(Please begin humming either "Hallelujah" or the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey", or just know that I'm humming one of those two, if not both, for you right now)
Mmmmm. . .just plain chocolate ice cream. . .delicious!
(hopefully a little diversion for anyone out there who needs one)
We All Scream for Ice Cream
We All Scream for Ice Cream
8:00pm: Who knew what joy a simple bowl of ice cream could bring? But I suppose life's simpler pleasures can often have the greatest impact on our lives. In fact, I sit here fighting the urge to eat the rest of the ice cream right here and now. Simple pleasures do not seem to be as abundant here in India.
8:21pm: It's the oddest thing. I swear I hear the ice cream carton bumping against the inside of the freezer door. It has to be my imagination. I get up, open the freezer, and check the ice cream carton. OK, it's right where I put it. . .but was the label facing out when I put it away? And why is the hair on the back of my neck standing up? I think this place is finally getting to me.
8:27pm: There it is again. It's like a bump. . .bump. . .thud, bump. . .bump. . .thud. I choose to ignore what I'm sure is my overactive imagination.
8:41pm: What was that?! I mute the TV. Silence. I think I'll listen for a few minutes before un-muting the TV.
8:43pm: There! From somewhere in the kitchen. Not the same noise as a little while ago. It's like a small chocolate-y whisper. I can't make out any words. This is crazy. I get up and turn some more lights on. I also turn the TV sound up a bit.
8:57pm: Power failure! I'm plunged into darkness. OK, no need to panic. This actually happens all the time. The Indian electricity supply is incredibly unreliable. We're lucky to get though any day without a couple of power outages. The power usually comes back on in a minute or two. I can survive a couple of minutes in the dark without freaking out, even if the strange whispers emanating from the freezer seem to have grown a bit louder. There seems to be a little more structure to them as well, but they still remain undecipherable.
9:02pm: The power clunks back on: just a quick outage this time. But we must be running on the building's generator power, as I don't actually hear the refrigerator-freezer running (the refrigerator runs solely off the main electrical supply around here). All I can hear are the continued (imagined?) freezer noises, and my heart pounding in my chest. The freezer noises are still not much more than whispers, but suddenly become something recognizable, something familiar. . .it's the audio track from The Wizard of Oz. . .specifically the scene in which the Wicked Witch of the West meets her demise! I cannot bring myself to type out the words I'm hearing. . .
This is crazy. There has to be a perfectly rational and logical explanation for all of this. This isn't some Stephen King novel. This kind of thing just doesn't happen in real life.
Then it hits me: How long before ice cream in a non-functioning freezer starts to melt? Melted and re-frozen ice cream is never as good. Never! I would have to eat It rather than see It go to waste. Right? But It won't start to melt for at least 30 minutes, maybe longer. But I will have to eat It. The thought lingers in my head. I cannot will it away. Something strange is happening here. I suddenly feel like I'm being tested, and not the good kind of test. This is something different. Bad different.
All I know is I cannot give in. I will not give in. The main power will come back on in a minute or two. It always does. Always. And when it does those sounds coming from the freezer will stop. They will. I know They will. They have to. They just have to.
9:05pm: The refrigerator-freezer clunks back to life. The main power is back on. It knows that I know It is safe again. It's cries do cease. For now at least. An air of expectation (possibly dread) fills the room. I sit and I wait.
9:21pm: Another power outage. It's call is stronger now. There's a pleading quality that is almost unbearable. I must resist.
9:27pm: Power back on. Refrigerator-freezer back on. My nerves are nearly shot. This unreliable Indian electricity supply may prove to be the end of me yet.
11:43pm: It's been more than two hours since my last entry. There's been four more power outages, each one longer than the last. The last one was 28 minutes. The whispers have gradually become screams. I can't take much more of this. I know now It is causing these power outages. I know It is learning to keep the power off for longer and longer periods of time. I know what It is trying to get me to do. Still I resist. But I know the next outage (and there will be a next one, of that I'm certain) will surely bring with it The Time of Melting. I will have no other choice but to succumb to It's wishes, as my strength is nearly gone, and with it my resolve. I do not want to do what ultimately I know I will have to do. I just need the screams to stop. Please judge me for the person I have been, and not the person I am about to become.
Maybe it would help to try to build up my strength again; maybe by eating some sort of creamy chocolate-y treat. . .
1 comment:
hahaha, Jack Nicholson in The Shining has got nothing on you. Let me know when you buy that hatchet.
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