Chapter 10
Hari did not say a word, but kept looking at her. The old man’s story kept coming back in his mind.
‘What do I know about this girl?’ he asked himself. The more he thought about her the more he realized that he hardly knew anything about her. All that he had seen of her was what was visible through the thick fog or on moon light nights. She was always alone and always came visiting at night. Why would a girl roam around alone in a forest?
“What are you thinking?” she said.
“Who are you?” Hari asked.
She did not answer but kept looking at him.
” Today my friend and I went to visit your father. We wanted to see the temple, your temple, the one you always talk about. We roamed around the forest for hours and found nothing. Then we met an old man, who told us a story”, Hari paused. “It was a story of a village, full of happy people. That was until a father and his daughter came to the village and tried to build a life here. Something happened to them, this father and daughter, something horrible and tragic. The old man said that the curse of that daughter destroyed the village. Can you imagine that an entire village destroyed for the sins of one man! Now you tell me, who are you? “
Sumangali did not say a word but stood there in the shadow, her beautiful eyes cast down. Then the wind started blowing. Hari could see a tear roll down her cheek. He kept quiet for it was now her turn to speak.
“He was a bad man,” she said after a long time and the tone of her voice changing. Gone was the sweet, singsong voice and it was replaced by a screechy, menacing tone. Slowly she looked up and her eyes were red slits and her brow furrowed.
“He was a bad man. He killed my father. He tried to misbehave with me. What should I have done?” she was now shouting. The voice echoed in the trees. The wind had picked up pace and was blowing with the intensity of a storm. The windows and the roof was rattling all over the house. The moon as if scared hid behind thick dark clouds that had come out of nowhere. All that Hari could see were two red spots where her eyes had been. They were glowing and pierced the dark and he could not see anything else. For the first time since he had moved to the house, Hari was scared. His legs started shaking and beads of perspiration formed on his head. He jumped down the steps and started running. In his fright he did not know where he was running. He tripped and slipped falling flat on his face on the mud path and fainted.
He dreamt that he was floating. No.. not floating but someone was carrying him. He looked up and saw that it was Sumangali. She was her normal sweet self, the Sumangali he knew. The Sumangali who laughed with him and brought him fruits and berries. She was talking in her singsong voice.
“Do you think you can run away from me? Please do not be afraid of me. I can never hurt you. I love you.”
The next morning when Hari woke up, he found he was in his room. The last thing he remembered was running in the darkness. There was a slight pain in his head, he touched his forehead and winced in pain. There was a swelling there from the fall. The events of the last night came back to him in a flash.
‘Was that a dream, or did all that really happen?’ he thought. It did not take him long to decide. He jumped up and started packing. Somehow, he lifted the two suitcases and struggled through the path towards the bus stop. He called up Vijay from the bus.
“Thank God, you are safe. Come to my house and stay with me for a few days. We will find some other place for you to stay. For the time being stay with me,” Vijay said.
He moved in Vijay’s house. They did not tell Vijay’s parents the complete story for they knew no one would believe it. Two weeks later an opening came up in a nearby housing complex to share a flat with a group of other youngsters as a paying guest. Hari moved in. The flat was at walking distance from his office. The friends never spoke about the house or what had happened there.
In office, the project was ending. The testing at the client side had passed with no major defects reported and the application moved to production. This marked the successful end of the project. Gopi was extremely pleased with the successful delivery of the project. It had been a long ten months for the team and celebrations were due. The team began planning in earnest. Suggestions ranged from dinner at a five star hotel to travel and stay at Goa. Finally, the team settled on a picnic followed by a dinner at a five star hotel. The spot chosen for the picnic was a waterfall, which was relatively close by and fitted the budget of the team. Gopi posted the details of the picnic spot and the name of the hotel on the ODC notice board. Vijay was one of the first to read the notice. He almost fainted.
“Do you know where we are going for the picnic?” he asked Hari.
“Some waterfall I heard” said Hari.
“Not some waterfall. Remember that waterfall ear the house you stayed. That is where we are going.”
Hari tried to avoid being on the team going for the picnic but Gopi would have none of it. Hari had been the star of his development team and there was no way he was going to excuse Hari from all the fun.
“Hari, you have to learn to relax,” Gopi said.
“Even I wanted to take the day off. Instead of coming for the picnic, we will come directly to the hotel for the dinner,” said Vijay.
“Nonsense, I want both of you there in the picnic. What is this? I am asking you to have fun and not asking you to work over the weekend and you are making excuses!”
Finally, the friends had to agree and join the group.
The picnic was on a Sunday and a bus had been booked to shuttle the group to the spot. Sunil and Manju sat separately and seemed to be enjoying the proceedings more than the rest. Their friendliness at times was getting too intimate and Gopi had a tough time keeping them under control. The rest of the team though had fun with their jokes and songs.
When the team reached the picnic spot, it was Vijay who told the group.
“Do you know there is a hut behind those trees? Hari used to stay there. It is a spooky hut right in the middle of the forest and he stayed there all alone,” said Vijay.
“Is that true, Hari?” asked Gopi.
“I was trying to save some money” said Hari as the group broke into a laugh. It had been almost two months since Hari had left the house but the memories were still fresh especially now that they were so close to the place. Sunil and Manju exchanged meaningful glances. An hut in the middle of the forest offered endless possibilities.
The two got up and slowly made their way to the back of the group. Gopi was expecting something like this from the start. Technically what team members did in their personal life was none of his business, but during this picnic, they were his responsibility. He was not letting these two spoil the outing.
