The Fox And the Broken Bridge

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

You may have been heard such stories from your childhood, or experienced something which compels you to change your perception for a particular person or situation, the impact of the incidents may entirely transform you and your beliefs.

Here is one such incident that was happened with us some two years ago that changed our entire perception on the existence of the most powerful person in the universe. That completely changed our earlier beliefs. Without revealing more, let’s start the story.

It is quite common that some colleague becomes your best pal after some time. I too have such close friends whom I used to meet regularly beyond the office hours. Though we have many differences, but one thing is common that we completely believe in the saying “Work hard on the weekdays, and party hard on weekends”.

In one such weekend party in a classy pub, one of our friend who was still living a free life declared bravely that he will be going to tie the knots soon, and invited us to his marriage ceremony. Knowing his damn free life, it was a big surprise for us. We happily accepted his invitation to witness the momentous milestone of his life.

The venue of his wedding ceremony was far away from the city. It was a remote village where his family stays. And the best part was, the function was scheduled for the weekends, a great relaxation for us that we do not have to request our not so nice Boss for leaves.

Finally, the precious day has come and we went to our friend's village to attend the marriage ceremony. It was a great trip; we enjoyed a lot, except that fateful night which we cannot forget in our life.

We reached at the venue on time, met our friend and his family. They happily welcomed us being a nice host. The party started with a bang, loud music, and wild dance. We ate a lot of food with fine drinks specially imported from the city for us. I have also tried few sip of local wine specially made for this occasion. It really tasted good.

The party wrapped off around 9 O’clock in the night. As it was a village area so people usually like to sleep early. We were expected some more time to enjoy the party but couldn't. Anyway, after spending some great time with our friend and his family members, we decided to move towards the city. Initially, they were hesitated to allow us, insisted on leaving next day morning as it was a dark night and we need to drive through a forest road. But, finally, we managed to convince them and left the village around 10 O'clock on my friend's 3 years old hatchback.

Initially, we enjoyed our journey through the dark lonely forest road. Nobody was on the road, no vehicle, no cattle…as if the road was built only for us. So my friend, who was in the driver seat, was the happiest man driving on that free road. It was a great relief for him as he used to drive regularly on the busy city road.

He switched on the music and played some great collections of classic albums such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Philip George & Anton Powers, Simon & Garfunkel, Green Day and much more. We were listening to those beautiful songs of old golden days and feeling the mesmerizing effects of nature, truly living at that moment.

"Watch that..." - I shouted loudly to my friend, he suddenly puts the break to stop the car. It was an animal passed by just in front of us. But, we were able to stop at the right time, thus that animal was escaped just by a whisker. "It was a fox…" - my friend recognized. Thank god it was saved. My other friends, who were in the back seat got a big jolt and awake from their dreams.

By God's grace, we all were safe, the animal escaped without hurting himself also saved the car from any dent or scratches. Else it will be a big problem for my friend, as his car insurance is already expired yesterday. He was about to renew the car insurance but couldn't get time today as we have to attend the function. The insurance companies are rightly saying that you never know when any mishap will happen, so better to renew the insurance before it expired.

Anyway, I said to my friend - "let’s start the car, we have to move". My friend nodded and tried to start the car. But it wasn’t…oh, no…what happened ... He said it’s not starting. Try again…he tried, again and again, …but the car was refused to buzz. "Oh my god..what the hell…. " -screamed one of my friend from the back. We were in the middle of the jungle, we left the village far way behind.

What a luck…we stranded in the middle of the jungle with no hope of any help. And the worst part is we couldn't make any call as there was no cellular network available at that place. A long silence ruled in the car. We were just speechless. Only cursing our fate…why the hell we had decided to leave tonight. We would have stayed in the village till the morning. But it was our destiny.

One of my friends suggested checking the radiator water, battery or other basic components of the vehicle though nobody has proper knowledge on it. But the problem was that, who will get down and do that. Actually, nobody had that courage to get down from the car in that dark and lonely forest road. So finally we postponed that idea until the morning.

It was a dark night, occasional sounds of birds and animals coming from the thick forest that penetrating the silence. Suddenly we heard wolf are barking as if they were crying, what a woeful night. One of the friends said…hey you know, I saw in one movie people are stuck in the jungle and the ghost came to them. Just shut up...another friend snubbed him. We all are in fear…nobody wants to listen to his story ... and thinking that if any ghost or vamp comes to us then what we will do?

