM, my me-time hour, but I spent that hour working by myself in a dim office instead of soaking my feet in a bucket filled halfway through with warm water. Everyone had left around 5:30PM, and my boss had left for lunch at 2:00PM and didn’t bother to come back. I had been hunched over the laptop for a few hours, so I was just going to get up and take a small walk. I planned to visit the bathroom and then get back to work. I answered nature’s call, and as I was walking to my desk, my eyes fell on my boss’s cabin. I was curious to see what this terrible person’s cabin held. Any secrets I could expose? Maybe, maybe not. I know that it was a very bad idea, but I was so angry about this whole situation, I impulsively marched into the cabin. I mean, the office is empty. And I hate this person. What is snooping around going to do? I am sure this person has a vast array of sins committed than me being a child and snooping around. 

It was just a plain space for someone who is so haughty. I looked at a couple of photos and brags regarding achievements and awards, and certificates. There were some memorabilia and showpieces. I was going to turn around and leave, but I wanted to open the drawers and cupboards to check what was there. I opened the cupboards, and they contained nothing but files and papers and books just stashed away. I was afraid to even touch them because I already don’t trust this person. Now by the time I reached the last drawer, I was so confident in my snooping skills that I was feeling a little carefree. I opened the drawer, and it contained, to my surprise, just a bunch of phones. They didn’t look like they were from the same brand. I picked a couple up to see, and they were all switched off. I assumed that boss would be just hoarding phones for relatives and the like or that there was enough wealth in his bank account to own so many phones. 

I placed the phones back into the drawer, and I was just about to leave when something vibrated. I thought it was my phone, but it wasn’t. It was coming from the drawer full of phones. I opened it and dug in. There it was, vibrating. I couldn’t see why it was vibrating because it was placed face down. I kept thinking if I should pick it up or leave it be, but curiosity took over me, and I picked it up. The screen was white, it vibrated a couple of times, and by the time I figured out what was happening, the screen went black, and the vibration stopped. I didn’t even realize that I had held my breath till then. I breathed a sigh of relief, put the phone back in its place, and went to my desk to resume working. 

It was 11:00pm by the time I was done working. The memories of my stealthy activity were long put at the back of my head, and the thoughts of my late-night dinner were swirling around in my head as I heard my stomach grumble for the 10th time. By the time I reached home, it was almost 11:00pm. I had picked up take out, and after having it, I would crash. I was exhausted, so it didn’t take a lot of time for me to sleep. 

I woke up to the ring of my apartment bell. I woke up startled because I was in a deep sleep. I looked at my phone to see the time. It was 3:30AM. I was so confused and almost went back to sleep thinking that I was dreaming and that the startle was because of the exhaustion from over-working. But as I was about to, the bell rang again. I was sure that I was relatively awake and definitely not dreaming. Hence, I went to the door to check who was annoying me at such an ungodly hour. When I used to be awake at this time during my suspension, no one visited me this late. Not even a fly. And now, when I am exhausted, someone thought it would be a good idea to visit him at 3:30 in the morning? Anyway, I opened the door, and there was a man. He looked like a delivery boy, and he greeted me with the most cheerful smile, saying, “Hello Mr! A very good morning to you! I have a parcel for you! Here you go! Have a good, good morning!” As he handed me the parcel, I looked at it, and by the time I was about to ask him any questions, I saw that he had already descended the stairs to 4 floors below mine. I was just confused. I closed the door, tossed the parcel on the table and went back to sleep. When I woke up the next day, I didn’t think much of the parcel but a lot of that delivery boy. I don’t have that much cheerful energy during my waking hours, how did he manage to have that energy at 3:30 in the morning? People are weird. I never understand them. 

It was a Saturday, but of course, I had to go to the office for half-a-day (which, by the way, is a full day, but since I’m working late hours, it’s considered a half-day). It was the same-old, nothing happening. I came home by 6:00PM and headed out to meet some friends. It was basically a rant session about my life and theirs. I was back by 11:00PM. My tipsy ass laid on the bed watching pimple-popping videos for an hour and then passed out. I woke up to pee because of the amount of liquid I had consumed. When I was done, my gaze fell on the parcel from yesterday. I hadn’t forgotten about it, but I was just busy doing things that I had planned to open it on Sunday. But it felt like it was calling to me. Not really. I was just curious. So, instead of going back to sleep, I opened it. Now that I think back on it, I should’ve just tossed the parcel down the 4 floors below mine towards the delivery boy. 

