6 min read.
In my post of 17th October 2021, I had introduced my excellent neighbours to my left, right and front. This striking story is about them vis-à-vis me.
Quite a few years have passed since this incident happened.
At about 8 pm, I received a brief from my Solicitors with the instructions to appear before a court the next morning. I straightaway started reading the documents and the case law relevant to the issues involved. I went to bed at 3 am. The next morning, for breakfast I had a cup of coffee and nibbled a slice of brown bread. At about 8.10 am I left the house by car. The court was about fifty minutes drive from our house.
I parked the car at a multi-story car park and walked to the court. I had a conference with the client. The case started at 10 am and the hearing was concluded at 12 noon. The decision was reserved. I had a square meal at a restaurant on my way back to the car park.
I was feeling overtired.
Before sitting in the car, I removed my jacket and loosened my tie. It was a sunny April afternoon. I adjusted the car temperature accordingly and set off for home.
Just before turning right to my house drive, I saw my neighbours on the right, John and his wife, tending to their garden. Michael and Jenny on the left were also doing some gardening. The neighbour in the front Mark was busy working on his car.
I waved at them one by one, and they returned my greetings quite warmly.
Before I proceed further, I pause here briefly and go back to the days when I was working in West Africa and later in South Asia before returning to the UK.
In West Africa, at that time the roads were quite good, but for travellers there were no resting places/service stations. Thus, whenever I travelled to a distant place and felt tiredness, it was my wont that I would stop and park the car under the shade of a tree. I napped for about half an hour. I enjoyed it and continued my journey after freshening up. In later years during my law practice at Lahore, whenever I travelled from Lahore to my town where I grew up, I stuck to this habit.
Coming back to the titled story. As old habits die hard, I parked on my drive and, instead of getting out of the car, I decided to have impromptu mid- afternoon snooze. I moved the seat a bit back. As I was somnolent, in a few minutes I was in deep sleep.
Before long all the five neighbours observed that after switching off the engine I did not get out of the car. There was no movement at all. Five, ten and fifteen minutes had passed, and they observed that I was still staying put in my car.
I do not know who was the first to raise the alarm. It looks that one of them alerted the others about the suspicion.
All five of them congregated near my car on the driver’s side. Someone might have knocked on the car window mildly but to be honest I did not feel a thing. They found me completely insensate.
They were worried and due to mild knocking in tandem with their conversation, it appeared, I was no longer in the mode of deep sleep. My brain started registering their conversation, albeit vaguely.
Michael said:
“A minute ago, the doctor was fine. I think he might be sleeping”.
Jenny muttered:
“We knocked at the window twice he did not respond. It’s better if we call the ambulance.”
Mark added:
“Ambulance wouldn’t take long. In our town waiting time is quite short. They should be somewhere nearby and would arrive in a few minutes.”
John whispered:
“He must be returning from the court and possibly tired. He might be napping. His wife is at work. She comes at about 4 pm.”
John’s wife said:
“He has been very active. and regularly does jogging.”
Mark said:
“Now-a-days you never know what is going to happen next moment. My older brother died a few months back when he was only sixty and keeping good health.”
At this stage, I dozed intermittently and unbeknown to them could hear the threnody clearer:
I could clearly hear:
“He has been a very neighbourly person. Always smiling and looking at the bright side of the things.”
John knocked on the car window next to me little forcefully. I was totally compos mentis and saw all five of them pronto smiling and raised a chuckle.
I explained to them my old habit, apologised for causing the trouble, and thanked them for their concern.
Read my short story for free 