The Prediction

I wonder if I should begin my story. Actually I cannot keep it all to myself as it has been such a weight on my mind. But there are reasons why I should not come out with it as the repercussion might be very serious. First of all our dear Urban Park Complex might get a bad name and prospective buyers may shun this place. It might also happen that the residents of Urban Park might start abandoning it and take up apartments somewhere else. Then again what if the junior residents start getting sleepless nights and to the annoyance of their parents, keep them up awake also. There is a probability that the ladies too might get gastric upset with constant mental anxiety. Now with so much at stake, I am pondering whether I should relate my story at all.

                

Anyway, I must come out with my story as otherwise, I will start inflating like a balloon with the suppressed desire to tell everyone what had happened. It was the summer of 2019-----might have been the month of June or July. I had retired to bed early, that is according to other people’s standards, at ten o’clock, whilst my two grandchildren are in the habit of burning the midnight lamp. The elder one, Dipti has to study for her Medical whilst the younger one Priyanka always groans and moans about the pressure of the I SC board.

            

 I must have been fast asleep when I was woken up by the sound of the doorknob being turned. Then I heard somebody walking in almost noiselessly and coming to my bed. I being a light sleeper got up and still with my eyes shut inquired anxiously “Dipti is there anything you want?” When there was no answer, still lying down I added: “If you want a book you can turn on the light”. Then I heard a subdued whispering sound. At that, I sat up but saw no one in the room. Then thinking Dipti might not be feeling well and had come to me for some medicine, I quickly got up and went to her room. But there I saw both my grandchildren fast asleep. I was a bit confused but I came back to my room and went to bed thinking I must have dreamed that somebody had entered my room.

                 

Now the next incident happened a few days later. No one was in the apartment. My daughter and son-in-law being doctors had left for their chamber and the girls had gone out for their studies, As I opened the door I saw the drawing-room occupied by a few visitors who were relaxing on the sofas. They were all translucent and very blurry figures. I was taken aback. Perhaps, I was seeing these entities because of my Cataract. I rubbed my eyes to see clearly. Slowly one by one they mingled together and vanished. I then made up my mind to ask my ophthalmologist son-in-law to check my eyesight the next day.

        

Again it transpired that after a couple of days I heard a loud sound as if something had fallen, in the middle of the night. I woke up with a start. I opened my bedroom door and went to the sitting room. Nothing was amiss but I saw the chandeliers swinging to and fro in unison. I wondered whether there had been a storm outside.             

                       

On another occasion, I distinctly heard my daughter Priti calling me at about two in the night. I opened the door but I saw no one. I was puzzled, but then I heard footsteps going out of the door and the door closed with a bang. Perhaps she had been called for an emergency case, but when I went to the door I saw her car keys swinging on the hook. I found it very strange that she should leave her car keys behind so I went to her room and saw both my daughter and son-in-law blissfully sleeping. At this point in time, I started to believe that old age was actually catching up on me. Perhaps the chandeliers were not swinging, neither were the car keys. My weak eyesight must have been responsible for my seeing things moving when they were not, or perhaps the medicines that I was taking were having side effects on my mind and I was hallucinating and seeing weird visions.

             

Then I could not figure out how the flowers I put in my vase got strewn all over the study desk. Besides though I am very fastidious about arranging my things meticulously, invariably I found them scattered as if somebody had been deliberately trying to irritate me. Then in a moment of enlightenment, the answer dawned on me why all these strange happenings were taking place.

               

So disregarding all that the scientific-minded people who had to say that as my faculties are failing due to old age, I asked two of my friends over and requested them to sit at a planchette with me to call the restless Spirits and find out what was troubling them. I had a strong conviction that the Spirits in the other world wanted to communicate with us.

                    

As we sat in a darkened room with our minds in deep concentration, after an anxious five minutes, all of a sudden the window panes started rattling vigorously. Then our dog began barking and going round in circles. They say that dogs can see Spirits. The pencil skittered violently on the board. When we asked what the Spirits wanted to tell us, the reply came as a tremendous shock.

                         

The message was—“-Beware! Leave Urban Park at the earliest-- there will be a massive earthquake in the year 2020 and the towers will crumble and disintegrate into a heap of rubble burying all the inmates.”!!! Then an icy cold current of air began to flow through the room and almost sucked us out of the window. After that, all became calm and still. The fatal prediction had been delivered! Now I feel duty-bound to let everyone know otherwise so many lives may be lost or was it just a fantasy due to the mental aberration of a disoriented mind?!