THE SHADOW 

The boys had just come back from their two year boarding stint. I had chucked up my job to join hubby. We shifted back all together in the NCR, to a new place, a new house. We had come in before to check the place, the schools in the vicinity etc and had found all perfect. 

We shifted to a hotel in Delhi for a day or two, or was it three, before the luggage came in. Then it was two days of a tedious process of unpacking and setting everything. After that, it was time for the school admissions, uniforms, books, finding helps etc etc. By the time we settled down finally it was nearly a month. 

It was then, when I was alone at times, that I noticed a shadow whiz pass from the guest room, through the dining area, into the kitchen. 

The first day I thought that it was a cat. But the door to the kitchen balcony was locked. So the cat couldn't go out. I thought I had imagined. The next time I felt, I ignored. The third time around I thought it was one of the many pigeons around..but no it was not.

Slowly I started getting that eerie feeling and told the hubby about it. All three, that is the hubby and the boys had a good laugh. I stayed with that scary feeling inside, until after a few months the husband too sensed the passing shadow. Now I was really scared and would avoid staying alone. 

One fine day, both the boys, fresh out of boarding, naughty to the hilt, announced, " Okay mumma, tonight onwards we will sleep in the guest room." How much I tried, whatever I did to stop them failed. They insisted and went to sleep there, in the guest room. Now, kids that they were, they had seen some ghost movie, wherein powder was sprinkled to trace the presence of something. My courageous sons did the same and sprinkled talcum powder all over the floor. I could hear their laughter till very late.

In the morning I woke up pretty early when it was still dark to see the elder one awake. On seeing me he said that he felt very heavy and could not sleep. Could not even move out. As I spoke to him, I saw strange marks on the powder on the floor, as if somebody ran a finger through it. I felt cold, but thought may be it was because of the ceiling fan above. 

The next day they again slept, this time around the elder one was really scared. He woke me up saying that someone called Suresh was asking him for a chocolate. I panicked and called the temple Pandit ji home. I narrated everything to him. What he said was enough to numb me.

He said that it was a very normal thing in the campus. He asked me whether I had noticed that every flat had at least a bulb on at night. This was because that entire area was a part of an old village and bodies were cremated in that part where our campus was and that this phenomenon of a shadow and much more was very common. 

When he sensed that I was scared to the bones, he asked me whether there was any harm done. My reply was in the negative. He said," Do not worry then. Let him/her move at his/her will. Do not ever disturb. Keep a light on at night." To the boy he said ," Beta buy a chocolate and give it to someone." 

The next day the boy comes home from school. As soon as I open the door he says, " Mumma guess what? I gave the chocolate to the bhaiyya at school. He was cleaning. He had one eye. When I asked him his name...he said Suresh!" I froze..!!

I cannot explain the 'whys' and 'why nots' to my readers here. We lived in that house for quite some time. We were happy and did well living there. The shadow would move back and forth from the guest room to the kitchen and back. I was not scared but yes my dogs ( whom I got after moving in) would always sit up and start looking whenever the shadow passed.  

©®Madhumita