Couldn?t get worse

Mangalore Today

It was usual Sunday night. I had finished my supper and was ready to go bed but stayed awake to watch a movie which was about to be telecasted, at 10.45pm. While surfing through the channels, I heard a roar unexpectedly.  I thought it could be a sound from the television. I waited for some time carefully but couldn’t hear anything. I continued watching various channels. Suddenly I saw a banner pop up with breaking news in one of the local channel announcing that a lion had escaped from a local zoo.

 I heard the same sound again. I went out of the house to see where sound had come from. I could hear my dog barking non stop. As I couldn’t make it stop I went back into the house. While closing the door I saw something moving amid the plants in the garden.  I threw a stone at it but nothing moved. I took a chance to find and make sure nothing was there. I went over there. I could see something big hiding in the bush. I went a little bit closer and heard a loud roar.

 I was so terrified that I could not think of anything. I just stood there not knowing what to do. At that time I realized that it must have been the lion that had escaped. I just stood there trying not to make any sudden movements. It came closer and closer and was just about a feet away and sat there. I was terrified and was trying to move slowly away from the lion. But I felt it did not want me to go, as it roared again. This time it was not furious but sounded as if it was in pain. I touched the animal and started petting it.  I could not imagine that I was actually petting a Lion.

I was tired and felt sleepy. I wanted to go in and sleep but I dint know what to do with the lion. After some time I felt that the lion had gone to sleep and I went towards my house.  When I looked back to see whether the lion was still sleeping I was shocked to see that it wasn’t there. I got scared and was about to enter the house when I saw the lion in there and it looked very angry.

I ran out of the main gate in panic. I locked it from the outside side. I took some courage and stood up and climbed the gate to see where the lion was.  I did not enter but stood there gazing. I could see something coming towards me I recognized the lion and went away from the gate. I saw the lion jump over the gate so started running on the street. I could see the lion coming closer to me.    I ran for my life but I tripped and fell on the ground. The lion came running towards me and jumped on me roaring on my face. I knew it couldn’t get any worse. Closing my eyes prayed for some miracle to happen. The lion continued roaring after some time the sound became more louder. I took courage and opened my eyes and then the worse came.  I saw something scarier, more horrible something much more dangerous than the Lion. I saw my Mother, who was shouting at me for leaving the TV on and sleeping on the couch. I realized that it was just dreaming and the lion was not real but listening to my mother scold I was hoping the lion was there instead of her.

Arjun D’souza