A Sip of Infinity

Toxicity of Hemlock

I woke up almost lazily next morning, curling up in my bed like a worn out cat, last night’s conversation still playing in my head like a recorded program. After considering the argument for about the fifteenth time I realized that a part of me was in total agreement with Emily. What was my value without hemlock? Was I even worth a penny without it? And the reality smashed me reallyhard…absolutely freaking not. And concealed within some corner of my heart, I was perfectly aware of this obvious fact. But hemlock’s limitless power made it seem unequivocally irrelevant and negligible. While I was earnestly contemplating on this factualness, the phone buzzed distractedly, making me alarmingly bound from my cosy king-size bed and seize it irritably.

“ARE YOU INSANE!?” bellowed Harold from the other side, almost causing my ear drums to burst. “Why the b****y hell didn’t you attend the meeting with Mervin!”

"Look Harold, I fell ill yesterday okay, I couldn’t even muster the energy to get out of the bed, leave alone travel,” I said defensively, but slapping my forehead. In the chaos that had occurred yesterday, the meeting with Mervin had been completely wiped from my memory.

                         “Oh how convenient! You experiencing ailments when you were about to face the most crucial man on earth currently for your bread and butter!” he mocked relentlessly, still not letting his voice down. “Do you have the faintest idea what that ‘sickness’ of yours has cost us? Mervin has renounced to fund us anymore!”

                         “WHAT!” I clamoured, the news crashing over me like the roof of my house.

                         “And you know what the icing on the cake is, there are gonna shut down Bane Enterprises and freeze all our assets in the bank!”

                         “That’s not possible Harold, I’m not gonna let this happen. I’ll speak to him, I will convey him the unavoidable circumstances due to which I couldn’t attend the meeting. I’ll beg him, hold his legs, do whatever it takes,” I said, desperation conquering me at a towering height, from which perhaps even hemlock couldn’t save me.

                         “Do whatever you can Bane, but just get us out of this miserably appalling situation,” he declared, his fury taking the form of a mundane dejection as he put the phone down.

                           Later that afternoon, I texted Mervin’s secretary and persuaded him to meet me at a coffee shop in Ghusais Area. The persuasion took a prolonged time but my remarkably charming texting eventually lured him out. It was a total stunner for me when he made his entrance into the place, he was dressed in purely casuals; a black striped white sweat shirt with faded blue denim, which downright assured me that I had gained place in his private zone. He wore a rarely softened and particularly amiable expression on his face which rose my spirits to the next level.

                          “Look man, I shouldn’t be here,” he began, while seating himself facing me and locking his fists in an anxious manner. “If boss ever gets a hint that I have visited you he’ll fire me without a second thought, and I got a wife and kids to feed man,”

                          “What’s your name?” I asked him casually, buttering my toast and not looking at him.

“It’s Alan,” he replied, snapping his fingers impatiently. He opened his mouth to snap at me but I cut him, as I revealed my phone from the left pocket of my track and played a video, which I handed to him. The video demonstrated the latest android that my company had manufactured last month. It showed the white lanky robot roaming my apartment, cleaning up the mess, washing dishes with water and vaccuming the house with the efficiency and pace of at least three men. It responded to my command instantly and with a human-like cheerful voice. Alan was held spell-bound at the video which he refused to pause or stop.

 “Is this even possible?” he enquired, in a cold ghostly tone, continuing to gawk at the video. “How did you-,” he broke off as I retrieved the phone and said,

 “The Japanese are ecstatic to pay two hundred and fifty million Dirhams for one of these. I have manufactured it to be flawlessly water resistant and it is programmed to swim underwater at unlimited depths. It can manipulate its voice at will and according to the situation. Speaks thirty different languages, well technically thirty two. Possesses x-ray vision and can detect cardiac arrests and sugar and blood pressure levels by simply a touch. 

It is artificially intelligent, but I haven’t programmed any human feelings in it so it is outstandingly safe to have in a homely environment and around children. Moreover, it can be controlled using an application that I have created called ‘Robocon’ using which one can switch it off and on,” I enlightened him, displaying the application to him on my phone, causing his face to flush with colour.

