Of Hope, Dream and Effort.
Life is all about the choices we make and decisions we take. “A human being’s state of mind is something most accurately accessed with a full capacity of hindsight” *. There’s so much truth to this statement. We somehow become very conscious and just while judging our decisions at hindsight; Karma being hindsight’s alter ego to blame or to reason. This serves as no rationale preface to the story that follows. Although, it might, in hindsight!
Hope was madly in love with Dream. But he doubted if she reciprocated that love. Dream was always nice to him, speaking about what he wanted to hear, too optimistic about the ways of the world. He often thought she was too perfect. Hope was loved by all, further, he hadn’t done anything special to sway Dream. She was naturally attracted to him. But he wanted to be sure that he meant something to her; he wanted to test her affection. So, he sent his good friend Effort to follow Dream around, just to make sure she wasn’t being frivolous. Effort was a good man, but importantly a devoted friend. So, he did as he was requested. He followed Dream around, whom she met, whom she had a tete-a-tete with and closely observed her conversations and reported them to Hope.
This went on for a few days. Hope was happy. Dream wholeheartedly loved him. But this exchange left Effort befuddled. He had developed feelings for Dream. Dream was a pure soul and she had an aura that drew people towards her. Effort felt a strange need to conform to the feelings and opened out about how he felt about Dream. He did. Dream felt let down by Hope, the man whom she dearly loved. But she admired Effort’s courage. They mutually fell in love with each other. Hope was devastated, but his idiosyncrasy is that he’s seldom stuck. He moved on.
Effort and Dream led a happy life thereafter. Following the institution of marriage, they were blessed with twins, Happy and Content.
This was until Money came along.
Money was Effort’s personal Assistant. She was racy, full of energy. He just couldn’t take his eyes off her. It was probably her youth that he desired, her charisma, her smile. That’s the thing with desires, you neither know when or why they arise nor when or why they slip into the abyss of covet. But when they do, they always wreak havoc. Effort felt he could take over the world with Money by his side. They started an affair. Money enjoyed all the comforts she had access to. They had a love child whom they named Regret.
Money was a young woman and she had already birthed a child. Effort worked all the time. She got bored too quickly. The pleasure of all the luxury she could afford from the infidelity was short lived. She often reminisced about her old lover, Power. They were a famous pair back in college. Power had confessed his feelings to Money, but she always had a hint that Power was with her for the limelight she bought towards the relationship. She had rejected him. Now, she missed him. For he was a respectable person in the society, whereas at present, she’d hardly venture outside the house without someone throwing a nasty face at her. The society feels obliged to reason and judge other’s wrongdoings, the irony is that they are prejudiced. Since she was a mother, the choice of separating her kid from the biological father was hard. But her life easily scored priority than her child and her aging partner. She left Effort and Regret for Power.
Effort was devastated. The guilt of cheating his dear wife and children was excruciating. He was aware that Dream was conscious of this fling, and yet had never uttered a word. That made it rather awkward to face and come to terms with her. But he did because he had to, eventually. Effort was ready to face any repercussions of this shameful turn of events. He was set to beseech her to forgive. He wanted his Dream back. But to his bad luck, she gave the worst response a wife could give in such a dilemma, silence. Dream was about to do something Effort wouldn’t have fathomed.
When Money told Dream about her relationship with Effort, she was distraught. But Dream was credulous. She felt this coming after what she had done to Hope. Dream believes anything she sees and trusts what she hears. Her thoughts never leapt beyond the boundaries of perception. She decided that her kids would be better off without Effort. Following some serious contemplation, she went to meet Hope. Hope was happily married to Future. Dream was delighted to see them together. Future had filled Hope with optimism when Dream had given up on him. After all Hope deserved someone better after Dream’s departure from his life. They were an ideal couple. She left the kids at his doorstep and plummeted to death from the tallest cliff known to her, Oblivion.
Effort thought Dream was somewhere around, just being angry. He was yet to face her death. And that he had lost Happy and Content to Hope. He was left with nothing but his kid, Regret. The luckiest person is one who gets a chance to undo the reverberations of a past act. Guess Effort isn’t among this group.
*Quoted from the episode “There’s something about Casey” of the “JCS-Criminal Psychology” YouTube channel. Just to be clear, I do not endorse them in any way. I honestly just loved this quote.
