The Question

"This man, what is his name?" the doctor asked.

"Powell, Doctor Richard Powell" I replied.

"When did he die?"

"Ten years ago, approximately"

"And you see him everyday."

"Yes, for the past week or so."

"Does your wife see him as well?"

"I don’t know. She has never been around when I see him."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"When I was 18, I remember he nursed me back to health. I had been injured quiet seriously in a motor cycle accident."

"There is nothing I can tell you that can cure this in an instant. If this Powell keeps appearing try to ignore him. He is probably just your imagination." He said with a sign.

That was the first time in 10 years I had gone to a doctor. It was my wife; she was scared that I had begun to see ghosts. What did we know that very soon everything was going to change.

It all happened about 2 months ago. I was returning home from work when I first saw him. He stared at me. I did not recognize him at all. It was not until I saw his photo in the album. The picture freaked me out. I had mourned his death and attended the burial.

The very next day he approached me at the traffic signal. He knocked at my window and mumbled something. I was looking in the opposite direction. When I saw the face I stepped on the accelerator.

I am a software programmer. I trust only logic. I don’t believe in god. I don’t believe in fate. Why? Because I like to believe that I am in control of every situation. I believe in what I do. Ghosts! I don’t believe in them.

I had to prove to my self that he was not a ghost. I took me a week or two to muster the courage to meet this man. When I walked up to him, he was surprised. He said something. I have no idea what; there was no sound from his mouth.

I gave him a buck or two and walked away.

I returned home, not knowing what the man had tried to say. The next day he was at the very same place. He signaled towards me with a nod. I parked my car and went towards him.

"After what I tell you today, you are either going to hate me or thank me" he said.

I was taken aback of how fluently he could talk.

"You can talk!" I said.

"Whether I can talk or not is going to be the least of your problems, in 15 minutes."

"What?"

"Let’s go and sit there", he said pointing to the bench in the park.

I had not noticed it before but the way he walked, talked and interacted was very different than anyone I remembered.

"Remember the accident."

"The Accident!"

"The motor cycle accident, you were my patient."

"Yes, what about that."

"The accident had caused severe head trauma. Few days after the accident you slipped into a Coma."

"What! I don’t remember being in coma."

"You can’t. YOU ARE STILL IN COMA."

There was a silence. I burst into laughter. "Okay, I give up that is the best gag anyone has tried to pull on me."

He remained serious. He added "It’s beautiful isn’t it."

"What? The garden." I said chuckling.

"No, this dream world."

He looked at me and said "Your body was asleep but mind was not. Your mind could not sleep. So it created this a dream world where everyone was what your mind wanted them to be. The human brain is the most magnificent and yet unexplainable.