skysignal:

Now that’s what I call cute

skysignal:

Photograph by Vivienne Leibowich.

A sunflower field in Provence, France.

sirmitchell:

I don’t know why I made this, it just felt right at the time. 

sirmitchell:

and the world’s greatest caption goes to!….

I am Pakistani. Proud to be

Yeah. Pakistan wins the first match of the world cup. May it keep on winning. Ameen My prayers are with the team.

heckyeahpakistan:

Kenya vs Pakistan

How are we playing?

At first, the oldies were slow, but now we are going great, and INSHALLAH, we shall win today

“You look disturbed, Sam,” John was peering into my face, while we ate at our usual table in the school cafeteria.

“I had funny dreams,” I replied, not wanting to go into the details, where I had seen myself playing with wolves, and Hilda bringing huge animals for them to devour.
“I tried to call you after about six, last night, but your phone was out of reach,” he complained.
“Really?” I mused. So the forest had no digital access. Great.

Somehow, I wanted to meet Hilda again, but I had not seen her for two days. On the evening of the second day, I drove to the Nightingale cottage, expecting to find Hilda there, but in vain. Then, something occurred to me, and I hurried to my car. I drove for about one kilometer before the river came into view. I searched far and wide, but there was no sign of her. I kept walking along the bank of the river. The current was very dangerous today, and water moving too fast.

Suddenly, my foot slipped on muddy ground and I went straight into the violent river. I tried to struggle against the water, and reach the bank, but the current carried me with it. The water was icy cold. My breathing was getting unstable. It was no good screaming for help. Nevertheless, I was trying to swim through, but the water was too strong. I’d begun to lose hope, and most of my energy had been wasted. I was floating, or I was drowning. There was a strange force pulling me back into the water. Everything went black.



The cold air went into my lungs again, and I felt the pressure on my chest once more.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I heard a voice from distance. Then the chilly air entered my lungs. My eyes were shut, but I was back. I was alive. I choked, spraying water all over.

“Oh… thank God,” I heard the same voice, but from just above me. I opened my eyes, and her face came into view, staring into mine.
“Where were you?” I asked her, breathing hard.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Sam,” Hilda said, ignoring my question.
“I was looking for you. Where were you?”
“I was right here,” she said.

I tried to get up, but Hilda pushed me back.
“Just lie down. You hit your head.”
“How did you find me?” I asked. She stared at me, and then said, “I felt it,” her voice shaking.
“Wh—,” but I broke off mid-sentence. “You jumped into that river?” I almost shouted. I had just noticed that she was dripping from head to toe, and her lips were blue.
“I had to do something,” she said, trying to pass it off as a joke.
I stared at her. Was she crazy? She must be.

“Get up, you need first aid. Do you want to go to the hospital?”
She stood up, and then bent down to help me up. I got to my feet, but my knees buckled, and I nearly fell down.
Without a word, she pulled me up, put my arm around her shoulders, and her arm around my waist, and began to trudge me to her car. I seemed light as a feather, probably because she was the one supporting all my weight. I felt nauseous, and my head was spinning.

“Darn it,” I yelled.
“What?” she asked.
“You brought him here.”
“Actually, he confirmed my suspicions. He told me that you had come here, and he pulled you out with me.”
I looked at Hilda’s large pet wolf. He was wagging his tail at her.
“Th- thank you,” I said to him, feeling crazy myself.

Opening the passenger door of her land cruiser, she helped me in and fastened the seatbelt around me. I reckoned she was thinking I was going to pass out on her. Everything was blurred. I closed my eyes.



When I woke up, it was dark all over. I felt around with my hand, and it touched a button. I pressed it, and the table lamp sprang to life.
“Where am I?” I asked out loud.

I looked around, trying to recognize the place. Then I saw the plasma television, the chandelier above me, and the king-sized bed I was sitting on. There was a folded paper on the bedside table, and on it were two words: “For Sam.” 

I picked it up and opened it. There was a note written in a small but elegant script:

“I did not want to wake you up, so I left this for you. The fridge is in the kitchen. I’ve left because I had some work to do. Feel at home. Don’t wander the forest. It’s really dangerous. I shall see you the morning.
P.S call your mother. I did not attend her phone.”

