Summer Vacation

Summer vacation brings some stark memories. Vivid images float in my mind. Sitting against the windowsill, the world is just a foot away but going out in the sun in the afternoon is akin to self-immolation. Sultry waves of summer have toasted the leaves and their crumble and crunch is the only music to listen to. Everyone is asleep in the other room. But something keeps me awake amidst my eyes burning with hot wind. Birds are parched and so is the garden. The ice in my lemonade has melted. The golden shower of laburnum and the lustrous golden field of wheat is just ready for the harvest. The world has come to still, but there is a surreal tranquility even in this monstrous heat. Far beyond the purview of my eyes, the river appears to shine in its naked majesty and shimmers with quavering rhythm. It is a mirage, such a false reality.  

 

 

In about an hour my friends will be out in the streets, and I will play with them in the field adjacent to the fence in the front yard of my house. The field then creeps into mangroves. The stout but burly mango trees have a cold shade. The land beneath their endless canopy is untainted by the golden sun. Mangroves are forbidden. Once someone entered them and found a cadaver. The incident must have haunted him that none of us were allowed to step in.  

 

 

I always wanted to sneak into those mysterious mangroves. But fear had always held me tight. The mangroves are adjacent to an old house. That house belongs to our ancestors, it is our estate, but we never talk about it. My uncle told me that the house is inauspicious. I never knew the reason, neither did he, nor does anyone.  

 

 

My father always has given me a grave warning about the manor. "I must give you fatal notice that you are never to sneak into that house or talk about it" he said to my siblings and me.  

 

 

I have always tried to check that manner. But it had been impossible. But my friends when they learned about the 'legend' became as hungry as I was. So, we decided to escape to that house while everyone was asleep. Summer's seduction is the only key to stealing some moments to sneak.  

 

 

We would have a window of about two hours, that includes the 15-minute walking distance for each side. I had devoured my lemonade and was ready to jump out. The laburnum tree is an excellent rendezvous and once we had gathered there was no going back.  

 

 

Were we terrified? Yes! 

Will this stop us? No! 

 

 

My heart was racing with every step I took. The first time I crept into the mangrove I felt a cold thud passing my body. The sudden shift of weather was surely a sigh of relief. Our body felt rejuvenated once we escaped the scorching heat of the field. Ram is the tallest, so he led us and because Raghu is chubby, he kept on getting lured by the scent of ripe yellow mangoes. But my punch is good enough to keep him on track.  

 

 

On beholding the manor, I felt swooning, it was massive but very old. It appeared to be lamenting and sobbing. Like an old man, betrayed by the family, the manor appeared to be singing a melancholy song of the good old golden days. The sun reflected on the dirty panes making the atmosphere iridescent. I was not afraid about anything. More than anything I felt very calm to be there. Ram and Raghu too were disappointed as we found nothing wrong with that house. But this sense of appreciation did fleet once we could smell an ugly scent of pain.  

 

 

On wandering around we found a dead cow, half eaten by maggots and the other half swarmed by fleas. The sight disturbed us and scared our summer at once. We ran towards the backyard of the manor. It was no aversion; several old creepers and broken twigs had been inhabiting the place evidently. While Ram was trying to break the clogged door with his strength. Raghu found a sickle near one of the trees. The sickle was smeared in blood. And before he could bring it back, I felt like I was being watched.  

 

 

A chill went down my spine. I knew someone was watching me from inside the manor, but I did not want to turn my head, also I was dying to know what It was. And what I saw next will be the reason why I was forbidden to not go there. On the top floor behind a giant window, an old man with creepy smile and rotten face was waving at me with a sickle in his hand.  

I saw it and started crying out my lungs, pointing towards that creature, I kept on screaming for Ram and Raghu, and before they could see it, it was gone. I kicked the sickle out of Raghu's hand and caught their arms and ran away as fast as I could.  

 

 

What in the hell had I witnessed? We kept looking back while we ran. Once we jumped off the mangrove fence, we lay down on the wheat field at a safe distance from the orchard. We were panting while they kept asking for what I saw. I could not speak. 

 

 

I never told anyone about it but the sense of being close to such a devilish site haunted me forever, but it never came for me or for them. Raghu took a long time to recover from the blood smeared sickle, but ram never took it seriously even though he believed that the incident would excite him forever.  

 

 

I have now learnt to respect what adults say without any dispute or heresy. I laugh at how childish we were and how we could have died of whatever that was. But now I am in a different city altogether.  

 

 

The world is a big place, and we never know what it hides in its creases. It is better to leave some things as they are. Not all of us are lucky enough to escape the devil in its worst form. The figure still visits my dreams, but I know this is something I have to live with now, and only my curiosity has led it to me. Sometimes I hate myself for infesting my mind with such an abominable beast, but I definitely lived that day, and it only makes me thank God every day and respect life even more.