CHAPTER TWO:
THE FIRST NIGHT!
Whenever we used to visit our uncle and his family, usually once in a couple of years or so, we would need to tinker a bit with the sleeping arrangements, in order to fit everyone in. So my grandmother (my dad’s mom, who stayed with my uncle then) was now sharing the main bedroom with my aunt, in the 2 BR house. My Uncle was using the other room, which was slightly smaller, in that same house, with my two cousins. My mom and my elder brother took up one of the single guest rooms, while my dad and I took up another of them. These were rooms 1 & 2, next to each other, while the third room was vacant and locked.
One night, I woke up to the loud screaming of someone, only to realise, that it was my grandmother. Initially it sounded like someone wailing, and I don’t think anyone could make out what was being said, or by whom. But then it started to become clearer, as the words “Bhoot Bhoot!” [ghost ghost] became more decipherable and then unmistakable.
My first reaction was to glance at my dad next to me, but he was already up, and had just managed to unbolt the door to our room. He looked back at me and finding me awake, whispered “Stay here!” and hurriedly left the room. I waited a few seconds before deciding that it was more fun in a crowd, and jumped up from my bed, put on my slippers and ran out of the room, without even bothering to latch the door behind me.
By that time, many of the residents of the premises had scrambled out of their beds, and had rushed towards the spot, with the curiosity to find out what had happened. My grandma was standing outside the 2 BR house, henceforth mentioned as House 1, and was shouting her mind out. My dad and my uncle were with her, trying to calm her down, but she was still screaming incessantly. When my dad asked her, probably for the third time, what was wrong, she ignored my dad and turned to my uncle, then waving her index finger at him, she announced “your wife has been possessed by a ghost!”
There was a collective gasp from the gathering crowd, most of it out of relief and amusement, and some even giggled audibly, mocking her as “an old lady who can’t sleep herself, and wants to keep everyone awake.”
Being pushed about what had made her think so, my grandma explained that she had seen my aunt “floating in the air” above her bed, and had ran away immediately from that “cursed room”. My uncle couldn’t hide his smile as he tried to calm her down, but my grandma wasn’t having any of it. She was calmer by then and had stopped shouting, but she was still far from admitting that it was her imagination and not her vision, which could see things.
To keep her sane, my uncle assured her that he will go back into the house and check it out for himself. He came back in a minute saying, “See? Everything is fine, she’s sound asleep” and then jokingly added, ”and on the bed, not in the air!” to which, there was a hearty jeer from the crowd of eight or so people. After this, they lost interest and started dispersing back to their own beds. It was almost 1 in the morning, pretty late for that time and age. But my grandma refused to go back to the same room, and insisted she would rather stay awake all night at the door steps. Seeing that it was too late in the night to argue about this, it was decided that a little rearrangement was necessary. My uncle agreed to share the main bedroom with my aunt, my mom moved to the other room with my grandma, the two cousins were bundled up with my elder brother in the guest room, while I remain with my dad, as before.
Once everybody had left, my dad was having his parting words with my uncle while I stood a few yards ahead, waiting to go back to our room together. That was when I heard him say, with a slightly concerned tone,
– “there’s only one thing that is bugging me, the whole house woke up due to this commotion, how come she was still asleep?”
My uncle nodded in agreement and said, “yes, I was thinking the same, something is wrong, she is such a light sleeper usually… let me keep an eye on her”
With that, he slowly walked back into the house as we walked towards the guest rooms.
It was around 3:10 am, the same night, when I was woken up again with a soft knock on our door. It was my uncle, and as my dad opened the door, he cautiously whispered,
– “something is surely wrong, she isn’t in her bed”!!!
Coming up next: CHAPTER THREE!