“You’re a prodigy Bane! I guess I always knew that since the very first meeting,” he praised, rising onto his feet with delight. “You don’t have to utter another word Bane, Mr. Mervin’s gonna arrive pleading for funding you, and that’s an assurance from me,” he stated, offering his hand to be shaken, which I shook enthusiastically and we parted.

“You did it!” Harold shouted, raising me in mid-air from the waist. “Mervin would have stood no chance other than continuing to fund us after seeing that spectacular android’s video. I am so god damn proud of you Jared!”

“Thanks Harold, but this was just the beginning, we have a mountain of work to accomplish, there is a demand of fifty thousand of these androids from Shanghai and the Chinese company is ready to pay five hundred thousand bucks for each unit,” I explained, seating myself on my cabin desk.

“Righto sir!” he saluted in a maniacally exulted way and marched out of the cabin.

My day had been almost perfect, had persuaded Mervin to re-consider his hasty decision and continue to sponsor Bane Enterprises and had received a massive order from two Asian robot selling giants. But regardless of achieving so much in a single day, I had lost something heavily precious, something which mattered more to me than the entire company and all my luxuries put together.

 It was the love of the girl who had saved me from perhaps an atrociously agonising death by risking her own life. I felt miserable, and sickly contemptuous towards myself, similarly how I had felt when my mother was killed. And even more despicable thinking that I had let her go so easily.Heedlessly, I pushed those thoughts aside and elected to party tonight. Ah, forget her, I thought carelessly. I could get someone way better tonight who knows, and with that cheerful thought I drove off to a night club that night.

The night was marvellous, and the club lights were blazing furiously as a ball was playing and an enormous crowd dancing to a series of One Republic’s songs. I sat on the drinks’ counter sipping off a cream soda, my laser sharp eyes rolling hither thither, searching for an attractively solitary girl seated somewhere, and I discovered one at the far end of the counter having a soda herself. I approached her cautiously from behind and seated myself confidently beside her.

“So, are you expecting someone or have come here alone just to escape the exhaustingly monotonous and frustrating world outside,” I asked her flirtatiously, staring into her unique grey eyes without batting an eyelash.

“Well, the latter one Mr…”

“Jared Bane,” I retorted, as she shot me a genuinely alluring smile which conveyed to me that I had found my company tonight, and I asked the desirably pretty girl for a dance. We danced gracefully onto the dance floor in a variety of styles, first performing the rumba then moving to salsa and finally a close dance. She laughed elegantly causing me to gravitate towards her even further.

Then suddenly it kicked off…..an intoxicated feeling overtook me, dazing my mind and body. I entered a state of trance, the noises surrounding me extinguished. It seemed as though time had just halted, and hours appeared passing like seconds as the dance concluded and I accompanied that girl who drove us to a hotel in her car. The sub-consciousness still loomed over me while a group of thugs attacked her car from the sides with hockey sticks and baseball bats. 

They smashed the windows and grabbed the girl out of the car while my deaf ears and intoxicated brain couldn’t feel much. However, I confronted those scoundrels and attacked them. My mind, despite the numbness, played Bruce lee’s famous kicks and punches along with Jackie Chan’s acrobatic stunts that I had ever watched on television or even glanced at. 

One of the men who was extremely muscular landed a punch on me at which I swerved sideways and kicked his face hard, causing him to land backwards onto the ground, bleeding copiously. Another thug tried kicking my face but I bent low onto my knees and he missed terribly, in retaliation, I pulled myself up and with a quick spin in the air I brutally punted his face, causing him to pass out instantaneously.At that point, a flabby guy made an attempt to strike me with a baseball bat but I ducked and he ended up smashing the window of the girl’s car. The guy struck again, and I ducked once more and he accidentally hit his own mate who was knocked out cold. As he tried to get him up I punched his face and he swooned over. All the rowdies had been knocked out, and the girl was fine. The numbness in my head increased heavily as I fell on the ground. And the rest I recalled, was the girl driving me to my apartment safely.