The Gray Man

Gray. These days, that color was all he saw, all he felt, all he ever thought of. The morning

sunlight he woke up to was gray, a dreary color that made him want to go back to sleep and

never wake up. His morning coffee was gray – such an unremarkable shade and taste that he

was surprised he could still drink it. The commute to work aboard the city bus was as gray as

ever, filled with nothing but fellow office workers in crisp suits and tightly-clasped briefcases.

The work day, gray as it usually was, ended as tediously as always – being stuck working

overtime to make up for the mess his colleagues made. However, the Gray Man never had the

energy or the will to confront them of this and instead preferred to silently do the work and go

home as uneventfully as possible. That way, his routine would never deviate. If it did, long-

forgotten memories might just resurface, ones he put extra effort into forgetting.

After all, this world of his, devoid of color and utterly lifeless as it was, has remained in this

state of discontinuity for longer than he cared to know. Ever since that day, time itself seemed

to have started playing on an endless loop that he couldn’t escape from. The Gray Man, for

whichever reason, hadn’t had a single thought as to the possibility of this cycle breaking one

day. He subconsciously assumed that he would be walking the same steps every day for the rest

of his life – whatever remained of it anyway.

One Tuesday, on a chilly November day, the endless time loop he had been stuck in broke in

ways he could have never imagined.

 The first thing that changed was how he started the day. Instead of waking to the gray skies

and bland coffee as he did every day, he woke up to the sounds of drills and machines. After

throwing his comforter to the side of the bed, he stood up and glanced out the window only to

find a sight he hadn’t expected. A company of construction workers had set up below the

apartment building, remaking the sidewalk. Suddenly, he realized he hadn’t heard his alarm go

off.

The few seconds in between this realization and the checking of his alarm clock was filled

with a slowly building panic. The Gray Man had almost strayed from his routine, and this

thought of change had filled him with a vague sense of anxiety. He picked up the clock only to

see that he had overslept by ten minutes. This sudden, unexpected occurrence had not been

one he would have ever thought possible. By the natural course of life, and through no one’s

fault, his monotony had shattered.

Now, one might think that ten minutes is certainly not enough of a change to cause a panic

in the Gray Man. But it was. Because every single day, he woke up at 6:30 A.M. on the dot, and

every single day, the prompt bus driver arrived at 6:45 A.M. It didn’t take the Gray Man long to

get ready since he usually prepared everything the night before. However, he had never gotten

ready in only 5 minutes. He wasn’t ready for this change, and he was so dumbfounded he

barely remembered to get ready for work anyways.

However, the Gray Man was determined that he would keep his day-to-day life exactly the

same. Therefore, with a speed he never knew he had, the Gray Man got ready for work. But in

his rush for the morning bus, he neglected making his coffee, horrible as it was, and instead

darted out the door as soon his briefcase was clasped. As he sped-walked to the bus stop just a
block away, he glanced at his wristwatch and saw that he had managed to get ready in four

minutes. Although he had a minute left, he didn’t let his guard down, and instead broke into a

light jog. Soon enough, the sounds of construction had dulled along with his anxiety.

The Gray Man breathed a sigh of relief when he managed to make it to the bus stop without

incident. Looking to his left, where the bus always came from, he saw that it was just a few

seconds away. When it stopped in front of him, the Gray man climbed on and took his usual

seat in the middle. Before he knew it, he felt all the adrenaline he had experienced just a

minute before draining out of him like water down a funnel.

As the bus started up again, its engine roaring silently beneath him, the Gray Man slowly felt

his eyelids becoming heavier. As he watched the scenery pass in shades of muted colors, he

slowly felt his eyes closing more and more often. He had a fleeting thought that this fatigue

might be due to foregoing his coffee, but he couldn’t get another word in before his eyes closed

and the gray faded to black.

The first thing he heard was the engine of the bus rumbling beneath him as it did earlier. His

mind was slowly climbing out of its unconscious state, and as it was, his senses started

returning one by one. He felt the heavy machine humming beneath him, smelled its stale air,

and then blinked his eyes open with a sluggishness he usually only reserved for weekends.

After a minute of staring blankly at his surroundings, letting his mind catch up to his sight,

the reality of the situation hit him like a freight train. He sat up quickly, getting a short dizzy

spell, before stumbling out of seat. He walked through the aisles of empty chairs, noticing that

any office workers that would have been there were gone. Although he knew what the most
likely scenario was, the Gray Man was still in desperate denial, not wanting for the inevitable to

be true. He quickly reached the bus driver and asked him with hurried breaths where they were

and how far that was from his workplace. After hearing the response, the Gray man laughed to

himself in disbelief. The chances of him making it on time for work were slim to none at best.

