At Midnight

Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. It was pouring heavily. Ruma stood shivering and wondered if she was going to get a taxi at all. It was nearly midnight. Oh, how she hated these night shifts! Her shift had been exhausting, and all she wanted now was to get home and sleep on her warm, cozy bed. But here she was, standing out in the cold for who knows how much more time.

Then, Ruma noticed a woman, roughly her own age, walking towards her. She walked in a strange manner and Ruma felt herself panicking. She wished she hadn’t seen that horror movie about a woman in the white sari the previous day. The woman came to a stop right in front of Ruma. Ruma wanted to cry out with relief when she saw who it was. It was her friend from school, Preeti!

“Hey, Preeti, remember me?”, Ruma asked. “Of course I do, Ruma! How could I forget?” said Preeti. Ruma asked again, “But why are you so pale? You look as if you have seen a ghost!” “Oh, this is my natural skin color”, said Preeti. Seeing that Ruma was not convinced, Preeti changed the subject, and soon both were talking about their school days.

Ruma noticed Preeti looking at her watch again and again and asked about it. “Oh, I have to meet someone at 12, which is less than a minute away”, replied Preeti casually. Just then a taxi passed by, and Ruma ran after it and convinced the driver to leave her home. Bidding farewell to Preeti, she sat inside the taxi. Just then, a huge spark of lightening struck a few feet away from the taxi. Right, where Preeti had been standing. Ruma spun around worriedly, but there was no one there. Relieved, she instructed the driver to take her home.

The next morning, Ruma was busy taking out old newspapers, when the headline of exactly a year- old paper caught her eye. It read-

LIGHTENING STRIKES UPON 21-YEAR-OLD PREETI SHARMA AT MIDNIGHT YESTERDAY, SHE DIED ON THE SPOT.