By Areej Khan

People often say that the night was young. I didn’t really understand the meaning behind this phrase until that one night I spent. I can’t really say that my made perception of this phrase is right but it is for me. Depressed is a strong word but there are times when people feel low without any reason which actually is very normal. At those moments, we need time for ourselves. That night was the time when I was feeling quite disquiet, and anxious. I just wanted to get out of my place away from everyone.  What better option was than to travel to the streets of night roads to calm my uneasy heart?

There is a saying, ” The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God”. Nothing could express my emotions better than this sentence that night. It was cold and warm at the same time; it was dark with the brightest stars in the sky. The night was young and the road was long, it felt like it would never end.

I had no destination in mind, I was just going into the night on the long road without any worries in my mind. Without awareness of the road or the rain, my car moved over the highway, lights on full beam.  I observed how the yellowed yet blazing gleam danced in the droplets. This was my time to let my brain roam the tree and my heart explore new peaks of relaxation, even as the city became closer while I was traveling on the night roads.

The road that was pitch black and dark in the daybreak just melted into the dullness of the night. When a car passed by, its headlights were reflected in the water that lay over the surface. My eyes were watching the frost growing over the windows as the car was keeping me warm. As I reduced my speed, I watched the crystals grow for a while, allowing my brain to be empty, content to exist, and watching my breath rise as new white puffed clouds. The cold night was giving me a reason to draw closer to myself.

As the light downpour was coming to an end, the night sky was such a welcoming sight, appearing like enchantment at every nightfall, promising to return as she faded in dawn’s first light going in the streets. In the darkness, I wondered about those faraway stars and how they would return after the shadows blended into the dark.

The road was so deserted that it felt like it was left that way, forgotten and erased by the passage of time. It was me with my thoughts, the stars, the light rain with cold air, the lonely road. I could say that the night was pretty young.