Foreshadow

It was two o’clock at night. Stationmaster Ramesh was taking a doze in his office at koyalbari railway station. Koyalbari is a small town surrounded by hills and dense forests. That day, it was heavy downpour with thundering and lightning. Pointman was absent from duty and Ramesh was alone at the station. He awoke when the bell of the block instrument rang. He threw a glance at the clock. It was ten minutes past two. He responded to the ring. It was line clear inquiry for 25 down express. He gave line clear to the down express. He took some tea from the kettle and began to sip. In the coldness of the rainy season, tea gave him some warmness. Bell of the block instrument rang again giving an indication of the train’s entering the section. He became alert and obtained the line clear from the next station and took the signals off for the incoming down express. The train still took about five minutes to reach the station. He completed the paperwork for the train and came out of the office to exchange the alright hand signals with the staff of the train.

Standing under the porch of the office he looked around and found nobody except a stray dog at both the platforms. Nobody likes to travel at night except when an emergency in that small town. The stray dog was lying on the floor under the porch. Seeing Ramesh, the dog stood up and came near to him.

He heard whistling of the train and looked at the direction of the train. The train was coming. He took the hand signal and turned it on. It began to flash a green light. Now the train was about a hundred meters away from him. All of a sudden somebody appeared on the rail-track. In the brighter background of the headlight of the locomotive, Ramesh couldn’t recognize who he was. What he saw was a silhouette. The distance between him and the silhouette was about fifty meters.

Ramesh shouted, “Move aside.” His shout went in vain. Due to the sound of the train and the sound of rain, his sound was subdued. Within moments the train hit the silhouette. The impact of the hit tore the silhouette into pieces and flung them away. Ramesh closed his eyes. The train passed him and the station at full speed. He had seen several runs over cases in his career. He knew very well what to do. He opened his eyes and looked at the rail-track and around but found nothing. The rail-track was clean and clear. There was no dead body, injured person or body part on the rail-track. Where is the body of that person? This question came to his mind. He immediately rushed to the office and made contact with the driver of the train on the very high-frequency radio set.

 He said the driver, “Your train has run over a person at the station.”

The driver replied, “No, we did not run over anybody.”

Ramesh said, “But I saw somebody being run over.”

The driver replied, “Are you joking?”

Ramesh, “No, I am seriously talking to you.”

The driver shouted, “You

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are in your cups or you are dreaming or you are crazy. Nothing has happened at the station.”

The assistant driver said, “Master you have perhaps experienced hallucination.”

Ramesh was surprised and afraid of what happened to him. He once again went out and looked around the rail-tracks but found nothing. He came back and began his work sipping tea. All of sudden the stray dog began howling. He was a superstitious person and howling of a dog was an ill omen to him. He went out to scar the dog away. After scaring away the dog he prayed to god for a minute and continued his duty.

He was relieved by another station master in the morning. On the way home that stray dog followed him all the way. He slept all day long. In the evening when he came out of the home for marketing, he found the stray dog still sitting at the entrance gate of the home. He went to bed at around ten o’clock at night. Soon he fell into sleep. He had a series of dreams that night; one dream after another dream. His last dream was the flashback of what happened last night at the station. The last dream broke his sleep. He awoke. The stray dog was howling. He got afraid. He looked at the clock. It was exactly ten minutes past two. It was the time when he gave the line clear to the down express train last night. Afterward, he couldn’t sleep anymore.

He reached the office at sharp four o’clock afternoon and took charge of the duty. Nothing unusual happened on his duty. At eleven o’clock his reliever station master telephoned him and informed him that he would come late on duty and requested him to work for him for two hours. Ramesh had no other option except to accept his request. His reliever station master came on duty about two o’clock. Ramesh handed over the charge of the station to him and got free from the duty. The point man was on duty and he served tea to both the station masters. It was ten past two and the bell of block instrument rang. The line clear was demanded the 25 down express. A line clear was given. The train entered the section. They took their time to finish the tea. He took leave off point man and station master and left the office. The stray dog was lying under the porch. The dog stared at him with coldness. Now he did the blunder. Instead of using foot over bridge, he took the shortcut. He decided to cross the rail-treks. He jumped off the platform and began to cross the treks, oblivious of the fact that the train was coming. All of sudden his leg got stuck with something and he stumbled and fall on the rail trek on which the 25 down train was coming. Stationmaster and point man showed the red hand signal to the coming train and ran to save him. Seeing the red hand signals the driver applied the brakes but it was too late. His body tore apart into pieces. The stray dog began howling loudly. Two days after the incident, that stray dog also was run over by the same train at the same time and the same spot.