He walked back to his seat, stumbling even more than before. The bus suddenly veered a sharp

left and the Gray Man fell into his chair, not fixing himself from his slouched position.

The Gray Man didn’t know what to do – what to think or what to feel. He stared blankly out

the window, trying his best to not let his steadily rising anxiety levels get to him. However, such

a thing was not one stopped due to will alone, and so the Gray Man grasped his briefcase and

got off at the next stop.

After glancing around a bit, he found that he had gotten off at a small town just outside of

the city. Past its bustling townspeople and busy morning market was the looming figure of a

bridge connecting two sides of a river, one end of which was just a few streets away. But the

Gray Man would have never gotten off at this stop had he known this bridge was here.

Abruptly and without any warning came the crashing sound of his memories bursting into his

mind. Such times were ones he would take to his grave – memories he would gladly forget if

given the chance to. Although he didn’t want to recall such dark times, it seems his mind

wouldn’t let him. He had no choice but to stand and watch.

The softly falling snow, little puffs of white in the winter air, fell around the Gray Man in such

a way that he cursed the universe in all its irony. The crescent moon above him was surrounded

by beaming stars, most of which were covered by the smog and light emitting from the city just
a few minutes away. As a harsh wind came and pushed against him, the Gray Man found

himself wobbling on the thin handrail covered in spotty bits of ice.

Although he was here, doing this, the Gray Man still found himself desperately wishing to not

fall into the hands of death. However, that would all depend on whether his body hit the icy,

tumbling river below him or not. Whether he made that step into the abyss. He gulped, hearing

the rush of blood in his ears and feeling the adrenaline coursing through his body. Could he

really do this? Or was he too much of a coward? It’s not like he had anything to live for anymore

anyway. Anything he had that he held dear was already six feet under, a depth that gripped

onto the remains of his heart as well.

The Gray Man took a deep breath, resigning himself. He would do this – he had to. He didn’t

have anything to live for anyway, and the sooner he found himself buried, the sooner he could

be with them.

But it would seem like fate had other plans. Before he took the plunge, he heard pounding

footsteps and then felt someone grab his arm and yank him off the railing. Although the Gray

Man managed not to fall on his head, he still landed on the harsh bite of concrete. When he

looked up, he found a pair of blazing hazel eyes staring at him with enough anger to force the

Gray Man to completely forget about what he was doing before and never think of it again. The

reason why eluded him.

The Gray Man was snapped out of his stupor when he heard some distant calls directed to

him. Blinking a few times to clear his head and remember his surroundings, the Gray Man then

looked to wherever the calls were coming from only to find a storm of a woman hurtling herself
towards him. His eyes widened, not knowing how to process what was happening, but before

he could ask what she was doing, the woman reached him and grabbed his arm. She sharply

yanked him away from the road, panting with heavy, deep breaths.

He glanced towards where he was just standing only to see a bicyclist yelling out at him

before swiftly riding away. His mouth opened in incredulity, realizing how close he was to

crashing into him. He turned towards the woman to thank her only to find that fate had played

an amusing game.

It was her. Those hazel eyes that were lit with a fire that hadn’t dimmed in the years since he

last saw her. The thing he found absurd was how she had saved him in the exact same way she

did last time. With a sharp yank of his arm and a fierce stare. He laughed a little to himself,

wondering how this meeting was even possible. He had only ended up here due to a misheard

alarm, and yet, he was meeting the only person responsible for his still beating heart.

Any other person would have ignored him both times, not bothering to care about the life of

a person they had no affiliation with. But she, a total stranger, cared enough about his life to

save it twice. He shook his head with a small smile, grateful for whichever turn of events led

her to that lonely place years ago. When he looked at her again, the Gray Man found that she

was staring at him with a stunned look on her face, mouth gaping. The light of recognition in

her eyes told him that she likely remembered him from that night.

Without a word, the Gray Man opened his briefcase, taking out a business card and handing

it to her. He didn’t know why he did so. He had never given out his card unless it was for work.

The Gray Man only knew that he wanted to know this woman that saved him. And so, he found

himself hoping that he would hear the ring of his cellphone in the next few days.
 As she fumbled with the card and gave him a curious look, and he smiled softly. She was

bright, like the rays of the sun. For a brief moment, he thought he saw green leaves dancing in

the wind and blue waves crashing against the distant beach. But it was gone before he knew it,

before he could truly treasure it. His world had turned back to gray. But the Gray Man could tell

that the woman standing before him had caused that welcome distortion.

The Gray Man remained gray. His world remained gray, as did his day-to-day life. The one

thing that truly changed on this November Tuesday is the introduction of the woman that

tainted his grayness with her vivid color and changed him in ways he never expected.