I searched for my phone in my pocket, but found it on the table. I went to the speed dial, but just then, something hit me, and I looked down.
My clothes were dry… and different. Suddenly, the room seemed hot. I got out of the blanket and went to the kitchen. It was huge, with a big dining table in the centre, and consisted of light brown equipment. I went to the icebox. I was hungry, after all. But just as I opened the fridge, I saw boxes and cans. No vegetables, no fruits. I took out a can of soda and the box of pizza from the shelf. It was still warm. She mustn’t have left a long time ago. I phoned my mother and told her that I was sleeping over at a friend’s before she could get all fussy.
It was almost midnight now, and I sat in the centrally heated room, tired, yet unscathed. I had not got any serious injury, just some scratches and bruises; otherwise I was fit as a fiddle, but my head hurt bad.

I got up and went to the drawer to look for anything for headache. Just as I opened it, I found the medicine, but something else caught my attention. It was a photo album. I tried to ignore it, but I was too curious. So I picked and opened it. There was a picture of Hilda, maybe some years younger, and a boy of about 13, probably her brother, as they resembled a little. Then was her photograph with her classmates. As I went on, there were various pictures of her with different people, some only hers. In all of these, she looked at least two years younger. The most recent ones were with the wolf, Acubens. They showed the two hugging each other and having fun together, near the river, in the forest. One was with a woman who appeared to be in her thirties, on a party.

Suddenly, I heard a scuffle outside and shoved the album into the drawer and shut it. Maybe it was just some animal, I thought. I ate the tablet and sat down on the armchair, closing my eyes. I had loathed Hilda since I had laid my eyes upon her the first time. I had thought of her as an arrogant, spoilt brat, when I had seen her sitting on the library stairs with her classmates, smoking a cigarette. I had merged into the people who called her names, but Hilda always pretended like she was not listening. Whenever she was with her crowd, she seemed weird, different from them, queerer.

I had not even dreamed that she would be the one to save my life, not once, but twice. How could I ever repay her? And why was I trying to get closer to her, and know more about her? Where had all the hatred gone now?

I had received the call two days ago, after midnight. She had not talked clearly. I had tried to call her back, but she wasn’t answering.She had not even been coming to school. It had been two days.

The bell rang, and everybody headed for the exit, chatting, laughing. I walked to my car alone. Just as I was about to get into it, somebody called my name. I turned around instinctively at the familiar voice. It was Angel. I stared at her pale, heart-shaped face for a while. Her almond-shaped eyes were bright as usual, and she was smiling.

“Where were you?” I asked, embracing her.
“I was right here,” she laughed. “May I take a ride with you?”
I nodded and we started for her place. She talked to me about various things. The road winded down, and she began to look at the deep valley on the side. Suddenly, a truck came from the front. I slammed at the brakes, but they didn’t work. The truck was speeding toward us. I looked at Angel, and was shocked to see her face so relaxed. I stared out the windshield, at the oncoming vehicle that was about to crush us. I had to save my friend, whatever it would take. I tried to get out of the way of the huge vehicle, but my car swerved out of control and all I could remember was soaring into the depths of the bottomless valley…..

I woke up in a white room, under white linen and the stench of sterilizers. On my left side was a drip of blood, on the right was of glucose, both flowing into me drop by drop. Oxygen tubes were inserted into my nose. I tried to get up, but a pair of hands gently pushed me back. It was Dan, my friend. I looked at him in confusion, and then noticed that more than half of my body was bandaged, and I could feel stitches at different places, and a rod in my left leg.

“You had an accident,” he said.
“Where’s Angel?” I asked him in a cracked voice. He looked into my watery eyes and said, “You were alone.”
“No, I wasn’t. Angel was with me. We got out of school together. You can ask anybody.”

“Lara, you hit your head. Maybe you don’t—”
I tried to shout, but I was too weak, so I said quietly, “She was with me.”


After I was discharged from the hospital, two weeks later, Dan told me that Angel had died two days before the accident. She was killed in a drug fight at around midnight. I asked him the time of her death, and what he told was too shocking for me. It had been two hours before I had received her call, and from what Dan told me, She had died the instant the bullet had hit her. I told Dan about the call, shivers running down my spine. I told him that there had been a lot of static, and hadn’t been able to hear Angel properly. It was like she had been whispering something in a shrill voice. 

I have come over it now, because it was two years ago, but the mystery is still unclear. I don’t know what happened before the accident. Maybe she had come to take me with her, because we were always together, wherever we went.

I went to her parents’ home two months later. It was very painful for them, because she was passing by when the shootout had taken place.

I stand beside her grave today, holding hands with Dan, who has been a big support for me after the incident. I am trying to bank my tears but some emotions just can’t be controlled. May her soul rest in peace.