2020: Story 11: Decoding Area 52

 Just in case you're very observant, you would have noticed that after Story 9 of September, I'm now posting Story 11 of November. 

What happened to Story 10 of October, you may wonder. 

Well, I did write it and post to my writer's group, and writing it was an outpouring of the emotion that was predominant at that time in my mind - mainly terrible anxiety and trying to hold on to hope as COVID entered my home. 

Now, by the grace of God, things have drastically improved and that Story 10 of October has become a distant memory, so I'm not really inclined to revisit that mental state. Of course, I may put up a post sometime in the future on my regular blog Anu's Words, to talk of the learning from my experiences during October 2020. 

For this month, I have an extremely short story to share. 

The prompt was "Area 52" with a word count of 500 words. 

Preoccupied as I had been with health issues, I actually forgot the deadline, and so, got special permission from the writing group admin to post 24 hours after submission time. 

My mind was totally blank. I had absolutely no idea what to write. And then, 30 minutes later, I somehow had this story ready to submit. 

Yet another occasion to feel grateful to God!

Happy reading, and do let me know your thoughts!

A buzz of conversation emanated from the crowd in the auditorium. Every seat was taken and those who couldn’t find room in that hall were seated in an adjacent room, where live streaming ensured they caught all the action.

The Master of Souls rose to speak and an expectant hush settled over the crowd.

“Greetings to all the souls gathered here today! As you probably have heard by now, we’ve witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon here in Soul City. One of the souls we admitted yesterday has been found to carry something that we haven’t seen here for decades!”

Simultaneously, the screen projected the outline of a human enclosed within a bubble that pulsated, and a caption pivoted around the image. It was the caption that sent a collective gasp through the crowd, for it bore the words that had been very rarely seen in that auditorium.

‘AREA 52 SOUL’ said the caption.

“What’s so special about this soul?” hissed a newbie soul to an older one.

“Ah! Area 52 is something that even I haven’t seen for a long, long time. It’s that part of the soul which stands for the generosity of spirit.”

The Master of Souls was talking again. “We’re going to try to study more about Area 52. I request all of you to please maintain silence and pay attention to the analyses our researchers run on this unusual soul.”

The focus now shifted to the center of the stage where two senior souls sat staring intently at their devices. When the Master gave the command, they began their analyses and gave a running commentary of the searches they were running.

“I’m comparing Area 52 Soul’s works of charity with those of other souls in Soul City with a high charity index. Why, Area 52 Soul hasn’t done a lot of charity!”

“I’m looking at the quantum of money given out by Area 52 Soul and it’s quite paltry compared to the donations of other souls here in Soul City!”

“Take a look at Area 52 Soul’s indices for food, clothing, and shelter donations,” ordered the Master.

“Nothing remarkable there, either!”

The group on the stage fell silent. Every soul in the audience too pondered over the strangeness of the phenomenon. How could someone who scored so low on all the generosity parameters have such a large Area 52?

A low, wobbly voice called out from the first row of the audience. It came from the eldest of souls in Soul City.

“Take a look at Area 52 Soul’s bank account. Check the ratio of how much it had versus how much it gave.”

In a few minutes, the analyst souls projected the figures onto the screen for the entire auditorium to view.

A collective gasp of surprise went up, and, the same wobbly voice from the first row said, “It is not how much you give that’s important, it’s how little you hang on to for yourself that decides the true generosity of a soul!”