Dreaming sickness

This story is about a man called Parthu, He is a Nerd and an introvert with no friends and family to claim. He is a programmer at an MNC, he works hard, eat alone and sleep alone because, that is all he can do when nobody wants to talk to him. It is not only because of the way he looks, It is also because he is sick. He cannot control his sleep. He sleep long hours, He sleeps whenever he get time. He tries not to sleep when at work and sometimes manages to do that. When he is sleeping, He dreams. He dreams to that extent that He cannot tell what is dream and what is real.

Parthu (in his dreams): Everybody hates me and i hate that fact too. i am suppose to visit my psychiatrist because I am going mad with no social life what so ever. How can a guy like me be living? Nerd, alone, sick, depressed and mad. The only person who talks to me or cares about me is my psychiatrist. To him he is just doing his job. To me, well, he is at least talking to me.

Door bell is ringing continuously… Parthu wakes up in horror with the alarm clock in his hand

Parthu: Im coming!...

He runs towards the door to open and finds his landlord

Landlord: How many times do i have to come to your door step. How long do I have to wait for you to pay my rent. I come here every morning to ring your door bell. It has become my daily routine. Now that you are awake. If you can pay me the rent I will not ring the bell for another month.

Parthu: Sorry, Here you go.

Landlord: You are the first tenant I wish goodnight early in the morning. Goodnight.

[Landlord leaves as he gets paid. Parthu is hurt this is not a good way to start the day he feels]

[After sometime. Doorbell is continuously ringing. His phone is ringing. Parthu wakes up to all this chaotic sounds. He is in the toilet. The floor is full of water. Tap in the wash basin is running and water from the tub is overflowing. He shuts off all the valves, picks the phone and goes to attend the door, his landlord there again.]

Landlord: What do you think of yourself. You drained the entire water tank. You think you are the only person living in this apartment? I will collect the entire water bill from you alone this month……

Parthu: I am really sorry. I will pay the entire water bill myself this month. I will talk to you about this later. Hello!

[Parthu's phone is ringing. Landlord continues to talk. He attends the call. It is his cab driver on the phone waiting for him outside the house.]

Cab driver: Sir, I tried calling you two times. Let me know if you are coming or not, I will go.

Parthu: No no wait. I am just getting down the stairs. i am coming.

Parthu runs towards the cab bare footed with belt, shoes and socks in his hand. His shirt completely un-buttoned. Everyone in the cab looking at him surprised as he enters the cab, buttons his shirt and wears his shoes and belt. “Sorry guys” he says. Cab driver quietly signs. “Sir.” Indicating his zip is unlocked. “Thanks.” He replies and quietly puts his zip on trying to not make any sound. Giggles from the back seat. He feels embarrassed. Staring at the road and thinking what worst is going to come. He mumbles to himself as his vision blurs. “What is happening to me? Why am I sleeping so much today? Control, Control….” He falls asleep again. Somebody pinches his cheek to wake him up. He wakes up to find a trans-women at the window of his car asking for money

trans-women: Paise dedo darling.

Parthu: [scared] ah! 100Rs hai chutta nahi hai.

trans-women grabs the 100Rs note and gives him a fake Ray Ban goggles

trans-women: Yeah raklo darling bye!

Cab driver:[sarcastically] A gift from a trans-women early morning. This is going to be a good sign for sure.

Parthu:[shocked as he should really believe it] yeah!

Cab driver: [sarcastically] Yes sir, ask them.

Others in the cab nodding their heads. He wears the goggles and mumbles to himself giving the back seaters another look. He mumbles to himself “I think they are making fun of me. God, help me with my sickness. I am living for nobody. You are all that I have. You are the only one to whom I can ask for help.” He is running towards his desk “Just get me through the day. I have a lot of work to do. Just don’t make me do anything that makes anybody hate me.” A girl walks by as he says “Hi” and he continues to gaze at her. She does not respond to him. “Don’t make me do anything that makes anybody hate me” he mumbles.

He is at his desk working on something, trying hard to complete it before his manager comes by for updates. The girl returns to her desk. He turns to see her but, he finds her laughing at a joke with another guy. He is feeling sad. His Manager interrupts him by throwing a bunch of papers at his desk.

Manager: Parthu! Can you explain to me what these reports are telling me?

Parthu: This is a bug report sir.

Manager: I know that can you tell me why there are so many problems with your code. Every time you delay your work. Every time I come to you with problems with your code. I can get a new guy do better code than you.

Parthu: I am really sorry sir. I will look into these issues and fix this in two hours. Let me have a look at this.