It was a peculiar-looking parcel. It was a small cardboard box with a phone in it. I wondered if I had hit the lottery or if someone was playing a prank on me. But the way that my life was going, the former was more unbelievable than the latter. I just didn’t know what to do with the phone. I tried to see if there was an address or any sort of information on the package, but of course, there was none. So, I thought to switch it on and see if there’s any information there. If there’s none, then I would just go to the nearby police station and drop it off in the “lost and found.” I switched it on, and a white screen popped up. I waited for something more, but that’s all that this phone had to offer. It switched off on its own, and that was a sign that, yes, this was a prank.

Good for them. When I got up from the chair, I felt a jolt in my body, and I almost fell back into the chair. I felt dizzy. My fingers were tingling. My eyesight was getting blurry. I felt sick to my stomach. I sat down and took a few deep breaths to centre myself, but it didn’t work. I was about to throw up, but nothing came out. My sight felt weird. It was like I was seeing clearly from one eye, and the other was blurry. I thought to myself, if I having a stroke? I didn’t know. 

I stumbled to my bathroom, and I reached my sink and looked up into the mirror and what I saw was… 

I didn’t know what I saw. My eyes kept adjusting their vision, and one side was so clear, and the other was blurry, and my mouth… where there was my mouth was now just skin with a keyboard. What the hell was happening? I looked at my face in the mirror, and I was horrified. I went back to see the phone, and it laid on the table as dead as it could be and suddenly, it vibrated. When it did, I felt a feeling of Deja-vu wash over me. It was the same distinctive vibration that I heard when I was… in my boss’ cabin… But, what? My boss did this? What had I ever done to him? I tried to cry, but there were no tears left. I thought of calling for help, but I couldn’t speak! I tried texting someone, but my fingers were numb! Soon, as the panic in me rose, I was greeted by darkness. 

I woke up on the floor. I was sweating. I touched my face, and yes, two eyes, one nose, two eyebrows and lips… Lips! My mouth! It was back! I almost assumed that I was feeling unwell and that I had fainted and dreamed the whole thing, but then I saw the phone on my table. I needed to throw this sinister thing away. I didn’t want it. I didn’t care whosever it was. It’s their loss that they sent it over as whatever they thought it would do. It was going in the garbage. I ran over to my cupboard, hunted for my gloves when I didn’t find anything even resembling gloves, I wore my socks on my hands and took that phone and threw it out of my window. I didn’t want to see it or touch it or feel it; I just wanted it out of my house. 

I was scared. I didn’t know where the phone came from; was it my boss? Was he capable of doing such a thing? I mean, he was evil… 

The rest of the day was spent in a state of shock, so I can’t really describe what it was like or what I did. 

When I returned to work the next day, I was so glad to be around people and away from my apartment. I felt tired, but I felt a little better to be out of the house. I decided to get to work because I definitely didn’t want to get another “suspension” and live alone in my haunted apartment. I was engrossed in work when I noticed my boss walk in. He gave some people some instructions, shouted at a couple of them, probably gave another few a “suspension,” and as he was going into his cabin, I looked at me, and I looked at him, and he smirked. He removed a phone from his pocket and answered a call. 

It was the same phone. 

Needless to say, I ran out of there and quit. 

With both the comfort of my home and my job being haunted by a truly evil boss, I am nowhere. I will not reveal my exact whereabouts. But I am far away from the cities. I have a vast ocean in front of me. I live alone. I don’t know how long I am going to stay here, but long enough to not be greeted by anyone who has a phone. I know it sounds absurd and unbelievable but believe me when something you hold in your hand gets incorporated into you, you will be scared. 

As much as I love spending time on my phone, I don’t ever want to get turned into one. I just want to be human. And for the days that I have in this small abode of mine, I will spend every moment reminding myself of my humanity. 

This was the best decision ever made. 

Is that a boat I see?