Story - "The wall"

It had been two days since he was out of home. He was off with friends to satisfy his new craze called trekking. He had all the fun too. He roamed around in the deep jungle, sat alone on the riverbank at midnight in moonlight watching shining dark water and had even invoked Evil spirits. Perhaps too much of thinking of good and evil remained somewhere in the corner of his mind.

When he reached home it was 3 O’ clock in the morning. He came inside, took off shoes and went to bathroom to wash face before he hit the bed. It could have been the tiredness due to travel or slumber for half of the 11 hour travel had, he failed to catch sleep for some time. In such cases he would normally resort to facebook. So spent some half an hour on it while lying in bed.

Suddenly he remembered something. Some change. His house wasn’t the same two days back. When he came back from the trip, he hadn’t switched on the lights but had observed it in the zero light. Something looking like a wall had emerged right at the centre of the hall. He went out, switched on the lights to see it properly. It was a brick wall. Some one had already tried to paint it nicely too. On that short wall which divided the hall in to two parts, some vases were kept, some photos were hung (could be his own) some never-seen-before paintings adorned. He thought it looked similar to the small hall of the Government quarters he had seen in his childhood which he always loathed for its foul smell, squabbles between couples happening there. 'Having spent such a big money on buying apartment, spending extra money for hiring an interior decorator to embellish it, doesn’t all that concern these people at home?' he thoutht, 'that they are up to spoiling it ruthlessly?' He knew he had a kind of self induced OCD that had made him categorically particular about keeping things at their places and was strict with kids against scratching walls. In such scenario, how could he tolerate something being built right inside the house without his permission? He called his wife.

She bore an unusual expression on her face that he couldn’t figure out whether it was like 'what the heck at this unearthly hour?' or 'fool, didn’t you see it before?' type.

“What’s this, such a change in two days? Who has done it and how, can you explain me?” he asked her angrily. “Don’t you know how dear is this house to me, and so didn’t you realize it is your responsibility to ask me or tell me before you could do this?“ He mumbled. Yes, it was no more than mumbling. She looked at her mom who had woken up to his voice. “See mom, didn’t I tell you that he wouldn’t like it?” That’s it. He only remembers walking out of house angrily.

 He started wandering around the apartment, going wherever his legs took him. People were walking here and there. Some people were swimming in the pool….”Oh! what’s this! Where did the old swimming pool go?” he wondered in his mind. This was much bigger pool than before. New designs, tiles, different colored flower vases attracted his attention. He waved to an acquaintance that didn’t appear to notice him. He had another thought exploding in his mind, 'how come all these are awake at this hour and having fun in the night?' He continued walking where his legs dragged him. 'Things have changed, everything has changed. Here used to be an empty space' he thought, 'now there is a temple, perhaps of Shiva, but the builder was Christian no? Why is he showing off his pseudo secularism?' he continued. 'This appears to be emergency clinic, those tall trees along the pathway, these weren’t there either….. ' he wondered whether it was his apartment. Yes undoubtedly it was. 'How come this is all possible in mere two days?' Suddenly he thought of looking at his own face in the mirror. Searched for the mirror here and there but it was nowhere to be found. A bizarre suspicion hovered around his head. About self, about his own age. A tumult that ‘whether my mind has entered someone else’s body’ or a disquietude that ‘whether my body has been possessed by someone else’s mind’. ‘Could this be a 20 years long Coma?’ he feared. ‘Or, have I become a ghost?’ he rejoiced in mind, facying what all can be done if he was a ghost.  With all these questions in his mind, he developed this pining desire for a mirror and started running in search of that. It was drizzling. He increased his pace. Next to him some elderly person was taking morning walk. Something struck him!! The old man must have been at least 20-30 years older to him. He had cavernous eyes and athlete cheeks. Old man looked at him while walking. He appeared to walk faster than this guy!  He tried saying something to the old man. No, there was no voice coming out. He tried putting his hand on the geezer. He was shocked and starting trembling like an open live high voltage wire to see that his hand pierced through the old man’s shoulder and he was still standing there! He panicked. He continued running, turning to his house. Since there were many changes in his apartment, it took him quite some time to find his own house. He entered the house, went straight to the bed and dozed off.

