CHAPTER FIVE: CAPTIVE!
This conclusion changed everything for everyone in the house! When they returned home, their faces as gloomy as the night of a dark moon, my uncle finally decided to personally confront my aunt and get the answers to those questions that kept defying logic. And that, sparked off the fire! Most of us were not privy to this dialogue between the husband and his wife, so all of us, including both my parents, were waiting outside of House 1, with bated breath and sweaty palms. Nobody said a word, while some even tried to overhear the dialogue going on between the two, but to little avail.
Soon, we could hear high-pitched voices and the sound of things being thrown around. My dad rushed in to help, and found the situation far worse that what he had anticipated from the outside. My aunt, with a firm grasp on the throat of my uncle, pushed him away with such ferocity, that he lost his balance and tumbled over to the ground. It also seemed, that during this fall, he had taken a knock on the back of his head and felt too dizzy to recover immediately. My aunt then turned and saw my father at the door. There was something in her eyes, which made my father instantly call out for help. Everyone waiting outside rushed in at this point, and somehow, I managed to squeeze myself in as well, pushing through the anxious crowd. What we saw at first glance, was as scary as it was unbelievable!
My aunt was standing there and growling at us, her eyes were blood red, her hair completely disarranged, her sari dishevelled and almost falling off from her body.
But there was something else about her, that intimidated all of us even more. As she growled something incomprehensible at us, we realised that the voice we heard, did not sound like my aunt’s voice at all. In fact, it was harsh and deep, and sounded almost like that of a man’s!
We exchanged glances at each other, as no one seemed to have a clue of what should be done. Someone from the crowd, once again it was Dulal, the industrious teenage son of the landlord, took a step towards my aunt while she was looking the other way, as if to catch her from behind. My aunt spotted his movement and swiftly turned around to face him, and shouted the words “Morte chash?” (“Do you want to die?”).
The voice was unmistakably that of a man’s. My aunt did not make an aggressive move, or advance towards anyone in the crowd, instead, she stood her ground and growled at anyone who made the slightest movement. This seemed to be her defensive posture, but it was threatening enough for everyone in the crowd, prompting most of us to take a step back, and feel a wee bit safer. My father observed this backward movement from the crowd and with a very commanding voice, asked us all to leave the room and wait outside. Some in the crowd, particularly the young Dulal, were not so agreeable to this idea, but the stern look on my father’s face made them realise, that it was not something that was open to negotiation. My aunt kept a watchful eye, as all of us, barring my father and my uncle, slowly left the room and took our positions about 5-8 meters outside, ready to barge in again, if deemed necessary.
My uncle was still on the floor at this point, but he had recovered to some extent, from the blow to his head, by then. He gradually lifted his head and tried to sit up and noticing this, my father crouched down and helped him sit up, and then provided him with the support needed, to stand him up on his feet. My aunt looked straight at them and with her new harsh and manly voice, shouted some profanities at them. My uncle was bemused, embarrassed and his eyes showed the signs of being terrified. From outside the house, we could now hear her words clearly, now that the door was open, and we could also see the forms of the two gentlemen near the door, although we couldn’t get a sight of our aunt, who was on the other side of the room, and therefore away from the door.
Amidst this ongoing verbal attack from my aunt, my father started pushing my uncle away towards the door, despite feeble protests from his brother himself. My aunt did not object to that and it seemed, being left alone was probably what she was seeking herself. She did pick up a glass made of stainless steel and threw it at them, something that further hastened the retreat of the two brothers through the door. A moment later, my father and my uncle were both outside the house with my aunt still shouting at them from the inside.
And then, my father did something that none of us, least of all my uncle, expected. With one swift movement, faster than the response time for my aunt, he latched the door from the outside. My aunt did not pre-empt this move, and was probably late by a fraction of a second, but as soon as my father latched it, there was a loud thud on the door as my aunt started banging on it so hard, that many of us feared the door might give way. My uncle was still in a protesting mode, as he was unable to come to terms with the fact that his wife was locked inside all by herself. But my aunt’s incessant loud banging on the door and the sight of the door shaking from the impact, gradually took away the strength from his objection.
My father, whose hands were still shaking from nervousness, put an arm around his younger brother and tried to explain with an apologetic tone;
– “She is now beyond our control and it’s too risky to let her walk around. She is a danger, both to herself and to the others!”
My uncle, looking very helpless, turned and kept staring at the door, which was quaking from the impact of the thumping blows landing on it. My aunt was heard shouting, in that hoarse voice of hers;
– “Amake jete de. Noile tora keu banchbi na!” (“Let me out, or none of you will live!”)
My uncle turned back at my father and suddenly broke into an unconsolable sob. My father wrapped his arms around him and consoled him for a while, and signalled the rest of us to take a walk and leave them alone. The landlord got the lead and immediately marshalled us all away towards the central area of the premises.
Almost ten minutes later, my father joined us with my uncle, who was still far from his usual self and was still very much, a very broken man. That night, nobody in the house had a proper appetite, although the kids were almost forced to eat something. But dinner, for the rest of the household, was merely a formality and no one had the courage, or the will, to ask my father or my uncle to come and eat something.
However, there was one person, who would have her dinner just like any other night, and it was my grandma. She had been surprisingly calm, despite being the first to panic, a couple of nights back. Being a widow, she was used to a vegetarian diet and that night, while munching on some fried eggplant with the background noise of continuous door thumping going on, she calmly instructed my brother;
– “Tell your father to talk to me; there is only one thing he can do!”
My aunt kept on shouting and banging on the door for at least another two hours or so, but before midnight, with a whole bunch of people forgetting their sleep, her voice seemed to die down eventually. It took a while for all of us to realise that there was a sudden silence, and it almost felt ominous. My father walked up to the door and put his ear against it, then in order to reconfirm, walked around the house and peeked inside, from one of the side windows. He found my aunt lying on the floor, senseless. He came back to the waiting crowd and announced with some relief, that there should be no further trouble for the time being, and suggested that we should all leave and catch up on some rest.
The crowd gradually dispersed, many walking away with a shake of their heads. Everyone had their own imaginative interpretation of the fiasco, and most if it had very little reasoning to it. My grandma was sitting on the steps of the landlord’s house this time and as people were walking past her, she called my father by name and he approached her right away. A few meters away, I could clearly hear her words to my father;
– “There is only one solution. Find an Ojha as soon as you can!” (An ‘Ojha’ in Bengal , is a common term used for people who exorcised evil spirits)
Coming up next: CHAPTER SIX
