It was the evening of another dark rainy day. The storm and the heavy rain had been catching up with each other over the past few days and had presented a dark and eerie overcast on the skies that was almost impenetrable for naked eye.

Yamir, the 6 foot 4 inches tall, heavily built 45 year old butcher was there right at the butchery corner of that hypermarket. Yamir had the luxury of viewing the fertile meadows visible from the window of the butchery. It always seemed that the fertile green meadows were boundary-less till the sight of the distant green mountain range. On that rainy day, Yamir tried hard to get a glimpse of the distant mountain range, but it was close to impossible as the thick dark clouds seemed to have opened a secret portal between the dark world and our world.

Yamir was planning his route back to his house as he anticipated heavy water logging in his usual route. While observing the weather curiously, Yamir thought deep inside his head to start from his work and reach home before it could get any worse. The extension phone rang hard - "briiimmm brrriimm.." and spoiled his planning and strategies. The intuition said attending this call might flood his plans, but his intellect said it could also pose a threat to his job which was recently under scanner. He had a family of four to feed, so risking the job was not on the menu.

He picked the call and was taken aback by the lousy voice of the store manager. The voice said, "I smell some evil plans of going home early. Coincidentally, we got an order. 25 pounds of Lamb chops from Mr.Tamura. They want it for dinner tonight. So please if you can rush your sorry brain and get to work, we can deliver our order. If not... Hehe.. You know the rest of the story well". End-of-call.

Yamir was disappointed. Dulled by his emotions, he assured himself that he certainly cannot negotiate with his boss as it's a matter of $350 and the fat business profit the store made for years from Tamura's family. He quickly buried his feeling and the popup of emotion under the cap and opened the knee-high door of the butchery. He put on the rain coat and headed bravely to the backyard of the supermarket.

As it was rainy, the drizzle of the rain was entering the livestock shed little by little. Two young sibling twin lambs inside the shed were feeling the wetness of the rain slowly. The young twin siblings were sitting near the door which gave way for the drizzle to exploit the shed. The young lambs were trying to turn their faces from the drizzle and saw each other with some sort of dismay. The head sheep of the flock was chewing soy-grass consistently in an addictive and never-giving-up manner. The young ones looked at the head sheep with hopeful eyes to place their plea to go further deep inside the shed. But the soy-addict was not in much interest to respond to the cribbing young ones. The young twin siblings continued to sit near the opening of the shed and received the drizzle to their tender faces.

Yamir had managed to wear a raincoat and braved the rain to reach the backyard. Even before he came near the shed, the lambs had detected his approach. There was an eerie cry from the head of the sheep flock. He has seen many lambs being taken from the shed. But he was not sure what happened to them.They somehow never returned back to the flock nor to the shed. The head was now sure that the arrival of Yamir always had a purpose as per the past. And was always resulting in the disappearance of a flock member. He tried to bleat hard in order to warn all the other souls. He bleated with full energy and sound so that the alarm would be understood by all and they could run to the corners of the shed. He never wanted anyone to go missing again for he was a silent but affectionate being.

All lambs got the message that something was wrong. The head never bleats so loud, if he does then some grave danger has come their way. The twin sibling lambs sitting near the door were shocked at the alarm. They could not understand the situation as it was new to them. Generally they sleep all night and jump out of the shed in the early morning to play joyfully and graze the grass to their heart's content. They used to play with each other and try to catch all the butterflies they could only without any success. The alarm from the head was panicky and was full of dread. The siblings thought going to the back corner could be safe, for they couldn't think of anything else during the emergency. They both ran as fast as they could and reached the far end of the shed's corner and leaned against each other's neck and felt a moment of safety and comfort. The siblings were happy that they got each other and so hugged each other making it airtight. The hug was like : "Everything is going to be alright soon.. This will be over".

Yamir opened the door of the shed, drenched in rain. Upon opening the door, he was surprised to see that all lambs are already running haphazardly. He thought, "How on earth these dumbos know that I am coming". He scanned through the flock of sheep very carefully. His eyes went through every single lamb in the flock. He looked at them carefully through his experience, assessing each lamb of their weight and the monetary value of each pound of their weight would yield. Pounds & dollars.. Time.. Rain.. Pounds & dollars, Rain.. Time.. Pounds & dollars.. The computing skill he gained through his experience of butchering thousands of animals, has finally given him the upper edge over the lives that can't make a conscious choice to live more.

