By Rimly Bezbaruah

She must have been about five, the eldest child of lower middle class parents. Times were tough; a lot of the household chores were on her tiny shoulders, since employing a maid was an expensive affair. It was on one such evening, after a day's hard work, she decided to eat some puffed rice mixed with mustard oil and salt, while sitting on the steps behind her house. The time of the day was twilight, the bewitching hour. She sat there all by herself engrossed in her own world, facing the forbidden thick woods that were supposedly haunted. She had heard stories that there was a dark pool somewhere in the center of this grove where a headless abomination waited to possess people. She was told time and again never to venture into those woods which seemed almost impenetrable, dark and murky.

Now when we were growing up we were often warned about the twilight hour. It was neither day nor night, suspended in between, a time when ghouls, witches and evil spirits lurked to catch young children. Some of the instructions went like this: never go out alone, never eat fried things alone during these hours outside the house, if you fail to do so you will be taken, etc. We had to be home before that time to be safely tucked away inside the confines of our home.

So there she sat eating her snack when all of a sudden she dropped everything and started running towards the darkness ahead. It was as if something or someone was beckoning her, luring her. She was a precocious child and it was very unlikely that she would cross that boundary without fear. But there was no fear in her. If it hadn't been for her father and his driver who happened to look out and seen her striding towards those woods, she would have been lost forever that fateful evening. It was rumored that people never returned from those woods. It would have been so easy for a child to be lost there and nobody would have thought of looking for her in those woods.

She was her father's precious daughter but when he called out her name that day he got no response from her. It was as if she was in a trance and something more attractive called her towards those woods. By the time both her father and the driver ran towards her, she had already entered the dark world. She was running so fast to whatever it was that was calling her that it was difficult for them to catch up with her. When they finally caught up, they again called out to her but she didn't seem to recognize them. She refused to stop; whatever had possessed her had given her unimaginable strength for such a young child that she threw her father when he tried to hold her arms. Her voice sounded different and she kept saying that she had to go. It was a tug of war that took both adults to drag her back while she tried to move deeper into those woods. By the time they managed to pull her out of that sinister place she was incoherent and was frothing in the mouth and finally lost her senses.

In today's modern world there could have been a lot of explanation for this. Doctors would say it was an epileptic attack. Psychologists would say that she had some deep seated insecurity that she was unhappy and so wanted to run away. Theories and conjectures would have been plenty. But those days people believed that unexplainable things existed, that there are spirits and apparitions that roam amongst the living trapped here on this earthly realm. So the most logical action for the parents was to call for a witch doctor to exorcise her. It took a couple of hours for her to be exorcised and all the time she writhed and convulsed, frothed in the mouth and spoke in a voice that was alien to all present. Finally out of sheer exhaustion she went into a deep sleep. She still remembers to this day, the thrashings to her body as the exorcist tried to get whatever that had possessed her to leave her body. It took a couple of months for her to finally feel normal and healthy.

Later when she was strong enough her parents had asked her what had made her go to the woods, the reply that she gave had her parents break out into goose bumps and reaffirmed their belief that whatever had happened to their daughter was a possession that could have been fatal.

There was a family that had lived next door who had three daughters. Their daughter had become very attached to the elder girl of that family. Whenever she had the time she would go and spend it with this girl. Having very young siblings with whom she could not really communicate this five year old had the neighbor's daughter who was like an elder sister, a companion who loved and pampered her. Then one day due to some personal problem their neighbors left and nothing was heard of them. The little girl missed her friend very much and always hoped that someday she would have her friend back again. Then one day, the parents heard that the elder daughter of that family had died of some incurable disease. They decided not to tell their daughter and subject her to any pain. They wanted her to remember this friend with happiness.

So when their daughter said that it was her friend standing that evening by the edge of the woods calling out to her, the parents were chilled to their bones. She was dead many months ago so how was it possible that their daughter saw her that evening? Was it her ghost? Or was it the little girl's imagination? Did she miss her friend so much that she conjectured her friend in her mind? Was she delusional? Or was it something evil that took her form to lure the little girl into the woods? Was it truly a possession? Questions are many but no logical answers.

(That little girl was my mother)