School

He stood outside his school. Several years had gone by since the last time he had stepped in. It was late afternoon and the place was strangely deserted. He stood outside the main gate, the large red coloured building in front of him. It was not an architectural marvel. It was a plain red coloured building, spanning in a rectangle, running around a central garden with classrooms on all four sides. It was the way he remembered it. The main gate was split into three parts, two large parts and one smaller gate built into one of the larger parts. Given the time of the day, the larger parts were closed, for there would not be anyone coming in and out. Only the smaller part was open. Again, just the way he remembered it. Surprisingly, there were no guards. He stepped through the grey coloured main gate. The entire place was silent. There were no bicycles in the cycle stand. The canteen was closed. “Strange”, he thought to himself.

There were two entrances to the school. The main gate which was located further ahead and a smaller one close by where one could enter passing through a small collapsible channel gate. He saw someone come out of the side entrance and stood there looking at him. He could not discern the face at the distance (for the entrance was at some distance from the main gate) but the stance and the outline looked familiar. He walked a little more and realized that it was his friend, perhaps one of the earliest friends he had from his school days. He walked ahead to meet him. He was delighted to see his friend. They had not met in years. His face showed pleasant happiness but no surprise. It had just a little trace of smile, yet it was not serious. They met without exchanging any words. “What was his friend doing here? What was going on?” he thought.

They stepped inside the school through the side entrance. There was a long corridor with classrooms on each side. In the first glance, nothing had changed since his days at the school. Yet as they stepped into one of the classrooms, he realized that it had been converted into a guest room. “Weird! Why should they have a guest room in the middle of the school?” he mused, but he did not say anything to his friend.

There were two people in the guest room. A young girl and a middle-aged man, who he understood to be her father. The girl was standing on one side, the man standing next to a wash basin, brushing his teeth. “This is insane!” he thought to himself, as they both stood and saw the man brush his teeth, while the daughter stood there, as if she were a statue. He turned his attention to the man. On closer inspection he found that his skin was loose and soft, the first markings of approaching old age. He was wearing faded khaki coloured trousers and a vest. He had a long face, balding hair, and a protruding stomach. His arms were fleshy, the loose skin being more prominent as he moved his hands slowly while brushing his teeth. He did not turn his attention to the daughter.

“Something is wrong”, he thought. ”Why are we here? I need to tell him something. Something is terribly wrong here” he thought, but could not bring himself to any action. His attention was caught by the reflection of the man in the mirror. Something about the way the toothbrush was moving. He could not exactly place his finger on what but there was a sickening sinking feeling in his guts. The man finished brushing his teeth. There was a slab of stone right below the base of the mirror, on which he placed the toothbrush. He rinsed his mouth and then turned to him and his friend.

The toothbrush! The reflection was not next to it, but almost towards the middle of the mirror! He pointed at it, at a loss of words. The sickening sinking feeling made him realize he was in trouble. The daughter moved to her father’s side. They both saw the reflection and took a step back, closer to the exit and closer to his friend. The toothbrush had a cap to keep the bristles from dirt etc. The reflection in the mirror began to move up and down, imitating the action of the man who was no longer brushing his teeth. Then the cap began to move, as if trying to say something.

He was scared now. What the hell was going on? He took a step back as the reflection began to take the shape of a skull. Then the man’s face was gone and it too was replaced by a skull, their jaws moving, as if trying to say something. Or perhaps laughing at him. He opened his mouth to shout but no words came out.

He jerked out of sleep, sitting up in the bed, the visions of a laughing skull disappearing into the darkness of the room. His face was covered in sweat. By the way the street light was filtering in through the curtains and on the wall he knew it was 5 in the morning. There was absolute silence. He hit the switch board and the lights flickered on. He sat, waiting for his breathing to return to normal. He knew there would be no more sleep for him. He sat around in silence, the second hand of the clock ticking away. He usually liked the sound but for the moment, it was unnerving.

“What did it all mean? Who was the man? Why was I there? Where did that friend come in from? What was he doing there? Who was the girl?” and so on…questions that would haunt him…answers, he would never get…

- Parekh, Pravesh

October 1, 2013; 06:00 AM