Haunting Memories

Chapter 6

In Anjali’s room, Ritika watched as her sister walked around the room. She took off her shawl and threw it over a chair. Then, she switched off the tubelight and went to her side of the bed. She propped up her pillow, slid into the blankets and sat facing forward. Silence followed, and they heard their own breathing. In the winters, the airconditioners and fans were off and the mansion was strangely quite.

“It’s so quite out here in the country,” Anjali said finally, “I hear the constant noise of the traffic outside the window back at my apartment in the city.”

It took a minute for Ritika to completely come back to normal, and to concentrate on the discussion at hand.

“Yes,” she finally said, “That’s what I love about this place. The peace. The tranquility.”

“I find it quite disturbing to be honest,” her sister replied, “It’s too quite. Like death. Completely silent. You need a little noise to feel alive.”

She looked at her sister quickly, wondering if she had made a mistake by using the word ‘death’. But Ritika looked lost in thought.

“This is the silence of life, of the night,” she said slowly, “In the morning, the silence breaks with the sound of hundreds of birds singing. They make all kinds of sounds. Its enchanting. You should listen to them tomorrow.”

Anjali looked at her sister in surprise. Since Aarav’s death, most of the time, the things she said often revolved around lost happiness of the past or the morbid conditions of today. She spoke so normally rarely. It seemed she was on the road to recovery. But her words also revealed her persistent fondness for the estate. That was not done, she needed to leave the place.

“You need to have a good night’s rest to appreciate that,” Anjali pointed out, “and I doubt you’ve had that in quite some time. I think you’ll sleep well only when you move out.”

Ritika said nothing. She just stared at her fingers gripping the blanket.

“We should get some sleep now,” Anjali finally said. When Ritika nodded, she switched off the bedside lamp and lay down. Ritika sat looking at the enveloping darkness, relishing the sense of security that having another person around brought with it. Having someone around always made her feel better, made the loneliness less intense and the memories of Aarav less painful. That was why she had let her mother stay over for over a month when the accident first happened. But now there was another reason for her fear of being alone. With her sister sleeping beside her, she felt sure no strange things would happen. She was going to sell the place off, and she would go away. She loved Aarav, and she loved her home, but she was not keeping the place at the expense of her peace of mind. She looked at the door, wondering if Mr. Arora heard any of the racket, and was gripped immediately by panic.

She tip toed to the door, slowly opened it to make a narrow opening, and slipped out. She looked down at the ground floor. It was silent. What had she expected? Would he be roaming around the house if he heard something? But he would surely come up to investigate if he heard her scream. The sound hadn’t travelled then. She knew for a fact that the sound didn’t travel to the servants quarter just outside the building. The servants knew nothing of what happened in the night. The guest bedroom was only slightly closer, just inside the building rather than outside. The knot of anxiety in her stomach loosened a bit. She felt glad for the architecture of the house, happy that the guest room on the ground floor was so far away, and glad that, apparently, Mr. Arora was a sound sleeper. Satisfied, she turned to her sister’s room and slipped in. In bed, her sister’s rhythmic breathing seemed to sing a lullaby, and it took her less than two minutes to fall asleep. She slept soundly after a very long time.