The Last Goodbye

This story has also been published in 'Surprising Stories', a famous fiction magazine in USA. The story is based on a love affair between a mosquito and a man.

Homo Sapiens, the living species on the Earth, are blessed to have the complete privileges of a super species. Humans have always established their supremacy by taming the gullible, thereby creating noosphere for themselves. They consider every other species derogatorily and are abhorrent of them.

Mosquitoes, too, have faced the brunt of being one of the miniscule species considered by humans and have been treated with no less than disgust. Boomeranging the same emotions, they have been assiduous in returning the same as what they have gotten from humans. Although some mosquitoes could have delivered themselves from this animosity and have optioned to be moderately amicable toward human society, the scenario here was inimical to mosquitoes as their lives were at stake. And why not, when every creature, howsoever diminutive, has the fundamental right to save its life?

Usually male mosquitoes adapt themselves to the authentic acrimony between themselves and the humans, as their lifestyle revolves around hovering around flowers and sucking the nectar out of them, and they keep themselves away from the predictable disturbances caused by human indulgences, but females turn femme fatale and play full throttle as their existence is directly supplied by humans. But at this time all genders of mosquitoes stood together in solidarity.

Mr. Johnson (just “Johnson” for mosquitoes) had a peculiar chemical in his blood. Death was certain, whomsoever fed upon him. Since childhood this chemical had been active in his blood, and that was the reason he was loathed by the whole community of mosquitoes.

Countless revolutionary mosquitoes were subjected to martyrdom in order to teach a lesson to Mr. Johnson, and many were ultra-active in trying to deprive him of his life. Numerous stories and exclusive editorials were carried out by newspapers and journals where Johnson was tagged with many titles like “Opponent of mosquito society” and “Barbaric serial killer” which would simmer the blood of the young generation of mosquitoes. Adult mosquitoes were now more conscious of the fact. Other than some revolutionary and suicidal mosquitoes, nobody lurked around him. But, interestingly, Mr. Johnson was absolutely paradoxical to whatever was elucidated and scripted about him in the literature. He was benevolent, passive, and a peace-maker.

From the day he came to know that he had an element toxic to mosquitoes in his blood, he started covering himself to the maximum. During the day he would wear a long overcoat and the collar of the coat was also raised up to prevent the contact of mosquitoes to his body.

The feeling of anguish had captivated him to the core and he had tried various treatments. He continued it until he got himself infected from those miscellaneous medicines. He had only one option, that is, to get himself covered so that none of the poor mosquitoes would lose their limited lives. But whenever his desperate efforts could not restrict this loss of life, he found himself immersed in a pool of grief and guilt. During the night he used a mosquito net so that the surrounding mosquitoes could not feed on his blood and this would add a few more days to their lives.

Here the rage was burgeoning amongst the mosquito community. They were convinced that Johnson had come on earth with one motive—that was to eradicate the entire mosquito community.

Till now many veterans and politicians had become the victims. The entire community was always on its toes with readiness to kill Johnson.

Finally a day came in their lives when they were all in a state of euphoria. After years of investigation and research, the news of a newly-discovered chemical developed in a laboratory which was capable of killing Johnson gave a new hope to the species for their survival. Masku, the prime minister of the mosquito community, himself took the responsibility of injecting the hazardous chemical into Johnson, but the fervor could not last long, as he died soon after drinking the chemical, and still another mosquito was subjected to martyrdom in carrying out the heroic deed. The masses thronged the laboratory and pelted it with stones, and further researches were also halted. Now the level of outrageousness was above par, and not a single mosquito was ready to digest the news. Johnson was now a villain to the children too. Many big films were done on Johnson which famous villains like Jimmy, Tafu and Sini participated, and not surprisingly, all were super-duper hits. Every other day, various effigies of Johnson were burnt, and numerous processions were carried. The pressure of getting rid of Johnson was mounting high in the government from day to day. The opposition also had a reason to throw fits around all that was Johnson.

Amidst this chaos, the news of the intrusion of an African female mosquito named Lily published in the national dailies rocked the whole community of mosquitoes. After all, it was the intrusion of a stranger into the community, which was against ethics. In a sting operation that was deployed she was arrested by police. The next day after the court proceedings, she was taken for the remand. The police interrogated her strictly and found that her invasion in the strange land was accidental. Being asked how she had managed to cross the border, she spoke, in her defense, that she possessed an unusual power which prompted her to drift away from her country. This statement impelled police officials to present her in front of the Cabinet Ministers. A team of interrogators surrounded her and asked about the extraordinary power she had. But she did not budge. The interrogators warned her that if she did not spill the beans over her presence, she would find herself in deep trouble and would be charged with being a spy, which meant paying for life.

