Short Story : The Unseen

Short story-

It was one of those days when I needed my coffee served the way I liked it best, i.e while I surfed the internet reading various topics of interest. As I entered the local café I noticed busy tables and waiters taking orders here and there, I always wondered how they managed to keep up with the impatient and desperate crowd all the time.

Looking across the lounge I found a corner with a vacant space for two. I rushed towards the seat, in my head it played like a mission with the finish line separated by other occupied tables.

I won. Mission accomplished. I was seated.

The waiter walked up to me with a pretentious smile, as if I was the customer that he had been waiting for his entire life; I smiled back and ordered a tall glass of black coffee. He rushed away to take another order form an adjacent table.

I pulled out my laptop and just as I had felt like I had this whole corner and privacy to myself, it was breached. A handsome and well suited man took the seat opposite mine and threw a big smile that said- I hope you don’t mind.

I do, said the voice inside my head. But I smiled back and said, “Please” gesturing a welcome hand sign.

Once settled, he drew his weapon of choice-a latest version of Apple i-Pad and started doing his extremely important thing. I looked around at the expressions of others- everybody seemed to be into cellphones and computers and had this look like they were about to save the world with that final stroke of a key. I think I had it too.

My coffee arrived and the waiter started unloading his tray onto my table and just as he was about to do everything perfectly, he lost his balance. The cup jumped in his hand while I held my breath for Touch-Down. “Brace for impact” played in my head from a documentary that I had watched earlier this week.

But this waiter had some amazing reflexes. I wonder if it was due to his daily-loss of balance-routine that he developed this skill of-catch it just in time- or if he was a waiter for “cover up identity” and worked secretly as 007. Whatever he did in his private life, he had saved my day at the very last moment.

I managed to speak a few words as the horror swept away from my mind, “Thank God!”

“I am so sorry”, said the waiter with a short bow.

I smiled back and nodded. He walked away cheerfully, glad that he had just pulled of an impossible stunt and saved the day. He was a hero in his head. I didn't object.

“So you believe in the Unseen?” spoke the man who had just occupied the seat opposite mine.

“I am sorry”, I questioned, not sure about what he had just asked.

“So you believe in the Unseen, God.” He responded, raising his tone slightly higher so that I could hear.

“Don’t you?” I asked while taking a sip from the cup which had almost burned me. Good coffee, said the voice inside my head.

“I am a man of science” he said, taking pride in his words like he knew something that nobody had known and it somehow made him much smarter than those (allegedly) less intelligent beings who believe in the unseen.

He seemed like a rational person and not the kind who would deny logic or truth, he seemed to be a person who believed in facts and things that he could see, feel, touch or taste.

I smiled back at him or rather at his interesting question and praised his bold stand on his belief.

Interesting..

I took a deep breath and then I spoke,

“You see sir, the world was once flat for science. The earth was the center of everything, the moon was an unknown mysterious object and microorganisms were a joke to the most learned of the doctors and surgeons. It took time for science to evolve, trial and errors on rats, humans and monkeys led to most of what we have today, but God, through his religion, sent down the guidance that held mankind united and together for several millenniums. Where was science then?"

Before he could intervene, I continued..

"Every second science rejects its self, a new hardware is developed that claims that the earlier one was not good enough, a new process is developed which opposes the methods of development used earlier as harmful and less efficient, as we speak a new software code is written that would denounce its earlier version as bugged and unnecessarily lengthy.

The Legends of science shouted and rejected everything in the world when they thought we were the center of the universe, they looked down upon those who could not comprehend the idea and praised their exceptional knowledge based upon mathematical theories and scientific tools available at that time. And soon after, they rejected what they believed a few years ago to believe in the newly found knowledge -we may not be the center of the universe but rather the sun is the center of the universe. And then later-like it wasn't already too late- they changed it as per their new discoveries.

So, I differ on this point. I accept science but I will not reject the fact that it contradicts itself every single day of my life. Lift up today’s newspaper and look up the gadgets section and you would notice that a lot of them claim to be better versions of their previous unreliable ones. Lift one tomorrow and you would see them rejecting what you see today.

Religion on the other hand, is stable. It does not contradict itself and fits for an endless period of time. It was religion that was giving hope and guiding people while science was busy rocking the cradle and learning the ropes.

So, what I say is this- yes I believe in something more stable. And yes, I believe in the unseen. Besides, science has no answers about life. Science has not been able to explain what happens to us after we die…..…”
Just as expected, he broke me off at this point, “Science is learning, I agree. And one day science will have an answer about After-life too.”, he said

“Which day?” I inquired.

“One day”, he reassured me.

“Have you had a vision or a breakthrough?” I asked.

“No” He laughed, “But I am sure that it will happen one day”, he announced.

I observed him for a second, wondering if he understood his stand.

“And then you say that I am the one who believes in the Unseen”, I concluded.

He paused and looked at me for a minute or two. He was out of words and a little confused.

I sipped my last bit of coffee, lifted my bag and nodded-Have a fine day- and walked towards the exit of the café leaving behind an extra tip for the fine reflexes of the waiter.

You did well.

The truth is, we all believe in the Unseen. It is all about choosing something more reliable and moral.