Arpit Kaushik

September 1, 2022

Inception

When I was airborne after being struck, I experienced an Inception moment.
I journeyed across time, thoughts, thoughts embedded within thoughts.
In the present. I was flying, and falling. 
There was a past embedded in that present.
A memory, a thought:
I am 12 years old, in Delhi, running along the sidelines
of the school field. We are playing football.
Suddenly someone trips me.
I am flying, and falling.
And the thought within that thought:
"Oh dear, I am about to hit the ground.
My knees will get bruised.
My shorts will rip.
I will get a serious telling off
when I reach back home. Home."
A pause. A silence.
Then the feeling of a body bouncing off the ground.
Once. Twice.
There is no time anymore. 
Just my 
still 
body.