by John Harker
‘Shiva is just secondary to Hari. Now before you steam me off with anger, I would like to get down to business with you. Why did you want to see me? And the people here now call me Broker Saami because I deal in a little land and matchmaking for the upper caste. They can’t even pronounce it right. Swami has become Saami, Illiterate idiots!’ Saami spat.
‘Well now you have a new variation, I can only call you Broker Sammy no matter how hard I try.’
‘I have no choice. Although, it sounds much better than Saami.’
‘Fair enough. I wish to buy…’ I took a deep breath and spoke ‘the old mansion on the cliff.’
‘But I must warn you, it’s a secluded mansion, old enough to house ghosts of a century.’ Saami warned Richard.
‘I don’t believe in ghosts, Sammy!’ I clarified.
‘They talk about a visitor… the one who haunts the mansion…’ The worried Saami spoke the next few words in a hushed tone, ‘Beware of that frequent visitor…’
‘Have you seen him… this visitor gentleman?’ I asked chuckling.
My chuckle did not go well with the priest. He implied, ‘I have not seen God, but He is there.’
‘Oh, I absolutely forgot that. I am pretty sure there must be some rational explanation behind the so called visits of the visitor.’ I pushed some air out of my lungs and continued, ‘Well, I wish to buy that mansion or at least rent it for some time. I am awfully attracted to the magic of that place. I will tell something that I have not even told my wife.’
‘Go ahead. I am listening.’ The priest assured.
‘I loved an Indian widow, married her and my mother ousted me out of her house four years ago. Since then I never maintained any relationship with my family. Last year my mother passed away, I could not even let her see me before dying; she left half of her fortune to my wife despite all the hatred and ego. I could not forgive myself. I wanted to get rid of my guilt. My wife had given me this coin, she said it is shuvo mudro,’ I showed him the half-rupee coin that my wife had given me and continued,
‘A coin that shall save me from ill-fate. Then I tossed a coin to choose if I should return to normal life and reel under the guilt or take up an exceptional adventure across the length and breadth of Bhaarata to see if my fate leads me to an ultimate destination. Now, after travelling for over a year I come to a final point where I see this beautiful mansion at the edge of a cliff and I felt for the first time in my life that this is my destination. Once again, I let the coin decide my fate. Dear Sammy, I am not a man of God, I am too little to be that, but for one time in my life, I would like to believe in that thing called destiny. I got a feeling the moment I set my eyes on that mansion and the coin confirmed that’
Saami was listening carefully. He shrugged his shoulders and said ‘I see you falling into the trap of your own destiny.’
‘I would not know until and unless I stand there, if it’s a trap or a ladder.’
‘Of course, it is an old and secluded place. You cannot live there with your wife. It might be too dangerous. It is not a good place for women especially. Even if we suppose that there is no ghost like you say, but still, is it safe for a young man as yourself and your wife to stay up there, all alone?’ Saami said with the concern of an elder brother.
‘In that case, I wish to rent the place first. If it is safe, I shall buy it from you later. How does it sound?’ I proposed.
‘You see Mr. Baxter, I am a broker, and it is always good to get my things sold because that is how I get the money. But I do not want to put your lives at risk by misleading you.’ He said.
‘You did not mislead me. You told me the truth the way you know it. Now I still wish to buy it. I take responsibility.’ I assured him.
It was getting unusually cloudy that day, and the sound of thunder could be heard in the distance. Saami sensed an incoming shower. He quickly picked up a thawed umbrella from the shoe keeper’s room. He came back to the spot with the umbrella that was already open.
‘It will start raining heavily anytime now. I think we should call it a day. I shall speak to the owner of the house and get back to you with the rents and formalities at the earliest.’
‘That would be perfect. I shall await your word. But how long should I wait?’ I asked.
‘The owner is the great grandsire of the royal family. Ananthapadmanabha Varma lives in this town itself, however, he has gone to visit his sister-in-law who is married into the royal family of Travancore. He shall be here next week. So give me at least a week.’
‘I shall see you here next week. Goodbye Sammy.’
I took my leave and went my way. I had a long list to prepare.
