End of the tunnel

Posted on by Reena Saxena

The light filtering in from the skylight kept her alive.

It was 1971, the year of war and the year of blackouts. At night, the window was covered with a black paper to avoid light filtering out. She longed to see the moon, but heard the drones of aircraft flying low. What if they dropped a bomb? She would see a last brilliant flash of light, before moving into eternal darkness.

Her soul was happy today, though she could not carry out physical acts like a hearty laugh. How silly was her vision then? How peaceful and bright is death….

20 September 2019

33 thoughts on “End of the tunnel”

  1. I felt caught up in the experience of your character, who seems so sanguine about the prospect of death, in the midst of a fire fight. But I could not help but wonder, what war did you have in mind?

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  6. I didn’t find it chilling. It had a certain tranquility to it. Maybe because she shows us that death is simply a transition into that eternal peace and joy. Although getting there can be quite scary, as depicted in your story, with the bombs.

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  10. Powerful! I have friends who lived through blackouts in London’s Blitz and they speak of the sense of isolation and eerie entombment that comes with it. Having lived briefly, too, as a child, through blackout, not in London but in war, I can understand it and can only imagine how it would be if it was a long term thing.

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