(Reading Time: 9 min Approx)
Alma saw the clock, 3 a.m. it is. She peeped from her blanket to catch a view of her room. The room heater was burning itself to the core but still it’s so cold. The pale moon light made the room look even darker. Sometimes, a light free from brightness can form the darkest darkness. Somehow, Alma managed to figure out the door knob. The light and shadow were as if in a mood for – hide and seek.
Oh! How she hated that game. She was always the one, left to find others. It feels hideous, when you know several invisible eyes are watching you; as if you’re the only one alive.
Alma opened the door and stepped in the corridor. The kitchen is downstairs thus she started walking very carefully because it was too dark to see. Her hands were searching in the air for the wooden railings of the staircase. Suddenly, she heard that cry. Her face turned pale as if there’s no blood left in her body. She stood there, in the dark, frozen. Yes, it’s that cry again. She’s crying again. It’s been 10 years now. Who left to cry for? Alma couldn’t move, couldn’t walk. It was pitch black. She saw something in that darkness.
A house… a wooden house and a little girl…her face is not visible yet. Alma wanted to rub her eyes to see clearly but couldn’t move her hands. That girl got off from her bed and started to walk towards the door. Yes…Alma can see her now. Alma knows her. It was little Alma, 10 years back on that night…that vicious night, she’ll never forget. Everything started to appear in front of her eyes as if, it’s all happening now.
Drops of sweat appeared on her forehead because Alma finally remembered. Today is that day…that day! On this day, 10 years back…! ‘Oh!’- Alma broke into tears as she started to remember…
Her room was on the upper floor beside her brother’s. Mother and father used to sleep down stairs at her grandma’s room. She was a new-born and her brother hasn’t been born yet when her grandmother died. Only in pictures she has seen her; inheriting an affectionate smile grabbing their white pet rabbit in her lap.
3:00 a.m. that night she rose up from her bed. Left the woolen blanket on the floor and went to get water. That was the third time, she heard that weeping; as if, someone was in real pain but can’t do anything without weeping.
She thought it was her little cat but found it sleeping on the doormat. With a juggled feeling of curiosity and fear, she searched the entire floor. The weeping stayed for sometimes and then it stopped. And then there was dead silence. Alma went to the kitchen had her glass of water. Just when she was thinking to go back she saw her. She was sitting under the stairs and weeping. Alma isn’t scare of the weeping anymore. The only thing that disturbs Alma is that, when the woman cries her eyes never blink. The woman stares back at Alma, and cries and smiles but never blinks.
Like every other night, Alma ignored her and went to her room.
Next morning waking up she heard a chaos suggesting something serious… something bad has occurred in their house. She walked through the corridor following the sound coming from her brother’s room.
She entered and saw her mother was crying out loud, near her brother’s bed. She walked close to the bed. Brother was lying, eyes closed, facing the celling of the wall. It seemed to her a very unusual way of sleeping but father told her-“Don’t disturb him dear…let him sleep peacefully”.
Today is that day, but in this 10 years Alma never heard that cry again. Everyone is gone now. Her brother, mother, father; She stays alone in this house. She couldn’t stop her tears thinking it was her fault. It was her fault that she didn’t wake up her parents to tell them about that woman.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming from her room. Is she coming for her now? Alma rushed to the stairs in that dark and tried to hide herself down the wooden steps. She tried not to make any sound but the footsteps were close. Someone was coming down the stairs. Alma closed her eyes in fear and the footsteps stopped. She slowly opened her eyes…she was panting, whimpering…who knows what will she see?
Her eyes were wide open! She couldn’t blink, couldn’t move. It was little Alma standing in the kitchen, looking right at her. Alma’s world went upside down.
Little Alma smiled and pointed at her.
Yes, it was Alma, who 10 years back chocked her little brother in sleep with his little pillow. She remembered now.
She remembered how she consoled herself all these years that brother was ready to go. That brother wanted too…needed too…!
We all need that eternal sleep; it is a relief, a rescue from the sin committed by self. How many times we have wished for a chance to rebuild or reconstruct something that has already taken place but what is left is just a memory either good or bad.
Our life bestows upon us a rainfall of incidents – some make us, some break us and some of them leave us in the perplexity of reality.
Alma’s mother couldn’t take the shock how a little boy died in his sleep. How can his heart just stop?
It broke her parents but not her.
Because she was happy…! She was happy claiming all their toys only her.
She was happy; unlawfully, contempt though but happy as her rite remained undivided…!