He was now the God. Standing in front of a hundred lives. A power nobody can easily possess. A power to choose who will live to see another day and who cannot. He felt the supreme power and pleasure of being a human. He did have only one thing to worry. How to use his power, experience and computing skills into use and play the role of God. Simple task, yet a complex choice to make. If there was only one before the eyes, it would have been easy to choose. A few hundreds is certainly a complex choice to make. After a tiresome scanning and computing, his eyes zoomed and focused to the far end corner of the shed. Two young, tender lambs interlacing each other's necks and posing so quietly when every other lamb is running around madly across the shed. Yamir knew what he must do. He approached the far end corner and touched the tender twin siblings with his hard skinned hands...

Yamir needed only one among them and hence he chose the healthiest one from the twin siblings. His rugged hands held the mushy neck of the lamb who was hardly 3 months old in this vast wide world. The life which was created inside the Lamb's body must have had no idea that it must end so soon and blend into the Universe. But there it was, at the hands of a being who did not have a survival purpose to make the Lamb disappear from its existence from this world. Yamir gathered all 4 limbs of the lamb together and lifted it off the ground. "Bleeehhh", weakly bleated the lamb by seeing towards her sibling without a clue of what is happening around her.

The other twin lamb could not do anything to liberate her as there is no in-built aggression or strength to overpower the being who has the upper hand in all aspects. Unfortunately Mother Nature could not foresee that the Lamb's life would be abruptly taken by Yamir. Both the lambs bade goodbye through their eyes. Nothing could be spoken but the weak bleating which represented the farewell. Both lives of the twin lambs appeared together, came to earth together, lived together and experienced the joyful Life together. Somehow, one life is being taken away for a reason unknown to those innocent twin siblings.

Yamir continued to lift the helpless lamb and he went out of the shed's door. Till he exited the door, the eyes of both the twin lambs kept staring at each other with inaudible pain and excruciating emotions, only understandable to themselves.

Yamir and the lamb reached the butchery. Yamir removed his raincoat, placed the lamb on a table and quickly tied her 4 limbs together. He went to grab the energy drink from the vending machine as he was feeling a little weary. The lamb looked around the place. The place looked weird and there was a strange stench. It was the smell of "death". The place was filled with the smell of death yet untraceable by Yamir's 5 senses. The transformation of energy after death is certainly not perceivable by the 5 senses of human beings.

Yamir sipped the energy drink and calmly sat on the chair before the lamb and watched the creature. He did not feel anything, not a single emotion about the lamb. He was at work and this was his job. He was selling death but the buyers only bought the flesh of the dead carcass. The practice of selling death has made his senses and intellect become unaware of Life. Selling death meant only pounds & dollars to him. He finished his energy drink and assessed the weight of meat the Lamb's body is going to yield. In another table, he quickly arranged the tools required to make meat out of this Live animal's carcass.

Yamir took the lamb to the corner of the butchery for the slaughter. He held the sharpest knife among his tools and approached the lamb to make the initial cut to its jugular vein in neck. As he was ready to swing the knife, he suddenly felt dizzy and experienced increased palpitations. An acute and intense pain occurred in his chest and he fell down with extreme chest pain. It was due to the energy drink he was consuming daily for years.

While falling down, he fell in such a way that he could see the eyes of the Lamb at the slaughtering box. Yamir felt so helpless and could not make even the simplest sound. He felt as if he had no voice at all and was trying to scream with absolutely no result. Nobody from the hypermarket saw Yamir falling and thus nobody came to even notice his fall.

The life inside Yamir was preparing to leave Yamir's body. He could feel it and was trying to negotiate with his soul to stay inside his physical body. As he never understood the language of Life before, he understood only the language of death. He could understand that death was nearing him but could not do anything to make his Life stay back. The Life inside him was slowly moving from the inner core and was trying to escape outside his body. He could not do anything to control this movement.

