“None of the other regulars have turned up for the bus today. So there’s just you and me here in the rain.
Well, not quite.
There’s still quite a few vehicles on the roads and the odd cyclist wrapped up
in polythene. Wonder why all drivers in the rain wear the same expression? More
grimly intent on getting who knows where? It’s something I’ve seen since when I
was a child living next door to the waterworks. That was a long time ago, but it
still feels like yesterday.
Even then, the waterworks had seen better
days. There was a tangle of rusting machinery there, moldering and overgrown
with weeds, around a well that had run dry long ago. We were forbidden to play
there, of course. The body of somebody’s kid was found there and the place was
supposed to be haunted. Certainly, everyone avoided it; even the municipality
that was supposed to be responsible for it.
I was a sickly
child as endless bouts of chicken pox, measles and mumps kept me mostly
bedridden. My bedroom window overlooked the moss-covered walls of the
waterworks and as there wasn’t much else to do, I used to spin scary stories of
dark deeds done in the depths of the well.
I don’t remember
all of them now, but they certainly gave me sleepless nights then. Most kids
are afraid of the dark and what’s under the bed. But the monster of my
nightmares was lurking down in the well. It was a sort of giant toad-like
creature, slimy with festering warts. I could swear it was leering horribly up
at me in the dark as the wind whipped at the branches of the trees screening
the waterworks. The thing was quite a blood-curdling sight, with a huge
snake-like tongue flicking through rows of needle-sharp teeth and slobbering
lips. And then there was that awful hissing whisper in the wind…
The nightmares
used to become worse during the monsoons when the rains really came down. That
was until the night of the storm, when the waterworks were struck by lightning.
Funny thing; before the storm, no bird would nest in the trees around the
waterworks or even fly over it, but afterwards it was simply swarming with
vultures. Judging from the smell then, something must have died in there. Anyway, my sleeplessness stopped after that.
Since then, I’ve
come to love the rain. But never mind about that now, here’s our bus at
last...”
Comments
Post a Comment