The Note
Monday mornings were always evil for everyone, if not for everyone you feel but for our hero it is.
Kaaljeet had believed this for twenty-six years, and every Monday gave him fresh evidence of evilness. His alarm clock screamed at 6:00 a.m.
He slapped it.
But it survived.
Unfortunately.
Dragging himself out of bed, he stumbled toward the kitchen of his tiny apartment. His hair looked like a bird had tried to build a nest in it and then given up halfway.
( Aren't you thinking why he stumbled toward the kitchen and not the toilet at the earliest morning..., you moron he has nothing to lose.)
As he reached for the coffee jar, something on the table caught his eye.
A piece of paper.
That was strange.
Kaaljeet lived alone.
Unless his landlord had finally figured out how to enter apartments without making creepy noises, nobody should have been inside.
He picked up the note.
Three words were written in bold black ink.
Congratulations, Kaaljeet.
He frowned.
"Did I win something?"
He turned the paper over.
Nothing.
Disappointed already. Then he continued reading.
You have been chosen to save the world.
(said 3 words and ended up writing 10 - Congratulations, Kaaljeet. You have been chosen to save the world.)
Silence.
Kaaljeet blinked once.
Twice.
Then he carefully placed the note back on the table.
"Nope."
He walked away.
Five seconds later he came back.
The note was still there.
"Still nope."
He picked it up again and inspected it closely.
No company logo. No signature. No instructions. No prize money. Most importantly, no explanation.
What kind of scam is this? He muttered.
His phone buzzed.
His best friend Maranjeet had sent a message.
Maranjeet: Running late again?
Kaaljeet: Someone wants me to save the world.
The reply came instantly.
Maranjeet: Cool. Save my job too while you're at it.
Kaaljeet smiled.
At least someone was being reasonable.
He tossed the note into the trash can and got ready for work.
By 8:30 a.m., he was squeezed inside a crowded bus heading toward downtown.
The world seemed perfectly normal.
People complained about traffic.
Students scrolled through social media.
A baby cried loudly enough to wake the dead.
No signs of global danger anywhere.
See?
The note was nonsense.
By lunchtime, he had completely forgotten about it.
That was when things became weird.
Very weird.
Kaaljeet was sitting alone in a small park near his office, eating a sandwich and wondering why mayonnaise existed.
Suddenly, a shadow fell across the table. A very large shadow.m He looked up. And nearly swallowed his tongue. A pigeon stood in front of him. Not a normal pigeon. This pigeon was enormous. It was nearly as tall as he was sitting down. It wore black sunglasses. And somehow looked annoyed. The giant bird stared at him.
Kaaljeet stared back.
The pigeon sighed. "You are Kaaljeet Sharma, correct?
The sandwich slipped from Kaaljeet's hand. The pigeon watched it fall.
"Every time," it muttered.
Kaaljeet jumped to his feet.
"YOU TALKED!"
"Obviously."
"Pigeons don't talk!"
The bird tilted its head.
"And humans don't choose pineapple on pizza. Yet here we are."
Kaaljeet looked around wildly. Nobody seemed alarmed. Nobody was running. Nobody was screaming.
A giant talking pigeon was standing in a public park and everyone was acting like this was completely normal.
An old man even waved at the bird. The pigeon nodded politely.
"What is happening?" Kaaljeet whispered.
The bird adjusted its sunglasses. "I am here because of the note."
Kaaljeet froze.
"The note?"
"The one about saving the world."
Kaaljeet suddenly remembered throwing it away. I thought it was fake. It wasn't.
"Of course it wasn't," he said sarcastically. "Because giant pigeons are apparently real."
The pigeon looked offended.
"We prefer the term Avian Strategic Operatives."
"That's somehow worse."
The bird ignored him.
"Listen carefully. The world is in danger."
Kaaljeet laughed.
Actually laughed.
The pigeon waited patiently.
When he finally stopped, the bird asked, "Finished?"
"Sorry. You're serious?"
"Completely."
"The world is ending."
"Potentially."
"And a giant pigeon is telling me this."
"Correct."
Kaaljeet rubbed his forehead. He was either dreaming, hallucinating, or having a medical emergency. None of those options were encouraging.
"Why me?" he asked.
The pigeon opened a small electronic tablet hidden beneath its wing. It tapped the screen. A few seconds passed. Then a few more. Finally it looked up. "We're not entirely sure."
"What?"
"There may have been a clerical error."
"A clerical error?"
"Possibly."
"You chose the wrong person to save the world?"
The pigeon checked the screen again.
"Hmm."
"That's not reassuring."
"No, it really isn't."
For the first time, the giant bird looked genuinely concerned.
Kaaljeet suddenly had a terrible feeling that his day was about to get much, much worse.And unfortunately, he was right.