Yamir's eyes could see only one thing throughout, the eyes of the Lamb. The way Life was leaving him without his control, and the way Life was still sticking to the Lamb, Yamir could not understand the situation precisely. Yamir could not make any voluntary sound. Even though he attempted to squeak, it was inaudible to any human around that place. He could not move any of his body parts. He now felt exactly as helpless as the Lamb. The same manner in which numerous animals tried to cry for help and he ignored them, his voice was not heard nor he had any strength to fight the Life or death situation. In that moment of justice and truth, it was "death" for the great big powerful human being Yamir and "Life" for the poor Lamb.

Yamir's soul finally escaped through the chambers of his body and started to float into the expanse of thin air. The same thin air which bore the death of thousands of Lives killed by Yamir now has started to bear Yamir too. Yamir floated up and away. He still could not let go of the comfort of his physical body. He cried very hard and tried to swim back into his physical body. But now he did not possess the Life energy to swim back into the physical body. He floated up and away into the infinite universe. After floating through numerous dimensions and spectrum of non-physical mediums, Yamir reached a serene place where there was a huge gated wall like structure.

Yamir wasn't sure where he had reached and what world it was. He floated and approached the gate but he couldn't pass through. He was not aware of what was there on the other side of the gate. He waited and waited for eternity. He was static at a single point for an immeasurable period. Sadly he could not move back or pass through the gate. He witnessed that thousands of souls were passing through the gate. But he was stuck and soon grew tired of waiting.

After a miserable state of waiting, Yamir approached an old wise soul passing through the gate and begged for clarification. The old soul said "Son, you have taken thousands of lives without their willingness. Each Life wanted to experience its own physical form. Either as an animal, plant, an insect or a human being. But you assumed power in your hands and ceased that Life's existence and experience. The energy of those thousands of lives have transformed into some other form. Without all of their consent, you cannot pass through this gate. To pass through this gate, it is said that you should have not taken another soul consciously. If you have to return back to your body, only when someone sincerely prays for your Life, you may have the chance of returning back".

Yamir started to cry aloud for the state in which he was stuck. He repeatedly begged for someone to help him but he was stuck in the same place indefinitely. Yamir felt so miserable for his willful deeds of killing thousands of lives. His soul underwent severe wear and tear by waiting at the same place. He wished that if he gets a second chance, he will live a life without harming any beings.

In a moment, he heard a murmuring whisper of someone. Or something. He was not sure what sound it was but the murmuring sound was echoing all over the place. Perhaps it was audible only to Yamir. The sound of echoing whisper was husky and unrecognizable. It did not feel like a human voice. It was a strange sound which Yamir has never heard before. Next moment, he found himself staring at the Lamb eyes again. He also rolled his eyes around and found that the place looked like his butchery. But he had no idea of what was happening to him. But now he was able to move his hands and legs. Still he was able to see only the Lamb's eyes. Now he understood that he got his second chance. His sense returned and he was able to slowly get up. He quickly understood that the innocent Lamb had prayed for his wellness and so he was able to return back. The sound he heard near the gate, was the sound of the Lamb's silent prayer for the wellness of Yamir, who was just about to kill it and take the life for the sake of the meat.

Yamir came to his senses completely. Dream or death, he was not sure which one he experienced. When he came back to his normal state, he threw the knife off his hand. He untied the Lamb from the corner. He kissed the Lamb for her prayer and carried the Lamb in his arms like a newborn. He went to the backyard of the supermarket once again. Yamir opened the shed's door for the first time, not to take a life. He reached to the same place where the twin lamb was awaiting its sibling. He picked the other lamb also and wrapped up both of them cozily in his arms. On the way out, he purposely left the shed's door wide open.

Yamir walked straight to his boss and said: "Hey Boss. Listen, I have got a second chance to live with all living beings equally. I learnt a hard lesson today. I am quitting this job as a Butcher. I think tonight Mr.Tamura and his guests can survive without my lambs.." He then paid the manager for the twin lambs and loaded the siblings onto his truck. He started the truck with true happiness on his face and he drove back home before the heavy rain !!

"All beings of this universe are born with different forms, but of equal significance. Any one specific species does not have absolute power over Life and death. All beings are connected through their Life energies. Any unnatural acts will only bring imbalances to nature with immeasurable penalty to be paid. In the name of survival, we must never assume power over nature and other beings."

--Guruprasad--