Ron was
sleeping with an easy innocence of a boy child. A boy child he was, but with
lots of courage. It was his twin sister Rhea who woke him up that morning – the
morning where it all began.
‘Wake up, wake up, I saw the
windows rattling in the haunted house,’ said Rhea.
Ron woke up with a start. ‘What?’
‘Yes, yes. Just now, when I was
playing outside,’ said Rhea, jumping up and down.
Together Ron and Rhea went
outside to take a look at the haunted house.
‘Did you really see?’ asked Ron.
Rhea touched her throat with her
tiny forefinger and thumb, and said, ‘I swear.’
Standing with his hands on his
hips, Ron said, ‘All right. Let’s go in the evening and investigate.’
‘Evening?’ asked Rhea, widening
her eyes. ‘It will be dark in the evening.’
‘Are you scared?’ teased Ron.
‘No, no, I am not scared,’ said
Rhea.
***
In the evening they went. The sun
was down. The lamps in the street were on. The haunted house looked scary with
a frown.
Ron walked towards the gate,
holding Rhea’s hand. Standing in front of the house they raised their heads.
The house was bigger than they had thought. Ron slowly pushed the gate open.
They heard a ‘Creeeeekkk.’ Rhea jumped, ‘They will hear us,’ she said in a
whisper.
‘Who will hear us?’ whispered
Ron.
‘The ghosts,’ said Rhea, putting
her hand over her mouth.
‘Come, let’s go inside,’ ordered
Ron, holding his sister’s hand tightly.
They walked inside the gate. Ron
tried the front door. It was locked from the inside. Ron and Rhea stepped back,
looking at either of their sides. A gust of wind came sweeping by and rattled
the windows that were just around the corner. Rhea whispered again, ‘Ron, these
are the windows I saw rattling.’
‘It must be the wind, silly,’
said Ron.
Rhea kept mum. Ron took a few
steps and stood in front of the windows. ‘Let’s see what’s inside,’ said Ron,
and climbed up a tiny ledge.
The windows were not fastened.
Ron peeked inside. ‘What do you see?’ Rhea asked.
‘I can’t see anything. It’s too
dark inside,’ said Ron, climbing down. ‘I told you there were no ghosts.’
The windows started rattling
again. Ron and Rhea looked up. A white face with white hair around its head
stared down at them. The twins screamed and screamed and screamed. Ron held his
sister’s hand, and they both ran outside. They didn’t stop screaming until they
reached their home.
***
Ron and Rhea’s mother was
worried. ‘What happened?’ she asked.
‘We saw a ghost, mamma,’ said
Rhea. ‘Ron, tell her what we saw.’
‘Yes, mom. There is a ghost
living in that haunted house.’
‘Nonsense,’ said their mother.
‘Now go and wash your hands and legs. I will give you chocolate milk and cake.’
‘Really, mamma,’ Rhea tried to
explain, ‘The ghost has lived in that house for a long time and grown old.’
‘Ghosts don’t exist, sweetheart.
You must have seen something else. Aren’t you a brave girl?’ said the mother.
‘I am a brave girl. Ask Ron,’
said Rhea. Nudging Ron with her elbow, she said again, ‘Ron, tell her what a
brave girl I have been.’
‘Yes, yes, you are a brave girl,
all right.’
‘See, I told you,’ said Rhea,
giggling.
‘OK,’ said their mother, ‘Now off
you go and get cleaned up.’
***
It was only when they had retired
to their bedroom at night did Ron talk about the incident. ‘Rhea, let’s go
again tomorrow.’
‘Go where?’
‘To the haunted house,’ said Ron.
‘No!’ Rhea gave a quiet cry.
‘Are you scared?’ asked Ron.
‘I’m not scared. You saw the
ghost, didn’t you?’ said Rhea, sitting up on her bed.
‘Yes. Let’s fight it and save the
people. Else, the ghost will kill everyone in the neighborhood,’ said Ron.
Rhea hung her head and said,
meekly, ‘All right.’
***
The next morning
Ron woke up early, took his bicycle, and rode in front of the haunted house.
Two minutes later he was back home. Rhea was waiting for him. ‘Where had you
been?’ she asked eagerly.
‘To see the
haunted house once again.’
Rhea approached
Ron, and holding the handle-bar of the bicycle, she asked, widening her eyes,
‘Did you see the white ghost?’
‘No, but we will
in the evening.’
They waited for
the sun to go down. Ron was ready with his weapons: a torch and a toy gun that
shot darts.
At precisely six
o’clock they left their home. They reached the haunted house five minutes
later. Ron pushed open the gate slowly, as he had done the previous day. The
same “Crrreeeeek” was heard. Ron and Rhea walked inside as silently as
possible. The house looked more menacing than ever.
Ron walked
towards the door, and knocked on it. He pulled himself back as he took out his
toy gun from his pocket. Rhea stood next to him, wide-eyed and covering her
mouth with her hands.
Ten seconds
passed, which seemed like ten hours to Ron and Rhea. Holding his gun tightly in
his hand, he walked round the house and stood below the windows through which a
white ghost had scared him and Rhea the previous day.
One of the
windows was open. He aimed his gun at it and pulled the trigger. The dart went
flying into the window. The twins kept silent for a minute. Ron turned to his
sister and said, ‘I think we have killed it.’
‘I think so,
too,’ said Rhea, smiling.
Then, someone
grabbed and lifted them from behind and took them inside the house. Ron and
Rhea screamed at the top of their voice.
Both of them
started crying as the ghost sat in front of them on the sofa.
‘Shut up!’ said
the white ghost.
Ron and Rhea only
cried harder.
‘I said, stop
crying,’ said the ghost again.
Ron and Rhea
looked at each other as they continued crying, tears rolling down their cheeks. The ghost that
sat in front of them was an old woman. Her hair and her skin were as white as
cotton.
‘I am not a
ghost, children,’ said the old woman.
Ron and Rhea
looked at each other again, exchanging surprised looks.
‘I am just a
poor old woman who lives in this old house.’
Ron stopped
crying first. Rhea then wiped her tears and sat silently, blinking her eyes.
Ron said, ‘You
are not a ghost?’
‘Of course not,
my dear. You can touch and see me if you want to,’ said the old woman,
extending her hand.
Ron felt the old
woman’s hand. ‘If you are not a ghost, then why did you keep scaring us all the
time?’
‘I never tried
to scare you. You imagined everything,’ the old woman explained.
‘Why did you
grab us from behind like that? You did
scare us, you know,’ said Ron.
‘You would have
run away again if I had come in front of you,’ said the old woman.
‘Why do you live
in the dark?’ asked Rhea.
The old woman
made a sad face as she said. ‘Hmmm. That’s because I don’t have money to pay for
the electricity, my darling.’
It was already
dark and quite difficult to see inside the house.
Ron slowly took
out his torch from his pocket and switched it on.
Rhea clapped in
delight. The old woman ruffled Rhea’s hair and smiled. Ron said, ‘You can have
my torch.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said
Rhea. ‘You take the torch. We don’t need it.’
The old woman
hugged the little children and kissed them on their foreheads.
Since that day Ron
and Rhea often spent their time with the old woman. The old woman entertained
them with her stories. Sometimes, she told ghost stories, too.
*************
Do you wonder how Ron and Rhea's day begins? How difficult it is to their mother to get them ready to school? Read In the Morning to get a glimpse of the kids' matutinal activites. In the Morning is not only a
feast to your eyes, but it also makes sure your heart is tickled.
Download from iTunes!
Download from Windows Marketplace!
Download from iTunes!
Download from Windows Marketplace!
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