A MYSTERIOUS TELEPHONE CALL
Ring……Ring…….Ring……….
The telephone on the mantel rang out loud and clear. I rubbed my eyes and sprang out of the cozy sofa on which I had fallen asleep (without my knowledge) in front of the fire place. I looked at my watch the luminescent hands of my watch showed that it was three minutes past two in the night –what a time to call! Who could be calling?
I picked the receiver and held it to my ears. And before I could speak into it, a voice on the other end started laughing out loud-in a devilish kind of away. I then spoke into it.
“Hallo”! Good evening. May I know who’s on the other side, please?
I at once felt that I should have wished a good morning to the caller. But there was no time to make amends then. However the voice did not stop laughing. And about what seemed ages, it finally controlled its laughter and spoke to me.
“Oh my God… (Laugh) … Smell all around yourself. There is danger lurking around the corner (laugh) (laugh) (laugh)…I want you to meet me (laugh).. I am serious now.”
“What? Are you mad? ,I barked at the voice and then hung up. I had almost resolved to down that diabolical creature, if ever I met her ,in the Pacific if I could help it.
However, waving aside all thoughts, I want back to the sofa after poking the fire in the fireplace, which was now burning low. Sleep engulfed me and I went tack to my fantasizing dreams of cruising the Atlantic aboard a luxury ship.
The next morning, I woke up to find the lamp still burning over the mantelpiece. I then remembered in the flash what I had happened the previous night. I checked the caller Id. I found the idiotic number. I dialed that number and listened to the some old recorded message, in three different languages.
“Please check the number you have called. This number does not exist.”
It was puzzling for me. But I forgot about it in the day’s schedule. That night, the telephone shrilled out about the same time and it came from the same number. However I did not try to waste my time speaking to some old crackpot and so I let it ring.
The next day I mailed the number to the call centers across the part of the country I was staying in. It really was very strange that the number could not be traced any where. When the same caller called up that night, I had made up my mind to tell her a few things about what I thought of her .But she spoke first.
“I was killed this everyday, on this very plot of land on which your stands today. I was helpless then. I am captured here and want to be free.. Please help me out of here.”
I hesitated and said ,” what do I do to help you?”
The voice said,” just come down into the back garden and lift up a small round stone near the banyan tree to uncover a small hole in the ground.”
“Are you sure?”, I asked ,hesitant still.
“Yes, yes, I am .Please let me out of here. Please…”and the rest of her words were drowned by her sobs.
I hurriedly went down to the banyan tree. Dried leaves covered the ground. I moved some leaves and found a stone about size of a cricket ball. I lifted it up and from inside the Earth rose a white most which took the form of a beautiful but very old lady dressed in white. She looked like Cinderella’s fairy godmother, or at least resembled her.
She said her name was Margaret and had been buried alive by some cruel men on that very plot of land. She thanked me with all her heart and vanished like a puff of smoke.
I went back to bed and tossed and turned in bed, chewing upon the proceedings of the night.
The next morning, I woke up and remembered what had happened the previous night .was it a dream or had it happened in reality?