Utopia/Dystopian

THE LOST AND FORGOTTEN

As we grow old, we lose things. We lose things, ranging from socks to books and even people. As children, we would cry and crib about losing things, and be upset about it for quite a while, wondering and dreaming about that lost toy, or clothes, or maybe blankets. Our parents would lie about it being lost, even though they were the ones who got rid of it. As we grew older and lost things, we pondered about that lost calculator or that book gifted to us. But as we grow even older, we lose people. And just like those misplaced things, we can’t do anything about them either

Losing things, or misplacing them, is a part of life that we get used to eventually. We get over it, we forget about that, and carry on with our lives. But have we ever wondered, what if the thinngs we misplaced, if they were still with us, would life be different? Better or worse? Or what if, all that we lose, ends up being found by another, becomes more useful to someone else, in a strange land, where all that is lost, pencil to person, is found?

That is how I ended up there. The place where all that is lost is also found. I woke up late one morning, late for work, meeting and presentation. I decided to take a shortcut that day, to make up for my tardiness, and ended up disappearing. The road looked shady but I decided to go along with it and driving till there was a sudden bend in the road, making me stop my car suddenly. As I started driving again, the road turned misty.

Next thing I knew, I was on the edge of the woods, and it was probably midnight. Getting out of the car, I started calling people, only for it to disconnect. Without any network, I got in my car and started driving again. 10 minutes passed when I realized that I’d just been going around in a loop and stopping at the same place. The only way out of this place was probably through the woods, so I decided to take my belongings, and got out of the car.

Walking around frantically for a few moments, I decided to rest my body and leaned against a tree trunk when I heard a twig snap. Frightened, I shouted out for anybody that could hear just as a man appeared in front of me and put his hand on my mouth muffling my shouts. ‘Calm down. You’re fine, not dead, very much alive. I’m also alive. I’m caleb. Now I’m going to let you go, and you will not scream.’

‘Not nice to meet you. Where am I?’ was my response to his introduction which left out all the important details.

‘Its hard to explain but to put it bluntly, you’re somewhere where all things that get lost go. But you might see a lot of people too. Materialistic things aren’t the only things that get lost. We always lose more than that. Memories, people, sound, smell, and all that is lost to us need to end up somewhere.’ As he said all this, we walked somewhere, him guiding, and me following him like a lost puppy, with a bewildered expression on my face.

He abruptly stopped in front of me, causing me to stop as well, and notice the surrounding around me, and see that the woods had ended, and we were now on the edge of a town. A town! In the middle of nowhere? Where did all these buildings come from if this is a place where things lost go?

‘what is this place called?’

‘It has no name. since all that is lost comes here, it’s a mix of everything amd everyone around the world. How could we name something that shows harmony and peace amongst the different people of the world?’

As he explained, I wondered what I was doing here? I might’ve been lost but I was definitely not forgotten. I had my parents, siblings, co-workers, friends, so many people. But maybe so did these people. Moving forward, I noticed that people were using bartender as a means of acquiring things, exchanging anything they want for something they don’t. People were walking around, laughing and smiling, as if they had no worries in the world. Maybe they didn’t, maybe they did, but being in this place made it better somehow.

It was as if they were in Utopia, living in a bubble of their own, without any worries about any money.

Watching the people, the man in front of me, I realized that maybe, these people were not actually forgotten. They weren’t lost. Neither was I. we all were in this so called ‘perfect’ place because maybe that world wasn’t enough for us. Our own expectations were too big, we wished things to be different. It was not others that forgot us. It was us.

It might be likely that this is Utopia, but it was our dystopian look to the world that caused all of us to be pulled away from our lives to create ourselves a new one.