Anushila Jana

Abstract Comedy Drama

4.1  

Anushila Jana

Abstract Comedy Drama

The Urn

The Urn

6 mins
99


Nadia saw the antique urn and decided to buy it. As she held it –the golden ivory carvings etched on the edges of the beautiful slender neck of the urn, shone in the sunlight falling on it from the window on the corner of the old stuffed antique shop.

Something about the urn really intrigued Nadia, maybe the fact that once highly appreciated showpiece which decorated the royal palaces now stood sitting in the corner of the old antique shop, or maybe its unique beauty, it was different from normal urns, it had letters engraved on it which Nadia couldn’t decipher yet, but they shone beautifully in the sunlight, they might have been a secret message for a treasure or a wicked spell, who knew –whatever It was, Nadia had quite made up her mind and the thought of her keeping that beauty on the newly purchased vintage stand was like an icing on the cake.

 “Oh there you are Madam, I thought I lost you hehe, did you find something you liked?, women I say are so picky …’’ “How about this?’’ Nadia said cutting the owner of the shop in between. The geeky old man, who was halfway balding opened his beetle stained mouth “ah I see magnificent 18th-century piece right there … he flipped the catalog in his hands a few more times, he could sense Nadia was already fascinated by the urn and started to play the tricks of his line of business , “Umm you see this one proudly decorated the mantels the Harems of king Suleiman Of the ottoman empire, later brought to the Indian palaces where it found a home in the palaces of Nizams until it got stolen one day , it is very costly but since it is you,


 I might lower the prince …” “How much?’’ she directly asked cutting the chase.” Ah, around ten thousand rupees. She said barring his battle stained set of teeth. Nadia quickly replied “I take this, with jewelry box for eight thousand and a half ..” the owner said almost keeping the urn down “okay that jewelry box and this magnificent urn for eight thousand and a half …” the owner knew it was a good deal and besides that box was really old and never really opened and he fairly got a good price for the urn, “Deal!” Nadia said almost jumping with excitement.

  “How about I show you a silk handkerchief used by the Queen it is said that queen really had serious nose troubles at one time….”Nadia scrunched her forehead and said, “ No thank you sir it would be kind of you if you just packed this..” Within sometime Nadia got two separate packages for her, one was wrapped in Golden paper the other in silver. Her eyes shone in excitement as she held them both.

As she was about to leave the shop she heard a slight whisper followed by a strange crackling noise, “What was that?” “What was what madam?” “I think I heard something strange...” The shop owner looked at her for a while before breaking into a small smile “ah madam you see, this is an old shop with old things which so many great, big and small people once possessed and loved more than you and me now it is with us eh, a little noise here and there isn’t bad..” the man started chuckling Nadia was pretty sure he had lost his mind or was on the verge of it, she held her packages tightly and left the shop.

On her way back home she was quite happy with her purchase, she didn’t hear any such strange noises again, “maybe it was all in my head..” she thought. The first thing she did after going home was to unpack the golden box and remove the Urn, “beautiful!” Nadia said, she lifted it up under her ceiling light and those words shone again, after staring at it for several minutes she gently placed it on her new stand near her sofa, tired and happy Nadia quietly fell asleep on her couch, her head facing the Stand.


“You reek of soup get away from me!” “Shut up you old hag with the most awful face in the three lands...” “Move away!” “No you get lost...” Nadia jumped up from her Nap “Did I leave the door open?” she thought, “Where are these voices coming from?” Her door was closed, Nadia’s heart started pounding.

“Hey! Don’t pinch me” “I didn’t pinch you” the two squeaky voices continued to argue, Nadia stood frozen “Is it coming from the..The urn?” she thought horrified. “Who..Who is it?” she fumbled, there was no answer, and she gathered courage and yelled again “Who is it!”

“Forgive us oh master were we loud again, this dirty man never lets me live in peace” “Please don’t punish us” the voices continued “Dear Master since when did you start having a woman’s voice?”

“Fool... Don’t you realize he is practicing his great arts...” Nadia had enough “what master, who even are you? Where are you?”

“Ah see I told you it’s a woman I am never wrong!” “See lady this is I-Amias and he is Bakar...” “NO this is me Bakar and he is Amias”

Nadia was really confused, but she knew all this was way too real to be her imagination.


“We are the servants to the great Wizard Beckhtar of Arabia..” “ He practiced the black arts…arts which could defy, bend and even the biggest kings of the world..and he has trapped us here as a punishment” “What?” Nadia yelled, “one day when he was working on a spell he had made a concoction to be put in it, we didn’t know what he was doing,” “Thinking it was liquor we both drank it, we made a huge mistake..’’ “ It was delicious though..” “He got very angry , the herb he had collected only grew in a hundred years,” “ Master then chanted a few spells, he was fuming in rage and …” “then he drove us in here, since then we have been in this dark space”

“How do I get rid of you?” was Nadia’s direct question, she could no more stand these squeaky voices argue. “Rid of us? Can’t we just stay with you?” “YES let us stay” “What no..tell me what would I need to do to free myself and you?”

The voices stayed silent for a while and then one of them spoke “You have to throw this vessel in which we are stuck in a river” “That is how we had seen him free a lot of creatures from bottles”

Nadia’s mind raced, she thought of places where she could find a river, there were none nearby, but there was a creek, she ran and got her keys and grabbed the Urn, after driving for around twenty minutes she stopped near a creek which ended in a river, she looked at her loved Urn for one last time, she really liked it but she could not stand them anymore, and she let it go.

Feeling relived Nadia reached home, she couldn’t believe all this happened just today,

“Where had you gone, we called you so many times….” Nadia froze her eyes when to the silver package which she forgot to open in her excitement of the Urn; she almost got the shock of her life, “Does this mean you are keeping us?”

It was the same two voices, it slowly dawned upon Nadia- Amias, and Bakar whatever they were, had been stuck in the jewelry box which never opened, she threw the wrong vessel, they were in never in the Urn.


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