Manager: Listen Mr.. I need to get this finished now. Please do this as a favour to me and you as both our jobs are at stake here OK?. If not, I will have to fire you and my boss will have to fire me. Got that?

Parthu: Yes sir..

He looks around as everyone are looking at him. He continues to work for the next two hours. Goes back to his manager with his work complete

Parthu: All issues are fixed.

Manager: Ok.

Parthu: I think I have disappointed you. I want to sincerely apologize.

Manager: I really don’t have time to pacify you right now. I will talk to you later. Can you excuse me?

He goes back to his desk and Continues to work. He usually skips lunch as he feels sleepy after. Time goes by, its 5 and everyone start leaving. It is a party atmosphere as it’s a Friday night. Everyone goes out for drinks but him, He’s alone. He is at a bar. He is drinking, thinking about all things that have happened to him today. He starts crying desperately wants to talk to somebody. His phone rings, he just picks up. Doesn’t even care who it is

Parthu: You don’t talk. Just let me talk to you.

Caller: ah OK!.

Parthu: Why do you hate me?

Caller: It is not like that….

Parthu: It is like that, everybody hates me. It is not my mistake I look funny. It is not my mistake I fall asleep. It is not my mistake I can’t tell the difference between dream and Reality. It is just a disease just like cancer or diabetes. I Dream. It is a disease. Just help me if you can. Don’t hurt me.

Caller: Are you drunk? It is early morning?

Parthu: No Mr… You are drunk, wake up.... it is late in the night.

Caller: OK. I think I will talk to you later.

Parthu: No no no…. What! You disconnect my call? I will call you BACK!.

He dials back a number. A lady answers to phone.

Lady: Hello!

Parthu: Oh it’s a lady. You must be his wife.

Lady: Sorry I must be who’s wife?

Parthu: Ah, The person who just called me. I don’t care. Can I tell you something.

Lady: Yes.

Parthu: There is this girl who sits next to me. She sits next to me everyday. I am trying to talk to her since two years. She does not care to even respond. I know I can’t be her boyfriend but she can at-least talk to me right? I just need somebody to talk to. Somebody. Somebody to talk to me.

A voice tries to wake him up. “Sir, wake up. Sir wake-up”. He wake-up like a drunken man. Parthu wakes up with his phone in hand

Cab driver: Sir, wake up. Why are you acting like you are drunk? Office is here. Are you OK?

Parthu: I am not drunk? Am I in the cab? Was I dreaming? Oh hell no.

He finds there is nobody in the cab except for the driver. He realises he is late. He is running towards his seat just like in his dream. He finds that girl in front of him. He wants to say Hi but he swallows it. They cross each other and Girl turns back at him

Girl: Hi

Parthu: [Surprised] Good morning.

Girl: I’l see you inside in a bit.

Girl walk away. He stands still. He cannot believe what just happened. He goes to his desk and find gifts from the company. It is his birthday. His team gathers around to wish him. His manager arrives.

Manager: Happy birthday. Are you OK?

Parthu: I am very surprised but, I am OK.

Manager: [Addressing his team] Team, gather around. I have to tell you something about Parthu. He has worked with us for 2 years now and I know for sure many of us do not know about him. I know it because nobody wants to make friends with him. Yes, he looks funny. Yes, we find him sleeping sometimes in the office. And yes, I scold him too much. He looks funny because we make him look funny. He sleeps because he has sleeping sickness. I make this speech not to hurt him but, because we did not know about him, and we all had to and we all know now. Yes, sleeping is a disease and he get more than most of us and he is getting himself treated but, it must not stop us from treating him like everyone else. I request everyone to talk him and treat him normally. Parthu, on behalf of the team I apologise to you.

Team: Sorry!

Parthu: Its OK guys, you all didn't know. Its OK sir. Thank you for your wishes.

Manager: That’s all folks. You can carry on. Parthu, come over to my cabin.

Parthu is happy and surprised. He walks towards the cabin. The girl sitting next to him smiles at him and shakes hands in the air. “Happy birthday” she says. “Thanks” he responds with a smile. In his manager’s cabin, “Come in” manager says

Parthu: Sir, what is happening?

Manager: I was touched after reading an article about you from your psychiatrist. I wanted to say sorry for how I have been treating you. I also found out that the team has also not been so friendly with you. I found out it was your birthday today and so, I did what I just did with the team. Did I hurt you?

Parthu: Off-course not sir. I was pleasantly surprised. I am even more surprised to know about the article. I don’t know anything about it.

Manager: I must confess. I was about to fire you today, after reading this bug report. It is really a bad statistics. You should improve your code quality. I changed my mind and decided to give you another chance after i came across this article about you. It was published in a journal and somebody put it on our company’s portal because the article mention’s the company’s name. I don’t know why you could not tell me about your problems?