Being frightened, she confessed that “I have a peculiar element which caused humans in Africa, whenever I tried to feed on them, to die almost immediately. Soon African humans took note of this and started the mass killing of mosquitoes, and I became a villain to my brethren. They wanted to kill me, so I waded my way here.”

This set the cabinet ministry in motion, as they had here a great reason to be exhilarated. They wanted to avail themselves of the opportunity, so they told her the situation. She was being asked to kill Johnson, who had killed many mosquitoes mercilessly.

But Lily was not ready to snatch another human life.

They gave her the choice of either killing Johnson or being ready to lose her life with fake charges of being a spy.

The government wanted to swing the deal at any cost, so they presented her to the Prime Minister. She bowed down in front of him to show her reverence. He told he that if she agreed to kill Johnson, the death sentence would be removed and she would be given various prizes.

Lily was not ready to kill Johnson, but his status of being a human killer was enough reason to do it, so she agreed to use the power in his elimination.

Now every child knew that this time Johnson was going to die for sure, and every adult was more conscious than before that his end was very near. Lily was released from jail and was given a month to prepare herself for it, whereas Johnson was absolutely unaware of this proceeding and was carrying on his routine of covering himself to the maximum.

And that was the reason Lily was not able to complete acting upon her motive of sending Mr. Johnson to eternal sleep.

One fine day Mr. Johnson was resting in his mosquito net and was on the verge of sinking into sleep. Suddenly he found himself distracted and got up to see a mosquito whizzing in the net. He got alert and requested the mosquito not to bite him.

The mosquito was none other than Lily, who was on a mission to kill Johnson.

She replied that she was hungry and wanted to feed on his blood.

He told her she would tear her stomach by doing so and would embrace the death.

He gave her some food, fruit juices and some cold beer as a treat. Lily fed herself to the full. After having food, she changed her mind about biting Mr. Johnson. She sang many songs for him and he also entertained her by narrating many interesting narratives. Then they both shared their experiences with each other and soon they became good friends.

Now Johnson and Lily became habituated to meeting each other. Whenever Johnson left his home for his office, she always accompanied him. Very often in winters she hid in his overcoat. They became part of each other’s lives. Once when Johnson fell sick, Lily took care of him, and he really appreciated her—he was there to support her. It was Lily’s care that made him recover well, but he found her constantly upset. She was under pressure and the cabinet wanted her to complete the task soon. They were constantly monitoring her. The media also kept lots of assumptions about her progress in circulation. Lily gave up reading newspapers due to a building pressure on her. She became sad, and whenever Johnson asked her the reason for her sadness, she avoided the question, but his recurrent efforts to make her happy were in vain. She only answered him that they would not be together in the future. She also told him that she had only one day left with him. Johnson took her out for dinner and shared his heart about how much he loved her. They also shared drinks. Next morning Lily got up early and said her last good morning to him. She also said that no Lily would ever say good morning to him and she bit him.

Johnson could not understand that. He requested her to tell him why they couldn’t meet again.

Lily was now shattered. She apologized to Johnson and said that within the next five minutes they would be separated. She told him that she was the mistress of a special power. Whenever she’d bitten anyone that person had died within five minutes and the person could only survive if she bit him again. Earlier she was not apprised about the fact, but when in Africa she bit lots of people, and when they died she realized her power. When the human community came to know about it, they began hating the mosquito community. They went in for mosquito carnage; scores of them were destroyed, and she had to leave Africa to save the rest of the mosquito community, and she migrated here.

Johnson was hearing all this with thoughtfulness and was amazed to find what this all had to do with his and Lily’s relationship. Was she being called from Africa or did she want to return to Africa? While he was busy with these assumptions, Lily broke his attention by telling him that she had bitten him. He became frightened and felt that his head whirled and he saw darkness around him. He had never imagined that he would get this in return for his love for Lily. He became very angry. He wanted to kill her. But his love for her stopped him from doing so.

Lily was on her verbal spree. She said if she went back without killing him, she would get capital punishment. She also said that she would get lots of cash rewards from the government if successful. Not only this, she would be given a prestigious post in the cabinet and would avail herself of all comforts given her by them.

While telling him this, she fell down, and was unable to fly. Johnson took her in his hand. She was unconscious, with a lifeless face. She smiled and said, “Dear Johnson, I have done all this for the welfare of mosquitoes. Please forgive me. But shall I say something? I have sucked all your venom. Now you are safe. Actually I have bitten you again. Now you are an ordinary man. Bye, the Last Goodbye! Goodbye to the loveliest person in this world.”

Link for surprising story website: http://surprisingstories.dcwi.com/lastgoodbye.htm

Read in Hindi: http://www.dakhalandazi.com/2011/03/blog-post_4657.htm

By
Alok Dixit
alok@dakhalandazi.com
writeralok@gmail.com