The Labyrinth

In a busy marketplace with a hundred gullies leading to more brightly lit branches of this never ending world of fruits, vegetables, fake watches, aquariums full of neon, and the peddlers. Everyone spoke a different language and they looked at everyone as they passed by their shops, right in the eye. I tried to imagine this place empty, but i just couldn't.

A kid wanders off a feet from his parent, and grabs an unknown person's hand and walks away looking at the colors of the market in awe. The crowd pours in swallowing a story right in front of me. I did try and look for the kid, but soon I realized, the more I try to find here, the more I get entangled in this eerie bright paradise of the cold people who stare into your eyes and read you minds.

My mind is calm now, i focus on the job in hand, 'GET OUT OF HERE' and walk opposite to the direction I was facing. I tried to recognize faces among those ever staring eyes and the fixed smiles. And as soon as their glance shifts, they exchange a few words in their secret language and go back to luring customers. I know there are stairs which will lead me to the road that goes home.

The only familiar place here was the place in the market with a circular garden. And I have already been here thrice. The kid walks by, happy and enjoying the blue cotton candy. "Stop!" I say, and get pushed away, He says "I am the father", and the child shrieks away. I stand there looking at the ground, ignoring the stares by the mob. I was only trying to help.

Soon it rained, and the gullies were empty, the shops had people lined up like products in an assembly line, no one had a face. and I found a big path connecting all the paths . I followed it and it got me home. Some days I still walk by the market to see a few of them looking at me. But I dare not enter, and never mind what happened to the story of the Lost kid and a stranger.