The Radio

PROLOGUE

In the middle of a dark night, when all humans were sleeping peacefully, a UFO descends on the earth. Strange non-human creatures come out. After a while they sit in their vehicle and go back to wherever they had come from. But they leave a little something behind. Something that would monitor the lives of the inhabitants of Earth. That device walked off purposefully towards human habitat.

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Finally! School is over and the vacations have begun. All I wanted to do was to relax all day. But of course, my mother had other plans. So, on the very first day of my long-awaited holidays, she set me to clean our basement. I am making it sound like a dreadful chore, but I actually enjoy sorting through the basement. I often find old and rather interesting stuff down there, which I keep for myself. I set to work.

The basement looked like it had not been cleaned for years, although I had cleared it only a couple of months ago. There were cobwebs everywhere, which I had to brush aside while walking. I brought out a big box full of stacks of old books, stationery etc., probably belonging to my grandparents. I dusted all the books. I found a couple of them interesting and kept them in a separate pile. Then, at the very bottom of the box, I found this very strange - looking radio. It was unlike any other radio I have seen, and trust me, I have seen a lot of them – my brother is crazy behind everything that produces sound and vibration. It was a pretty little thing, and I was fascinated by it. After I was done with the basement, I carried back the books and the radio to my room. Once there, I switched the radio on. Nothing. Probably it had stopped working after so many years. Or maybe the battery was dead. I searched for the slot to insert the battery. There wasn’t one at all! Strange. Maybe it was not a radio at all, it just looked like one and was actually just a showpiece. I did not want to dispose of it so I kept it on my table and soon forgot all about it.

That night, as I was dreaming about myself in a strange land, I heard I sound. A scraping sort of a noise, and then a soft melody. I ignored it. I often heard imaginary sounds like this at night. The noise stopped, and I carried on dreaming blissfully.

The next day, I saw that the ‘radio’ was balancing dangerously on the edge of my table. I was puzzled. I was pretty sure I had kept it somewhere in the middle, because I knew it would break into pieces the moment it falls off. Anyway, I decided to show it to my brother and ask him about it. My brother, after a few minutes of observing it carefully, concluded that it was definitely a radio, only with a missing battery slot and hence, it was totally useless. Once again, not wanting to throw it away, I left it on the floor of my room. The next morning, I woke up and could not find my radio. I looked for it everywhere but in vain. I finally found it under my bed and picked it up, relieved. Not quite relieved, actually. Something was not right here. I had left it near the door, and now it has been found under my bed, almost two feet away from the door. But how?

I did not do anything the entire day. I sat in my room, staring at the radio placed on the floor. Waiting for it to fly, or whatever it was that this strange device did. I don’t know whether I was imagining it, but I had the strangest feeling that it knew that it was being watched. So, I gave up. Instead, I made a plan. I cut two holes in my blanket, something I am sure my mom wouldn’t approve of, and decided that at night I would pretend to be asleep while I am actually wide awake, watching. Now, I know you will take me as an idiot, but when I was doing all this, I turned the radio towards the wall as I was getting an uncomfortable feeling that the two speakers of the radio were its eyes, and it could see everything I was doing. At night, I lay down and positioned myself in a way so that I could see the radio through the holes. Nothing happened for a while. I had almost fallen asleep when I heard the sound. It was the radio. Two sets of retractable legs appeared on the sides, and begun moving towards my bed, making a noise in the process. The radio was actually crawling on the floor! I could not believe my eyes. I had to pinch myself to be sure that I was not dreaming. Meanwhile, the radio stopped abruptly. Then it played some sort of a tune and then settled down, as if to sleep. This was definitely no ordinary radio. The next morning, I kept the radio back into the basement. It was really too creepy for me to handle!

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EPILOGUE

Generations later, young Aarti found a strange-looking device in the basement of her house. She liked it and took it to her room to play with it. You know what happens next!