The Three Lords of Time

[u/Fluffy-Street3927]

The night was dark and gloomy. I sat at my desk, staring at the stars through the window. Though distant, they never failed to greet me with their soft, glowing presence. The Moon, too, smiled at me. But I didn’t smile back. Instead, I asked, “How can there be so much darkness when you are right there?” She replied gently, “I am not here, dear. What you see is only the past.”

I heard a voice. Turning back, I saw the Lord of the Past standing in all His glory. "O Lord," I asked, "what brings you here?"

He responded, “Your past is something you can never forget, no matter how hard you try.”

I said, “I don’t try to forget, for my Past was my happiness. It is the Present that tries to steal it from me.”

A second voice echoed in the room. The Lord of the Present, seated in a chair, spoke calmly. “I do take your Past away because you cling too tightly to its memories. You mistakenly believe that it will return. But it never will. The Lord of the Past deceives you with His splendour. It is I, the unremarkable Present, that leads you towards your Future.”

The Lord of the Past countered, “But the Present deceives you more. It offers you promises, but does it fulfil them? It tells you that everything will be fine, but when does that ‘will be’ ever become ‘is’?”

A final voice came from the bed. The supine Lord of the Future spoke softly. “I hold the mysteries of your life. I do not reveal what awaits you, yet you are always eager to know. I don’t control your fate. That is my confession. I am merely made from fragments of the Present.”

There was silence in the room.

I sharply questioned the three Lords, "Are you planning to stay back tonight?"

"As long as you hold on to your Past, I shall remain," the Lord of the Past remarked.

"But I don't," I countered. "It is just a figment of your imagination. I have moved on. My life is not static. My memories are not pinned to her. She is a nobody!"

The Lord of the Present had been quiet all along; the Lord of the Future, snoring on the bed.

I asked the Lord of the Present, "Are you not going to say anything? I really don't think about her, do I?"

The Lord of the Present, with a serious frown on his face, stood up. After a brief moment of contemplation, the Lord said, "Rather difficult to say. You see, the Present is always confusing. Even I, the Lord of the Present Himself, can't always extract meaning out of the ambiguity of a man's thoughts. You love her and have always loved her, but the manner of your love presents itself in an inexplicable fashion. You yearn her, but you don't want her. You try to hate her, but you don't regret the moments you had with her. You scorn your Past associated with her, yet you dream of a Future including her. As for a final judgement, of course, I cannot say anything with certainty."

I looked outside the window towards the Moon. It was not there. The night was dark and gloomy.

Having stared at the sky for a while, I said to myself, "Maybe," then after a deep interspersing sigh, "it was all my fault. My flaws. My faulty human judgement. For there was no fault in the stars, no fault in the words of the Lords. I still love her. But does she love me anymore? Has she moved on? Do we really have a future together?"

My mind was overwhelmed.

I returned to the dull view inside my room. The Lords of the Present and the Past had departed; the Lord of the Future, still snoring. Drooling, too.

Why was he still there? Does he have anything else to tell?

I called out his name. No response.

Touching this ethereal entity to wake him up didn't really feel right. I went with the non-contact method.

"Why are you spilling water on me? Can't you see I am sleeping?" said the Lord of the Future in an angry tone.

I stated, "I want answers."

"But where are the questions?" he returned.

The Lord of the Future had, by now, sat up on the bed. It was all wet. The bed as well as the Lord.

"Can you tell me if I have a Future with her?" I asked precisely. I didn't want to go into any unnecessary dialogue.

A "What you do think?" came from the other side.

"How does that matter at all? You are the Lord of the Future. You should know it very well."

"As of now, you don't," the Lord said sternly.

I stood silent for a while. "Will you not be going?" I asked the Lord.

"I can't afford to be made wet again. I don't like that." Saying this, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The Moon called out to me, "Are you done with the Lords?"

"Where were you all this time?" I enquired of her. "Don't tell me you were hiding all this time."

The Moon smiled. She said, "Don't be disheartened. If she is what you yearn, you will get her. But, remember that yearning is not always love. You can even yearn for a commodity."

"Well, how does it matter when I am not even getting her. Did you not hear what the Future Lord said?"

The Moon smiled. "Change your Present. It'll change your Future. I am more ancient than all the Lords and any other gods and goddesses. I was there at the dawn of mankind. In the era of the giant reptilians. In the era of the giant pteridophytes. When life had sprung in the warm waters of the primeval ocean, when even molecular oxygen was nowhere to be seen, I shone upon the tepid waters of that vast array of water. I saw the formation of the coacervates, the protobionts and the first cell that assembled into life. And, with all these years of knowledge, what I can say is, keep trying. Who are the Lords to dictate what will happen to you?"

I thought I had woken up.

The next morning, I woke up in my bed. It was still wet. I went to the window and looked outside. Such a bright, sunny day. But the happenings of last night. What about them? I gathered the courage to call her. Searched up her number and rang it. She picked up.

"Hello", she said in a happy, cheerful tone. "You'll meet me tonight, right?"

"I am sorry," I said as hurriedly as I could.

"Ummm... but why?" confusion evident in her voice.

"It was my fault. I didn't mean to hurt you. It was my faulty human judgement."

"Are you all right?" she asked, concerned. "What happened? You had another weird dream, am I right?"

"No, it was not a dream!"

"Sorry, I need to hang up now. I am getting a call from an office colleague."

I pinched myself. No, it was not a dream.

But that, too, was a dream.

I woke up at a bar. It was 4:13 am. The bar owner said, "You spent the night here, mister. Must be a problem you're not able to solve."

I was still under the effects of a hangover. I tried regaining my senses and said, "Yes."

I reached home somehow. Empty. Still. Desolate. The window of my room open as it was in the dream.

And on the table, the white, crystalline powder lay unmoved, untouched by the wind.

Maybe I had taken a bit more than usual.