Ghosts in tent house

Garvit sat on the windowsill; his gaze fixated at the tears of the clouds (where his Nani had told him God lives), that were slipping off the glass along uncertain paths. It was last monsoon rain before school reopened after summer break for class 3. Outside the house, frogs were croaking mating calls (while his Nani told him they were singing prayers to thank the Holiness for fetching earth’s thirst). It had been a long summer after his Nani got prognosed with cancer. Most of the summer days were spent with extended family members visiting the house to wish Nani a speedy recovery and discuss potential treatment with doctors.

His uncle was busy on calls, asking his friends if they could borrow him their car and his mother was requesting his father to let them stay one more day due to heavy rain. Garvit hadn’t been speaking much since is cousin left the day before. “Will Rohit be coming for Raksha Bandhan?” he had questioned when he couldn’t sleep yesterday. “Yes, and don’t worry, you can always call him.” His mother had explained to calm him but something about that made him feel more uneasy. Rohit had cried before leaving Nani’s house; everyone assumed it was due to the prognosis. Garvit’s mother tried to reassure him that no one was going to break the tent-house they had built until they come back again- to which he hugged his teddy and buried his face below the blanket.

Soon the car was arranged. The living room got filled with heavy words of the adults along with tea and snacks. It was planned that every sister would take care of house for weekends while Nani was being given chemotherapy until Mama got married in November. Garvit was picturing his Nani all healthy and fine, ten years in future, enjoying a game of ludo in a tree house that he built in the backyard of his house. Suddenly he remembered he had forgotten to pack his carboard cut-out puppets that had made that summer. Even though he asked his mother to get it from him but she denied and the bidding adieu was getting closer, so he gathered up and went to the room where a tent house was kept, made from old scarfs. He shouted “MOM??” and when he heard a reply from living room, he was sure he hadn’t entered and trapped himself in another dimension.

In a cabinet in room were kept puppets of cartoon that Gravit loved and whenever electricity would go off mid-episodes, he’d finish storyline with Rohit (who was fifteen). As he picked the ‘smiley man’ that Rohit had made – who, with his broad smile and white teeth, would illude kids to a park and use their childhood to power himself. Garvit slammed the drawer as he picked it and prayed to God to remove the ghost that possessed Rohit which made him touch Garvit in tent.

The ghost possessed Rohit for two more vacations.