I did as I planned. I
managed to push the door free of its hinges to the wrong side outside. However,
the falling door failed to crush anyone under its weight. To my surprise and
horror, there was only that frail old sick lady outside, and she dexterously succeeded
in wriggling herself out of the falling door.
Eyes blazing, breathing
venom, hair and hands flailing and shrieking wildly the woman was dancing in a
seizure of insanity. “Give me money...give me food...you crooked fool!” I
failed to retreat inside, as if paralyzed by the spectacular dance of insanity
in front of me, as if trying in vain to analyze what it was all about. I lost a
few precious moments in the process. In those seconds the wild cavorting
spectacle in deadly throes took hold of a small iron table, and came rushing to
hit me. I pulled my mind out of wondering about how she could come to possess
so much of energy, so ominously potent, and concentrated on my next crucial
move.
My self defense
mechanism now turned to the attacking mode as I moved out in the open trying to
run around her eluding her, trying to tire her out and to catch the most
opportune moment to deactivate her. For the first time I was aware that it was
an open space, like a backyard, and there were few building blocks surrounding
the space. There were some heads and voices too in the lighted balconies of
some blocks, but no one tried to intervene or help either of us. You cannot
expect anything from these zombies; at the most they will take out their
mobiles, take selfies and enjoy, I mused bitterly as I ran around the space
with the specter giving a relentless chase. “Give me money...give me food...you
wretched devil!”
Perhaps there came a
divine intervention. In that seemingly endless run and chase, one moment came
to me when she was close enough to me on my right about to turn around to
confront me. I accepted that moment like the proverbial straw; caught hold of
her and the iron table using both of my hands, gave her an almighty shove and
ran headlong towards my room—through the broken door and through that enigmatic
door. Unnaturally powerful as she was, the frail lady could not take it this
time reeling, cursing and falling with a thud at the farthest side of the
space, the iron table on top of her. That gave me good enough time to seal my
protection.
I activated all the
locks available on that mysterious door, and sat down on the bed panting with a
rush of blood to my head. Shrill shrieks of the insane woman could no longer be
heard now. However, at this particular moment things again got a little
blurred, I had no idea at all why. At that particular moment I should have done
the most obvious thing—call up reception, report that emergency and urge them
to take immediate preventive steps. But instead, I only felt pangs of hunger in
my belly, and thought about taking preventive steps for that only. I looked at
my watch. Oh God...it was quarter past ten, no point calling the canteen now, I
thought despondently.
My mobile phone rang.
In the commotion I totally forgot about my phone which was lying abandoned at
the bedside table. Now that lively gadget somehow brought me a little closer to
reality, it seemed. It was Srijay flashing on the screen as I answered it.
“Sir, have you taken
your supper? Are you already in bed?”
“Neither. I forgot to
order on time. Few odd things happening here that I’ll tell you tomorrow at
leisure. For the moment I am famished and I don’t know what to do! No vehicle
available to venture out to the town.”
“Sorry to hear that,
Sir. Anyway, don’t worry. There is a joint, reasonably good, nearby. From the
main entrance of the guest house turn right and you’ll find it a hundred meters
away. I’ll accompany you if you want.”
“Thanks a lot, Srijay.
No...No..., you take rest. I’ll manage. Good night, see you tomorrow.”
For good or bad I was
not sure at that time, my hunger pangs got the better of me submerging my
earlier queer experiences into an understanding with reality. How I came out of
the guest house without confronting anyone in the reception I didn’t give a
thought to that time and neither could I remember now. The whys and hows in my
narrative were still refusing to reveal themselves, to my utter helplessness.
Anyway, I exited from
the guest house gate and turned right as instructed. The scenario puzzled me
quite a lot. As I remembered from my earlier visit or visits the guest house
was located in a small township of the institution with only a main road and
classroom and administrative blocks and staff quarters scattered around with
open spaces lined with trees. Coming outside now I found several other roads
connecting to the main road, and lots of lighted shopping or eating enclosures
all around. However, there were lonely stretches of maybe hundred meters each
on either side of the guest house. I
even found distant hills silhouetting a dim skyline opposite to the guest house
which was definitely no there when I came last. Queer thoughts creeping in
again I quickened my steps towards the eatery...
(To Be Continued...)
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