The killer

Hours of laughter, banter and many rounds of rummy later my dad unwittingly left me shaken. My friends and family had thoroughly enjoyed our night of gambling and these friends were going home. My parents were going back to kerala the next day. So a usual farewell routine was being enacted. Only my dad got very emotional and looked at my friends and their son as if it were the last time he would be seeing them. He shook their hands and said, 'till we meet again'...and I could see it in his eyes and sense it in his voice that he was almost sure he would not meet them again. I felt a wrenching pain and stood mute witness to a 71-yr-old man's feelings. The fear of death looming larger than ever and so near....Time...the meanest, cruelest enemy. I look at the clock with dread. It is the villian that makes a man die a thousand deaths before he is dead. And then people say-nothing is in our hands...yes I stare at my hands and realise they are empty