The Afternoon Nap
I had slept like a king in the afternoon. Three glorious hours. At the time it felt like a reward. A gift from the universe. A well-earned luxury. Now, in the middle of the night, I was paying interest on that loan. The room was dark. Darker than usual. My phone battery had given up hours ago. The AC hummed softly, cooling the room while the wind outside whistled through the trees. The night and I appeared equally lonely. Being each other’s only companion, we simply stared at one another. I tried turning left. Then right. Then left again. Sleep remained unimpressed. Finally, feeling thirsty, I got up to drink some water. As I returned to my room, I heard a familiar notification sound coming from my laptop. A group video call. Curious, I opened it. There they were. Bashir Badr. Ahmad Faraz. Wasim Barelvi. A few others had yet to join. The realization struck me immediately. Everyone on this call had committed the same crime. An afternoon nap. And now we were all wandering through the con...