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REFLECTION

He went back home after a day of long hours work, he step and opened the door of his house. The door was already opened; there were people inside his property, strangers, watching his TV, cocking with his stove, drinking water from his glass and sitting in his favourite sofa. Who are those strangers? He thought. He did not bother to ask. Maybe he was just too lazy to do so. He observed what everybody was doing, and all seems friendly people, educated and look wealthier than himself. Everyone was smiling, shook his hand and then busy again with what they were doing.

He sat down to a chair that was still free, the worst chair that probably he has in his house, he took a novel that he already read for three times, and pretended to read. He wondered who those people were. Why they were there and why they were acting like there were in their own house before. But still, he did not ask anyone who they were and what they were doing in his property. It was 6 pm; it was the time of his favourite program on TV, so he asked politely the man who was watching the TV in his sofa whether he might borrow the control to switch the channel. Surprisingly, the man refused to change the program. He explained that the TV was no longer his. The man showed him a legal paper that shown that the TV was no longer his property.

After a while, he was thirsty and still could not belief himself what was happening to his TV. So he went down to the kitchen took his favourite mug and poured water inside before even any single drop of water reach his lips. He heard a woman was shouting at him. “Stop!” she said. “Who said you that you can drink that water. And with that mug?” He was surprise, but after nearly fifteen minutes of serious argument with the woman he could no longer argue, that the mug was his and the water was part of his house. The woman showed him a legal paper in possession of all the mugs that used to be his and the right of the distribution of water in his house. The woman explained him further right that she had over his property, including cocking and using his kitchen. However, she told him because she was nice and a highly educated woman that came from a town in far west, she will distribute him food and water in his needs, even the ration was about half less than the water and the food he  used to consume every day.

He went to his room in order to rest but he found out that the bed, the clothes, the table, the armchair, the radio, the books, and every item in his house was no longer his. Those strangers were repeatedly claiming a legal ownership over his property. He could no longer argue since they had the legal paper to proof over their claims. He was stunned, and he did not know what to do, he was hopeless. He thought that at least he still had his soul, but no. Once he thought that he still had the property of his soul, a man came breaking the silence. “Please, stop that thinking! Your soul is no longer yours, here is the contract you now belong to me, and you will work, and fulfil my ambitions! Your arms, fingers, feet, head and every inch of your hair, your entire body, your thought, your voice, your dreams, your nightmares, your imagination, and your ambition is mine, you are no longer yours! ”

He looked down to the mirror, a mirror in the bathroom that was no longer his. He saw his skin turned dark, and his clothes became dirty. His mind became dull with no feeling and senses. His eyes stared without passions and no longer he possessed any drop of tears. His bones became fixed and stronger but his heart became weaker. His ears became larger and he heard much better than he used to, but his voice is no longer his.

His thought was a manipulation of his owners, his dream was their ambition and his hope became his nightmare. He could not change his clothes, could not eat food from his fridge, could not sleep in his bed and he could not watch his TV. His cloth was his skin, his food was their charity and his bed was the basement. So nobody would be molested by his smell during their sleeps. His TV was their vision and his news was their conversation. Is he alive? Did he cease to exist? No he just became invisible. People started to ignore him and did not want him in their side but they needed him.  He became a half-human body who no longer had definition for possession, dignity or soul. He became an alien, ignorant, uneducated and the prisoner in his own house. He is half death and half-alive. He was a half-human body. He was our reflection. 

Reza Adenan resides in Canada