Skip to main content

A sleepless night: A short story by Soumyadip Chatterjee

  

The clock seemed a blur from the bed as it was dark and I had kept my glasses away before sleeping. The positions of the clock arms suggested it was thirty minutes past one at night. I normally slept by twelve. But that day too many things were coming to my mind as result of leaving an adventure story at a point of thrill.

    Feeling irritated, I got up and went to the terrace to walk a little. It was one of the things my excessively curious mind wanted to do. It was a full moon night and there was not a single house in the neighbourhood whose lights had not been switched off. The cold and dark street made a beautiful contrast to the moonlit sky with a few twinkling stars.

   It might have been two o’clock when I had walked at least six or seven rounds. I had not seen an animal awake when I was enjoying my stroll. I had overlooked something at about that time. It was something which I had not noticed in the last thirty minutes. On looking back I saw something shaking behind the big neem tree of Mr. Dey’s house. To be more appropriate, it was swinging.I paused for sometime.This was a scene which I had not expected.I could see two legs swinging in the middle of the cold night air. On looking a little upwards I could see a man sitting on the sunshade of a window and staring at the gleaming streetlight of the neighbourhood. I tried to recognize him but I couldn’t. That man was sitting on the sunshade of the second floor and swinging his legs! How could I possibly relate him with anyone though I could not see his face properly. How could a man possibly sit there and stare at a streetlight out of everything else? Suddenly he turned towards me. He was wearing a dirty piece of shirt with patches on it. Maybe he was mentally unstable. Then he surprised me. Just as he was staring at me he stood up and jumped effortlessly from the sunshade towards the neem tree which was almost four metres away from the window. Then he got down and picked up a sack from the base of the tree. Then he came to the street with the sack. Evidently the sack contained something heavy as the man walked  uneasily.

      He kept the heavy bag against the wall of our neighbour’s house and sat beside it. I tried to resume my walk when I heard a chuckle. The man was laughing! I got back at the edge of the terrace. He was murmuring something. It was a date – “19th September”, he laughed, “…1998”. Was he really mad?! He spoke clearly in bengali, “I will not tell anyone”, his laugh got more wicked, “ It was coming fast…LIGHT..BIG LIGHT”.  A cold wind blew. I was freezing with fear. Had he killed someone? He suddenly turned his head, stared dead through me and grunted and laughed wickedly with a shrill and frightening sound. I could see his face… it was so full of expression. He could not be mad. He got up, picked up the sack and ran fast, bent at the end and I could hear nothing but a strange and loud laugh.

    After all this I went back to my bed with fear. The best thing to do at that time was to fall fast asleep. It was morning soon. The first thing I asked my parents was, “Did you hear someone laugh yesterday night?”; the answer was “No”. A lot of questions were coming to my mind…was he mad? Was he a killer? Was he a ghost? Even then what was he carrying? What did “BIG LIGHT” mean?    

      

Soumyadip Chatterjee is a student of Funlish, Class IX




Connect with us on social media:-



facebook


instagram


twitter





     

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accelerating Change to solve the water and Sanitation Crisis with Ancient Indian Technique - A write-up by Funlishian Tuhin Kanti Ghosh

  It is a well known that our Earth, despite having ¾ of its surface covered by water doesn’t have enough water for humans. The reason, also known, is that 97 percent of it is saline water which is unusable. Of the 3 percent we do have, the expanding human population wasted and polluted much of it continuously to make way for water and sanitation crisis. In the recent years we have realized this and started to work to change it. But the change is not being able to keep up with the constant damage. Hence comes the need to accelerate it. While large projects like building dams help in accelerating change, small changes collectively make a much bigger impact. For example, fixing a leaking tap wasting 500 ml of water a day may not seem much but if all millions of citizens fix their taps, then in just a day millions of litres of water and rupees will be saved. There are numerous ways in the internet for saving water that you can do.     Another way to accelerate change c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wonders of Water - A poem by Ishaan Biswas, Grade IX, Funlish Language School

To the transparent water; O’ you nature’s daughter, How are you so calm, so cold? How do you grab the world ahold? Why are you so kind, to show the way to the blind? How are you so noble? Why do you even care for the smallest cobble? O’ the guardian of life, You are why we are alive. Why do you still love us, when we create a fuss? Thus you are our precious mother, you forgive us albeit we inflict disasters one after another. Thus is our oath to your kindness, we shall always be righteous. Hence we shall conserve every loch, for our succeeding flock.
1 comment
Read more

This isn't a Feminist Mark : A poem by Anushka Jana

 However much we think, Or hate the colour pink, Can we be fearless like you? Or be as daring as you? Do you think we’ve purpose, Like delicate flowers, a simple rose? To exhibit when it’s fresh, And throw when reduced to flesh?   Will it be a sin to do? Things that most of you do, Blaming, shaming and curbing us, We wonder how many of us you did curse! And why would you do so? Because we let our ambitions grow? Because we step out of veils And look fabulous in our esteem, Or because we love ourselves And try to look out of kitchen shelves? We dream to invent remedies, To sign important treaties, Pen down novels without pen names And excel in various games. Driving cars and repairing lights And guarding streets on dark nights And to speak, to debate, We want to do things and not wait. And we didn’t sink our hearts, Neither focus only on sewing skirts, Nor on only cooking for your bunch of kids, But we tried to help ...
Post a Comment
Read more