Parthu: My problems are weird to explain. Who will believe if I said I can’t control sleep. How can I make them believe it is such a big problem. Whenever I have tried to do that people always made fun of me. Made me a fool. Made me mad. That is why I went to the psychiatrist in the first place.

Manager: Well sorry about that. If you want to take leaves just do it. Take your treatment and let us help you whichever way we can. OK, Take care.

Parthu: Thank you sir.

He takes an early day off and goes to a park, thinking about everything that happened since morning. He picks the goggles from his shirt and starts thinking about what the cab driver had said about the trans-women's gift. He then goes to visit his psychiatrist Naveen to talk

Naveen: Hello!

Parthu: You wrote an article about me?

Naveen: No, Yes, Maybe.

Parthu: I told you not to tell anyone about me.

Naveen: but…

Parthu: but, thanks. Lot of thinks has changed today. I don’t know if it is because of the article or because of this goggle a trans-women gave me today morning.

Naveen: Goggles, trans-women, Me, article? What are you talking about?

Parthu: You know on the way to office today I met a trans-women at a traffic signal. He took 100Rs and gave me his goggle as a gift. Cab driver said it is going to be a lucky day and for sure it is turning out to be one nice day.

Naveen: Hold on my friend. I am a doctor and not a witch. I have lot patients who come to my door step believing in such stupid superstitions and I tell them they are mad to believe such things. I am telling you the same. Do not believe such things.

About the article, I am sorry. I asked the journalist to keep the names of you and the company anonymous but, that alone could not change everything about you. Tell me everything that has happened to you today.

[He explains whatever happened today and Naveen get curious.]

Naveen: Everything is sensible but, I don’t understand why your manager reacted the way he did. going from "I was about to fire you" to "Take a leave if you want" was quick. I mean, just by reading and article or knowing about your problem cannot make him to say sorry or even go to the team and say sorry on behalf of the team. What about the girl she spoke to you even before any of this even happened. Something does not make sense.

[Parthu is also surprised.]

Naveen: You said you had a dream when you were in the car?

Parthu: Yes.

Naveen: You said, you were at the bar when the dream ended. You were speaking to someone on the phone while you were there?. Yes?

Parthu: Yes

Naveen: Give me your phone.

[Naveen walks away from him. checks his phone and dials a few numbers and talks to some people. He comes back smiling at him]

Parthu: What are you doing? Why are you smiling at me?

Naveen: Why will i not smile at you. You do funny things. You slept 3 times today. 1st time you woke-up on the bed, 2nd in your bath room. 3rd in the car. I cannot tell you what happened in your dream in the 1st and 2nd but, the third dream my friend I can tell.

Parthu: You can tell what I saw in the dream?

Naveen: No, you already told me that but, I can what happened in real life while you were dreaming. When you were at the bar crying your heart out! In your dream! You got a phone call?. Yes? You actually got a phone call. in reality. Your boss called you to fire you. After your conversation he was able to relate to an article he just finished reading. You spoke to him like a drunk and few minutes later you stand in front of him like a clean man. He was able to relate the article to your problems and that is why he acted that way. You dial-ed another number in your dream and a lady spoke you?

Parthu: Yes.

Naveen: You dial-ed your office number and she answered, your dream girl! so, it turns out that she realised she is ignoring you too much and hence she spoke. Both the phone calls happened in the morning while you were in the cab sleeping, dreaming at the bar fully drunk. Your problems have not changed. I have not done anything to treat you. You are still ill.

Parthu: You are just trying to prove me wrong. You did help me a lot but, you cannot make me believe that this thing, this gift has made the difference. I think I will be OK from now. Thank you.

Naveen: [Angry] you think you will be OK from now? So you don’t need me?

Parthu: No, I need you but, like a friend and not a doctor. I think I am cured from my mental illness don’t you think?

Naveen: Not at all, with this superstition... It is getting worst. You came to my office right? but, where are you now?

Parthu: [Shocked] in your library.

Naveen: I was wearing a suit but what am i wearing now?

Parthu: [Shocked] casuals.

Naveen: Sorry to tell you but, you are still sleeping. All of this is just a dream. I am going to Goa for my party. Here this will help you wake up. Bye.

He hands over an antique alarm clock. It keeps ticking and suddenly rings. Parthu wakes up from his sleep on his bed, his door bell and alarm ringing. Landlord gets sick of ringing it and Leaves. The entire story was his dream.

Will there ever be a cure for this disease called dreaming?

The End