A SONG OF THE DEAD

“The word for today is Pneumono…ultramicro…scopic….

Silicovolcanoconiosis”, the boy said at the podium. He was good and more graciously handsome but the gesture that he himself made on the stage led everyone believe that he is a great orator in his class. “ Well done Rahul. You are my heart and gold”, came out a feminine voice from the standing students. She is the one he always talked to and nothing did he acknowledge the fact that she is as beautiful as her name.

Well to begin with, everyone in the high summer of that morning clapped and the principal made Rahul his prefect. Nothing laid the day when Rahul and his friends appreciated him much and also gave him hugs and kisses of the day. “You did great at the stage”.Pneumonoultramicre…”, Shoojit got interrupted by Julie now who explained “its Pneumonosilicovolcanoconaisis.”, she corrected him. Shoojit wanted more out the meaning so Rahul explained it is a lung cancer caused due to inhalation of fine sand or quartz dust.

“Dehradun? Wow, that’s a nice place and when are you planning to go?”, asked Rahul. He was into travelling a lot. Last year was tough for him. The whole world put itself into a cage like a bird chained. The lockdown and the pandemic years were very sad and shattering for him. He waited for Julie’s reply but his mind was on an another part. The death Shrinath, his uncle was devastatingly blackened. It felt like every member put to sobbers and moans during the funeral ceremony that made him feel bad. After some silences, Julie came up, “ next week. My father also wanted y’all to accompany for the visit. It’s actually my cousin’s birthday.” Rahul felt excited and put down a warming hug.

The long day of that frost meant little to Julie as she boiled down to her friend s home. The boys were laying down their ways for the games they will play. Much to their surprise, Julie suggested a fun game of hide and seek. She said, “ well, Rahul and Shoojit would be the seekers and I will hide,” Rahul became jolly after listening to her and they started their preparation to seek. “ So let s go .. one two and three”, Julie exclaimed and ran down to a solid hiding place. It was a basement. When she came inside, her legs stomping down the stairs, a flicker of little fluorescent light gleamed on her face. She quickly made her hiding place behind the racket over which the fridge lay. A few minutes passed and the two friends were searching for her. Julie made herself comfortable but a sudden thrust of thirst made her go to fetch a drink. She opened the fridge to only look at the stomped meat cut into a hundred pieces and bottles kept with formic acid in which meat of some kind were kept for preservation. She didn’t touched the lid and with a loud shriek she couldn’t handle herself at the sight she saw. A long scum of a human head tied with a knot of a handkerchief stood like a horrible smell of egg rodents resembled a closed eye of a lady that was never seen before. Julie made another shriek and the two boys came quickly. “ What’s the matter?”, they said with unison. “Look!”, she pointed out at the sight of the head. They looked at each other with surprise and soon the matter came about when the two set their eyes to Rahul. Nothing mattered in anyways as suspects still rose to weird silence. “ we must make for the police”, Shoojit said. Juliet agreed but Rahul erupted with a pin drop silence. “ How did these came to your house?”, Juliet asked. The long gruelling silence from Rahul made everyone fear down their throats. “ there is a note beside the forehead. It has to be something for our need”, Shoojit said. He was very observant in the matters of such things. The note resembled a tiny piece of a warning. It read “ Trespassers are warned if anyone is seen into the Ross they are hereby are slithered their heads and burnt alive in the asylum of dead”. Soon after he ceased to read, there was an eerie silence and the three friends, having no awareness about the note, the flickering light jolted into them. A shadow emerged and the refrigerator started to melt and everything came out of nowhere. A sudden gust of thick air erupted down their ways and the fridge over which the head of the lady stand came alive. It made itself open its eyes and talk in a hoarse voice. ‘Thy stands the lord who protects us from all evil. Trespassers shall be killed if not read the “Will”’.

“The will”, Rahul spelt it out as did the two friends. The loving ascent of the dead arose from the backyard and Juliet screamed with high agony. Another scream and the dead from the backyard arrived to look at them. Rahul advised to stay close but Julie insisted on going outside. They were outside only to look the dusty cover of the sky with brown hue speeding towards them. Soon a storm gave past a windy breeze that everything turned to hazy and the three friends made themselves cover each other. There came another voice that resembled a hoarse yet suspicious from Satan. It spoke in a tone that resembled like this:.“ who has woken me from the dead? Is it the sons of the creator?”. It went through a hollow gap of eyes that looked as if on the nature of bird watchers.

Soon, the weather turned to deep crimson red that enacted itself into a storm. Nothing was seen after all that Rahul covered both of them altogether into a blanket that he always kept in these matters of situations. Mrs Ross, a close neighbour comes out with her garment of blue earrings and had she stepped on to her balcony, a loud grudge erupted from the universe. It was as if something made out of an illness from the past and condemning into the present. “ We need to stop this. What is happening , Oh holy land, save us or we are doomed into this”, came out the voice of Ross who out of such tragedy of losing her husband and a crash during her trip on a highway made her fully believe on God. A shiny light blue shadow erupted from the sky and the universe came to a halt. The neighbour prayed her sacred texts and in a sudden manner, her dog which she named after her husband barked at the sight. It was as if he spot the misgivings of pain and misery. Julie attempted to wave to Mrs Ross but she was nowhere close to her point of view. The mist glued the earth’s surface and the horizon was completely blurred. Nothing could be seen and they were engulfed into a huge mouth that stomped them to death.

Never had he made himself up from the bed the door banged and the bedside alarm slammed his sleep. It was a figure who strolled to pull him up. Everything that he could do was to open his half eyes to look at the scrawny big face of his mother. Wake up dear, its time for school. The voice said it calmly, his mother’s voice. After few minutes gone by, his mother erupted into a large scream and the boy jumped from his bed and ran for the bathroom. Everyday is not Sunday and no fun, he thought. His mother called him from behind. “ No one will love you presenting if you do not go and make yourself comfortable at your work”, she said. The advice gave him some means of motivation but he had more deeper thoughts in mind. About today’s nightmare. He said, “ mom, I always have these kinds of nightmares about me and my friends playing hide and seek and suddenly find a head inside the refrigerator which is something weird, don’t you think?”. His mother got irritated listening and instead tells him to not go through any such thing. “ you should go get yourself to talk to others not me. Just concentrate on studies and live in the present”. Nothing can get him out of his mind about his mother so much that he stopped talking and readied himself to school. He remembered to hurry up as he need to give a presentation on Charlie Chaplin’s life story. He took to his car keys and started the engine and waved a hand towards his mother and ran off. Today there is some traffic in the highway and the rain didn’t stopped. However, as he took to the pathway over the school pavilion and pulled the engine in the parking area over the large field. It happened to be sunny in the morning and the traffic didn’t make to haul. He loved Charlie Chaplin’s early life and also enacted some of the roles in his school auditorium during annual functions. The role of the Tramp made Rahul a very sometimes feel that Charlie is inside him and one day when he would made himself the character everyone gave him a hug for his acting. Even Julie remembered the time when he would stare at her and imitate her as well to get attention of the audience. However, the past always makes one feel the notion over joys and happiness but not today. He killed the engine and walked towards the entrance only to see a dead member.