Fritz

Chapter Seven

                The Bedroom incident

We went to bed at around 11:55pm. Our room was a large one and our beds had been neatly made. Not being used to doing a lot of walking, I was feeling rather tired after the day's activities. Besides, the bed wss very comfortable. I fell asleep barely ten minutes after hitting the pillow.
A slight noise woke me up a little later. I turned on my side and found Jayanto sitting up on his bed.  The table lamp by his bed was switched on and, in its light, it was easy to see the look of anxiety on his face.
Me- " what is it? Are you not feeling well?"
Instead of answering my question, Jayanto asked me one himself.
Jayanto- " Do you think this circuit house has got small animals? I mean, things like cats and mice?"
Me- " I shouldn't be surprised if it does. But why are you asking?"
Jayanto- " Something walked over my chest. That's what woke me."
Me- " Rats and mice usually come in through drains. But I have never known them to climb on the bed."
Jayanto- " This is the second time I've woken up, actually. The first time I heard a shuffling noise noise near the window."
Me- " Oh, if it was near the window, it's more likely to be a cat."
Jayanto- " Yes, but....."
Jayanto still sounded doubtful. So I said,
Me- " Didn't you see anything after you switched the light on?"
Jayanto- " Nothing. But then, I didn't switch it immediately after opening my eyes. To tell you the truth, I felt rather scared at first. But when I did switch it on, there was nothing to be seen."
Me- " Oh God! You're such a coward. That means whatever came in must still be in the room."
I rose quickly and searched under the bed, behind our suitcases and everywhere else in the room. I could not find anything. The door to the bathroom was closed. I opened it and was about to start another search when Jayanto called out to me softly and in a freaky voice, "Shankar!"
I came back to the room. Jayanto was starring hard at the cover of his quilt. Upon seeing me, he pulled a portion of it near the lamp and said,
Jayanto- " Look at this!"
I bent over the cloth and saw tiny, brown circular marks on it.
Me- " Well, these could have been made by a cat."
Jayanto didn't say anything. It was obvious that something had deeply disturbed him. But it was 2:30 in the morning. I simply had to get a little more sleep, or I knew I would just keep feeling tired. And we had plans of doing a lot of sightseeing the following day.
So, after murmuring a few soothing words- such as, don't worry, I am here with you and who knows, those marks may have been on your quilt already when you went to bed-I switched off the lights once more and lay down. I had no doubt that Jayanto had only a bad dream and nothing else. All those memories of his childhood had upset him, obviously, and was what had led to his dreaming of a cat walking on his chest.
I slept soundly for the rest of the night. If there were further disturbances, Jayanto will not tell me about them. But I could easily see in the morning that he had not slept well.
I thought tonight I must give him one of the tranquilizers I brought with me.
We finished our breakfast by nine, as we had planned, and left for a famous temple, which was not as famous as the fort but it's quite magnificent.
A car had already been arranged. It was almost 9:22 by the time we reached  there.
Some of Jayanto's old forgotten memories began coming back again, his youthful exuberance made me think   that he has Forgotten about his upsetting childhood memories.