On My Way

Chapter:13

“They are my grandparents! They were dead, about, 5 years ago! When I first saw them, I felt I had seen them somewhere. And when finally they showed me the picture of their daughter, my doubt got confirmed. It was my mother’s picture. I remember she was the only child and because of it everything my grandparents had was named for her.”

“So, what you are telling me is that we just had a meeting with ghosts? What is going on? Why are we having this ghost stuff? Why we? Why not someone else?” I began sweating too.

A security guard came by.

“Excuse me, can you tell us something about the people living on sixth floor in block ‘Q’?”

“Oh! You too had a meeting with those ghosts, right?” Rahas and I looked confused.

“Let me explain. Many people have complained about the ghosts living here. But they are friendly ghosts, mostly seen in the afternoon. They talk to new comers and make them feel comfy in their homes. Those two kind people died in a gas leakage blast five years ago. The old woman forgot about the gas. 4 families died in it and we had no one to point a finger at. Since then, not many people buy home in ‘Q’ block. The walls of sixth floor have been left virgin. They are still black.”

We were stunned to hear him talk so perfectly, without fear, about those ghosts. And he was not the security guard which we had met before.

“Who are you?” I asked out of curiosity.

“I am the security guard of gate two. People from the ‘T’, ‘U’, and ‘V’ block do not prefer to cross block ‘Q’, so the society had to make a new entrance for those blocks. I am the gate keeper of entrance 2.” And he pointed towards the second entrance.

“If you like, I can take you up to floor sixth.”

“Yeah sure.” I said before even thinking what could happen.

We went up six floors in the lift. The gate keeper opened the lift door. It made a creaky sound. The door was so covered with dust that one could tell it wasn’t cleaned from years. The walls surrounding us were covered in black, just like the gate keeper had told us. We took a look at it and then came back down.

“Thank you so much for taking us around.”

“Welcome. If you need any help, you can ask me.” He smiled gently.

“Oh! Can you show us where Mr. Nadia lives? We are here to meet him.”

“They haven’t got any visitors from a long time. Good to see you. Come after me.”

We walked past ‘Q’ block. After the ‘R’ block, they had a big garden with beautiful flowers. It was well maintained. There was also a small pond with water lilies. The water looked fresh. They also had pavement for cyclist so that they do not get disturbed.

“This area is the most expensive area of the society. If you go further right, you’ll find a club house and a gym. All the necessary decisions about Part-2 of the society are taken there. Besides club house, there is half-court for basketball and children’s play area. People love to come here. The evening looks beautiful with all sorts of chattering and tweeting voices. Part-2 of the society is rather lively and peaceful.” I smiled and felt a relief to find out my parents were living peacefully here. They were safe and had everything they needed.

We walked past the garden area. The gate keeper led us in block ‘T’. He also told us that the most expensive luxury living was here, in block ‘T’. People having crores of rupees managed to live here. But I was also told that my parents got home here free in a lucky draw and all they had to pay was half for interior decorating. They were very lucky. The gate keeper also told me that they had a little daughter too but they lost her. I was about to tell him that I was his lost daughter but I thought not to bother about it.

“On which floor do they live?”

“I don’t remember exactly.” He got a call from someone.

“I have to go and fix some problem in block ‘Q’.” And off he went.

There was no name plating for block ‘T’ so we had to go up each floor to find my parents. Thank god that the lift was working.

This place, Nakshatra Devi, was far away from where we were living. The atmosphere was turning a bit weird.

“Sheen, we now know the address and the block name. I think we should come tomorrow to check here. We’ll meet them for sure. I think it’s better to go back home and have some tea. Also, it is a terrible day for me today.”

“Yeah ok. We should head back. We should try to use gate 2 so that the next time we come here, we won’t have to walk all the way from block ‘A’ to block ‘T’.”

We went from gate-2, back to our home. As soon as we reached home, it started raining cats and dogs suddenly. But I know that I’ll surely meet my parents; very soon.