Two And A Half Knocks

It all started with a simple knock on the door. There was a rule in their locality that you would knock whenever you enter each other’s house. But the knock was unique. One has to knock two and a half times. It was very curious for the outsiders that what is two and a half knock. How one can knock like this. A knock is a whole number; how can we fraction it. It’s not possible. Most of the people who didn’t belong to that particular community thought the same. The residents of the Half-Knock community that was the name given to them were taught from their childhood how to knock half. It was the most important thing that was taught in that community. Without knowing the Half-Knock trick, one was considered to be unserviceable in the community.

But why was that? What was the reason behind this strange thing? Well, the half-knock community was the closest place to the camp of Oppressive-XI. They were gruesome creatures who used to oppress and kill people. They were sadists who always loved to show their power and ruthlessness to common people in the locality. The times were fatal, full of hesitation. The Half-Knock community and their ancestors had to suffer the most at the hands of Oppressive-XI. So what was the use of two and a half knock? Once upon a time, an angel visited the Half-Knock community; during those days, the oppression was limitless by Oppressive-XI. So angel told them they would be ok, but they have to save themselves from ruthless nights. For the days to be safe, the angel had already made an arrangement. The thing was, during days, Oppressive-XI was allowed only to curse and use bad language against common people and particularly the Half-Knock community.

But the question was, what about nights. During nights they were so uncontrollable that even the devil was shocked. So Angel provided the Half-Knock community with two and a half knock trick. Oppressive-XI was not able to enter the houses until it was not unlocked by anyone inside. The thing was, they couldn’t break the door. Also, they didn’t know how to do two and a half knock. That is why it was a trick. Though Oppressive-XI often infiltrated the learning centres of the Half-Knock community, they could not learn it. So this was the whole system of the Half-Knock community. This was their life now. By this, they were able to judge that who was on the other side of the door;
Friend or enemy, oppressed or oppressor,

Half-Knock community member or Oppressive-XI.The knock was all that was standing between little joy and abundant misery, happy life and tortured life, peace and suffering, smiling and wailing, life and death.

Why was that? Why this little community was always the target of Oppressive-XI. Because the Half-Knock community was resilient, they were always against any suppression invoked on anyone in many parts of the whole locality. But their small community, which was very close to Oppressive-XI were most brutalized and tortured. The nights used to be horrific, full of blood. The community members were always under the threat of unending agony, interrogations, pain, and many more. The young ones of the community were narrated stories of interrogation that their elders faced. The one who raised them told the stories about how their elders were kept in an isolated room full of light. They were never provided proper food, and even if they were given some food, it wasn’t fit to eat. They were never able to sleep due to loud voices and scorching lights. Their nails were ripped off from their fingers. Electric pins were inserted into their private parts. How there women were taken from the houses and faced the utmost brutality that the world could ever see. In the middle of nights when everything was silent, how the cries of woman whose young one and beloved were taken to face the sheer number of tortures in interrogation camps. These were the stories that the young ones of the Half-Knock community were made to remember.

Then the time came when that dreadful event occurred. That day something strange, something horrific happened. Two and a half knock was made on an old door, and when the person thinking it to be the community member opened the door without even inquiring, that person was shocked to witness Oppressive-XI on the door. The time stooped. That person wanted to close the door with the speed of light but couldn’t. The muscles in the body were frozen. It was not due to fear, no. There was a question, a serious question which was HOW? How did they learn to do Half-Knock? Who teaches them, when teaching them, why teach them? These questions were blasting the consciousness of that person. In that unimaginable event, arms were Frozen, legs were crumbling, the mind was making tsunamis inside, eyes were numb, the night was deep, moon and stars were absent, time was colliding, and in no time, Oppressive-XI created havoc inside the whole house. After few moments, it doesn’t look like a house. Rather it looked like some old waste of that house. One by one, all houses were raided, and the children were taken.

The thing is, children remembered the stories which were narrated to them by their elders about the torture in interrogation cells. They began to prepare themselves. They checked their nails one last time, wanted to sleep but couldn’t. There was a strange thing about those children that they weren’t crying. It looks like their elders made them so elastic that they made themselves fit in any situation. The thing was, they were preparing themselves for the torture, of which the stories they have heard. The last thing they did was look at their houses that were vanished and laid to dust. All of the community was looted in the span of one night. Someone from the community revealed the Half-Knock secret. The people were crying not because their houses had vanished or were being taken to interrogation camps, or brutal tortures were waiting for them or death was near to them, or their young ones were taken. Still, they were wailing because someone from their own community had betrayed them. They never got to know who it was. Rather the stories exchanged from time to time about this brutal betrayal. Time and nature became the witness of all this brutality. The history remembered it for the future generations. Did the betrayer remember?

~ Two and a half knock.
~ Under Oppression, everything is resistance.
~ Betrayal from own people is harder than brutal death.

Note:- This piece is fiction.