Suddenly he woke up to the sound himself made. It was an involntary ‘husshh’ coming out of his mouth. Immediately he felt shy, angry on himself. He used to tease his kids the next morning whenever they talked in dreams. At that thought there was a smile also flashed on his face. He got up, drank water, went to bathroom and came back to sleep. He wondered, was that all a dream? Yeah it would have been one. But why such a dream? Why the fear? ‘I should write a story about this dream’ he thought.

It may be 11 O clock in the morning. He had sent an sms to his scretary saying that he wouldn’t make it to the office that day. His sleep was disturbed by frequent calls from his customers. He got up and went to the bathroom to take bath. His shoulder was aching as he couched on one side of the body. His head was heavy with headache caused by the voices of his friends ringing inside and stomach was squealing with hunger. While taking bath, one again his thought was diverted to the dream. ‘What kind of dream was it?’ ‘Who was that man?’ ‘Why he was walking like that?’ ‘How was it possible for him to walk faster than me?’ ‘Has my house really changed?’ ‘Oh my, as soon as I woke up I should have checked the hall again, how fool I am’ he cursed himself.

‘Dhag dhag dhag…’ sound of someone thumping the bathroom door. Today is Monday. ‘Wife should have gone to school already’, he thought. ‘Then who could it be?’ “What, who is that?” he shouted from insdie. “Why are you taking bath at this time in the morning? You said you were not well, has fever gone up to the brains or something?” she shouted back. “What nonsense…..!” he murmurred. Finished taking bath and came out wiping. “Why son, what has happened to you? Why are you taking bath at this hour?” asked his mom who was standing with his wife right in front of the bathroom. “This hour? What’s the time now?” he asked wiping his head. “It is 4 O clock in the morning!!” she replied. He doesn’t remember whether he fainted.

He must have. When he woke up, he was lying on the couch, surrounded by a doctor neighbor, few friends, few other neighbors, and a couple of security guards of the apartment. “What happened, why all of you have assembled here, what happened to me?” he asked feebly. “Some time back, saar had come towards the swimming pool,” said the older security guard among two.  “He was walking up and down, waving to someone and talking to self, staring at the glass wall of the clubhouse” he continued. “After some time, he started running at the same place as if he was on a treadmill. I went near him and tried talking. He looked terrified and tried to touch me from far. Even I got scared, so went and woke up my boss” He looked at the security man. Yes, absolutely the same old man he had seen in his dream. Then it dawned on him that what he thought as dream was not a dream. ‘Then what about the trekking? That bus journey, that midnight, riverbank and the moonlight? ‘ ‘What about the invocation of the evil spirits?’ he was stupefied.

Just then, one of his friends said grinningly, “Why da, what happened, are you alright? You had only planned for our trekking and now the way you are sleeping with fever like this, it looks age has caught you up”, as if though joke would lighten the rather serious atmoshphere there.  “Oye, what are you saying, just today we all are back from the trekking no, are you guys kidding me?” he asked the grinner. Turning to his wife, “Why, why are you standing as if a demon has possessed you? Didn’t you open the door for me at 3 O’ Clock when I returned this morning? Didn’t I then wake you up and shouted for building this wall?” he pointed towards the wall without looking there. All of them appeared petrified, looking once at him, once at the direction of his finger. He saw their faces and turned around to where he had pointed. There was no new wall, no frames, and no vases……………….. The same old wall, same frames and no vases.  

He could scarcely fathom where the wall had manifested. He simply folded his hands to everybody as if apologetic, went inside the room to bed, lied down clutching his pillow tight.