Out of the blue someone knocked the rear window of my side, it was absolute dark outside, I tried to see him, but his face was covered with a black scarf. I was speechless…is he a human or ghost…question comes to my mind. Suddenly the glass of my window automatically slid down…oh no, …who is opening it…I screamed. A muscular hand come into the car from the window and tried to drag me outside…help...help …I screamed loudly. But none of my friends came to my rescue. Please help me…he is going to kill me. But nobody is there to help me.

"Hey…Hey…what happened …why the hell are you shouting…" - one of my friends shouted at me. Oh … I realized …I was in a dream. I smiled ...said nothing. You know those stories of ghosts comes alive when we face such situations in our life…although the reality is different… I said to myself.

Slowly slowly the dark night disappears. The god of light came on his chariot driven by seven big horses. And on his presence, the Satan of dark ran away upon fear. The horror of the forest now turned out to most beautiful place on the earth. The shining rays of the sun playing hide and seek over the big tall trees.

The mother bird was ready to start their journey to search food for her toddlers. Her toddlers are still in sleep, but the younger ones started singing their morning prayer. The squirrels were started playing; the monkeys were engaged themselves in their favorite jumping business.

It was a beautiful morning. And the best thing was that we were relieved from our last night fear. We went out of the car to feel the lovely sunlight, the lovely jungle. I drank some water from the only one bottle of water left with us. Everybody is now relaxed as if we were here on a jungle trip. For a moment we forgot that we were abandoned here.

One of my friends said he was feeling hungry. Actually, we all were feeling little hungry by that time. I saw my clock, it was half past nine. But there was no food in our car. We look around, but couldn’t see anything except the thick forest and the long narrow black road.

We opened the bonnet of our car and checked the oil level, water level etc whatever we know and tried to start the car, but all our efforts go in vain. We tried our hand with the little mechanical knowledge we have, but couldn’t succeed.

We sat on the road, now the sun was on our head. As it was winter season so the sun wasn’t merciless on us. Though the sun wasn’t pleasant but it was tolerable. As the time passed, we were starving without food and water. We were desperately watching both sides of the road for our savior. And gradually we were losing our faiths.

Suddenly one of my friends got up and start running, "what are you doing …" - we shouted on him. Then we noticed that he was running behind a bird, looks like a hen or turkey. The bird was smart enough not to caught by him and escaped into the forest. It was an unsuccessful attempt by him.

Now we all were hopeless, there was no chance of getting any help there. Nobody was passing through that road. "How come it possible…" - one of the friends said in annoyance. We were actually surprised that there was not a single person passed through that road till that time. Which forced us to think that big question - "Were we on the right path?

"Hey… look there…" - I literally shouted with joy, everybody looked that way. One vehicle was coming towards us. It was an open jeep with the retro look, well customized with fog lights and shining front grill. We raised our hands to stop the gypsy.

A tall and handsome guy was in the driver seat. Two persons dressed as royal servants outfit with turbans on their head sat on the rear seats. The guy in the driver’s seat was a well-built muscular guy, dressed like a prince of some kingdom. A long white designer coat with denim jeans and a long stall rounded around on his neck.

The jeep stopped in front of us, the bodyguards jumped down carrying their big guns. We stepped back, one of my friends pleaded with modesty to help us. Then their master stepped down, signaled his servants to stay back. "What happened…what’s the problem…" - he asked us with his calm and composed voice. We narrated him the whole story and he listened to us with great patience.

Then he asked us in surprise, why were you came on this forest road. You know, you guys are diverted from the original road which goes to the city actually, this is an old abandoned road closed from years because there is a broken bridge just half kilometers away from this place.

Now, it's time for us to surprise! We were speechless, looked at each other. The way we were moving last night, driving with blazing speed on a free road, the chances were high that we could have ended up diving into the 30 feet deep ravine through that broken bridge.

We were rearranging all the things that were happened last night, the animal crossed in front of our car, then the car refused to move an inch, all those things indicates that someone was there who saved us. "Thank God, " we all said in chorus.

And, rest of the story was simple, he came as a savior for us. His bodyguards had the required skills to repair our car. They also gave us some food, enough to douse our belly fire for the moment. Finally, we started our journey to the city again but this time on the right path.

While returning to the city, we all were sitting quietly and thinking about the night just passed with us. I was wondering whether it was really God who saved us last night or it was just a coincidence.

There are so many such incidents happens everyday across the world. People used to tell those stories proving the existence of God.

So, while resting my story here, I am leaving it to my readers to make their own opinions.