“Sunil. Please can you come over here?” he asked.
“Shit,” said Sunil. Reluctanly he made his way towards Gopi.
“Come soon I will be waiting for you at the house” whispered Manju and walked in the direction of the house.
Manju had a tough time making her way through the shrubs and trees. Without an occupant, the forest had reclaimed the path leading up to it.
“Shit!” Manju said as a thorn tore through her sandal and pierced her feet.
“This was a stupid idea,” she said to herself. For a brief moment as she pulled out the thorn she contemplated returning to the group. Then she thought about what Sunil would say. How he would mock her and how the others would join in.
“No. No one makes fun of me. They will say I was scared,” she said to herself and walked up to the house.
‘He is such a loser,’ she thought as she imagined Hari living there. She could not imagine how anyone could live in such a run-down place, far away from the city, no running water or electricity.
The door creaked as she pushed it open. She pushed her way through cow webs that cris crossed the door. On the floor she saw remnants of recent habitation. A broken pen here a dirty rag there. She entered another room. The sun was shining outside but inside,
the house was full of shadows and dark places.
She looked at the wall and froze. There was a silhouette on the wall. It looked like it had a form, a distinct shape.
“It looks like a shadow on the wall, the shadow of a girl,” said Manju to herself and her voice echoed in the empty house. For a moment she felt scared. The shadow was sharp and she could clearly make out the nose and the even a pendent dangling from an ear lobe!
Then something strange happened, Manju felt as if she the shadow moved. Too fascinated to shout or run she watched as the dark shape began to bulge in the middle as if it was alive, as if it was coming out of the wall. Manju felt as if the world was spinning around her. She wanted to scream, to shout for help but no words come out of her mouth. She stood there transfixed, blankly staring at the wall. She saw the shadow coming out of the wall and floated towards her. It was made of millions of dust particles which were whirring and buzzing with a life of their own. The last thing Manju felt before she fainted was the shape enveloped her from all sides. She thought she could hear the buzz of bees in her ears, but there was nothing that she could do as she drifted off into un-consciousness.
“So Sunil, why don’t you share your experiences with the team?” Gopi asked.
“My experiences? Experiences of what ?” Sunil said.
“Your experiences on the Project. The good, bad you experienced on the project. Especially the bad ones,” Gopi said and laughed at his own joke.
“His experiences are more of the non-project variety. Not sure he would want to share them here,” Vijay said and immediately got a stern look from Gopi.
I … My.. “Sunil mumbled. His mind was elsewhere. Manju had been away for sometime and no one had noticed as yet. He could imagine her waiting for him in the hut, which they said was in the forest. He knew well the scent of her perfume and the taste of her lipstick. This picnic he was expecting to learn more. The last thing he wanted to do was share his experiences on the project.
Gopi kept Sunil busy with the main group and it was only when lunchtime came that someone noticed that Manju was missing.
“Where did she go?” Gopi asked and no one seemed to know the answer. Gopi ordered the team to search the area. A search in the immediate vicinity, draw a blank. The team regrouped. It was then that Sunil volunteered the location.
“I think there is a hut here where Hari used to stay. She must have gone there,” he said in a low voice.
“What ..why ?” Gopi was livid. “Hari please can you go and find if she is there. Wait we will all come with you. ”
The team slowly made their way through the clearing and finally reached the house. Hari and Vijay were leading the group but both looked as if they would rather be somewhere else. The house was exactly as Hari had left it. From a distance, they could see that the front door was open. As they came near, they saw something lying across the front door step. It was Manju. She seemed to have fainted on the floor.
“There should be some water here” said Hari and went towards his kitchen. In his hurry to leave he had left a few utensils behind. One of them had some water in it, he was about to return with it when he noticed something had changed in the room. It took him a minute to realize what was different now. It was the mark on the wall. The shadow on the wall, it had disappeared.
Manju remained unconscious for a whole week. There seemed to be nothing wrong with her and the doctors were puzzled. They were not able to explain why she was not regaining consciousness. They ran a battery of tests on her but drew a blank. Her mother has not been able to come and had asked one of her aunties who lived in Pune to be by her side. The aunty was surprised when Manu suddenly opened her eyes one morning, looked around and started speaking. The first thing she spoke was, “Where is Hari?”
Manju made a complete recovery and the baffled doctors, snow perplexed by her sudden recovery, permitted her to return to office.
At the office the project now completed, the team members were all on what the software industry referred to as ‘the bench’. This is a phase when the developers are not on any active projects and usually are free or on some training. Hari and Vijay, both were in the cafeteria. They were taking a well-deserved break after months of hard work on the project and laughing at a joke, when they saw someone coming towards them. It was a girl, who looked vaguely familiar. It was only when she reached their table that they realized that it was Manju. She was wearing a half sari. Her hair was well oiled and plaited back. She had glass bangles on her hands and a jasmine garland in her hair.
She came and sat next to Hari. She looked at him and said, “Didn’t I tell you that I would never leave you.” She was speaking in an old Malayalam dialect.
~~~
About the Author
Manoj Nair is a ‘weekend writer’ and is based out of Mumbai, India. The son of an Army officer, Manoj has travelled across the length and breadth of India. His stories and novellas are a reflection of life in India as seen through his eyes. Married with a college going son, when not writing he is a Senior Manager with a Software development Multi National. Read more of Manoj’s stories at https://www.shortstoriesforall.com/
You can also reach him at
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