ANITA quickened her steps nervously. At 11.30 pm the street was surprisingly deserted. Presumably all the laggards had gone home early to get up at dawn for the World Cup match. She had been the only person to alight from the Metro at Kalighat, and now she was hurrying home after a long workshift filled with irritations. She was worried about her sick mother’s blinding mouth pain and wondered whether her elderly father had actually escorted her to the multi-medical clinic. She had not called in case he found her supervision irksome.
The streetlights were dim and the aged crone who had emerged from nowhere, was walking directly behind at a pace which belied her years. Anita took one look and gasped in horror. Half the face appeared to have been eaten away leaving a toothless mouth below the skeletal nose cartilage. The woman glared at her and muttered strange imprecations. In her hand she held, without using for support, a sturdy stick with jagged knobs.
Anita quickened her steps and the crone quickened hers. It was only a 15 minute walk, but it seemed to last forever. The stray dogs barked neither at her nor the wraith-like figure whose sibilant whispers made her hair at the nape of her neck, stand on end. She decided that come what may, she would not turn to look again. It seemed to enrage the other. “So turning once she turned no more head, because she knew some frightful fiend doth close behind her tread.” Misquoted she thought, but relevant. The momentary relief at remembering that there had been others in her predicament, passed all too soon. She decided to walk faster and the steps behind got quicker too.
Anita flung herself at her flat door, the doorbell did not ring, yet another blasted power cut. She banged hard and after a gap, the door opened. In the dark, with a candle burning dimly at the back, she saw a figure with an open mouth and front teeth missing. She screamed again and again till darkness overtook her.
“The doctor says it’s just exhaustion,” said her father to her weeping mother. “Who would have thought that seeing you with two front teeth just extracted, would have shocked her so.”
Anita did not even try to explain the coincidence. It felt so good just to lie down and breathe normally.
