The Errie Night

The Year 1975, Annu along with her two brothers and parents were traveling to a very small village down south of India to her maternal grandparents’ home. It was winter vacation, so this journey and the excitement was palpable. They would get to meet their aunts, uncles’ grandparents after a long time. As they were nearing their destination, they could feel the rustic scenery accompanied by the typical pungent smell of grass, green fields with crops ready for harvest, ducks, and chicks flying around, women drawing water from wells, farmers working in fields and so on. On arrival at the village, all were happy to meet them and vice versa. After the formal greetings my father (son in law) was treated with very tasty special food which we all relished, by the way, my grandmom was a very good cook. Later in the night we all assembled in the courtyard which was a bit dark due to the dim lights, trees around, it was scary, but we were not bothered due to the happiness we all felt on meeting each other. Now comes the interesting part of this narrative. 

My younger maternal uncle Ravi used to tell us nice stories and so this time too we started pestering him to do the same. My uncle started to narrate a real incident that had happened the day before. He had gone to the neighboring town 16 km away to watch a movie along with four of his other friends. As they came out of the theatre it was late and they had to hurry up to get back home. All of them started peddling their cycles as fast as possible and were talking about the movie they had watched. Three of them took another route as that was nearer to their places and Ravi and another of his friend continued in the same route. Both were scared within as they had heard eerie stories about spirits etc. But now somehow, they had to get back home. Suddenly Ravi's cycle became heavy as if someone had sat at his back. His friend saw him sweating and was scared too. This continued for some distance that Ravi covered with great difficulty. Now, something very strange happens as they near a temple Ravi's cycle gets pushed hard and he falls only to realize his cycle became lighter again. Now, what was that? Any guesses?

Pure Heart