Chapter 25
19thDecember 1947
As agreed, Sammy came back with some good news the following week. The owner had agreed upon renting the house on the sole condition that the tenant should take responsibility of any mishap. This was to be signed on paper along with the other formalities. The man was not a greedy property owner as it seemed from his gesture. He did not ask for any rent at all, as he was sure that I would not live there for more than a week. The last tenant had run off on his first night itself. If I managed to live there for a month had I had to pay the month’s rent, which was fair enough.
I wrote to my beloved that it was time to pack her bags and get in a train to Madras. I had already asked my friend to arrange for the ticket in Calcutta. I went to Madras, picked her up, and we boarded a train to Kochi. That was the plan. But little did we know that destiny had a slightly different plan for us.
Chapter 26
Clifford Mansion
26th December 1947
Winter in the tropical region of the country was less chilly, just like Calcutta; one could take a dip in the tub ten times yet come out without freezing. We had the mansion for ourselves. Lavanya loved the mansion. She loved and accepted everything that I loved, and that was the reason why she was so special. I had been missing her for a long time, but now she was with me again. During daytime, a fisherman’s wife came to help with the cleaning of the mansion. It was huge and old and needed a lot of looking after. She always left before sunset for she feared the wrath of the visitor. Her mouth never ran out of tales and rumors about the legend of the land.
We had spent two days and two nights in the mansion but we were yet to hear from the Visitor. On the third day the maid seemed pretty tense and clumsy in her duties. I was very intrigued to know the reason and I was sure it had something to do with the legendary Mr. Visitor. I put down the book that I had started to read and looked at the maid. She was toiling the sweeping pad off and forth on a perfectly clean floor.
‘Chinnama,’ that was her name, ‘If you sweep any longer, you might rub off the floor itself. Is there something bothering you today?’ I asked.
She gave me a tense look. The very next moment we heard a knock on the door followed by summons of ‘Mr. Baxter, are you home?’
I recognized the voice immediately. It was Broker Saami.
I opened the door and welcomed him, ‘Please come in, Sammy.’
‘Thank you Mr. Baxter. I hope you are doing well.’ He said while stepping inside. He was bare-chested, with just a piece of white silk on his shoulders.
‘We have had a pleasant stay, no ill-wills whatsoever.’ I said confidently.
‘Well of course, I see that you have succeeded to pass the first two days. But there is something about the visitor that I wished to tell you. So, I came all the way.’
I sensed another warning from his tone. I asked, ‘and that would be?’
‘I have not been able to sleep for the past one week because…’
‘…Of the mosquitoes? I know, they have been taking my sleep away too.’ I interrupted him and chuckled.
‘That was not funny, Mr. Baxter. Ever since the day I met you, I have been getting duswapnas.’ He shivered as he said.
‘Duswapnas?’
‘Yes, bad dreams you see. Moreover, since the day you moved in here,
the dreams have gotten worse and I have not slept for three days. I think I see him, you and your wife. These are all omen, signs of something bad, something which you do not believe in, of course.’ He was already sweating in the heat.
I asked Chinamma to bring a cool cup of buttermilk for the exhausted priest. On her way to the kitchen, she stumbled and fell on the floor. The fall was a light one. Embarrassed, she got up and moved into the kitchen.
‘I do not know why this woman is behaving so clumsily today. She has been falling and breaking things since morning.’ I accused.
‘Of course, she will. After all, tonight is the night of pournami- full moon.’ He hissed like a serpent.
‘So?’
‘This is the night of the visitor.’
‘Oh Sammy, dear old Sammy! Why do you keep telling me such annoying stories?’ I exclaimed.
Lavanya had heard a foreign voice in conversation with me, so she came down to see who it was. I introduced her to the priest and she joined us. The maid brought the buttermilk and each of us took a tumbler full of the cool drink..
‘You were telling?’ I asked the priest.
‘The legend goes like this…
Chapter 27
‘The mansion was built in the summer of 1920 by the great grandfather of His Highness as a wedding gift for his only daughter Sreevidya Devi. However, this did not go down well with his stepson Mrityunjaya. There was a rumor that Mrityunjaya had an affair with a woman belonging to the Nair clan. The rumor turned everyone in the family against him. His father ousted him out of the family.
The grand wedding took place in this very mansion and all the royal and holy ones of the land attended it. There was an assembly of forty-eight elephants right outside this door. However, Mrityunjaya was excluded from the grand affair. The marriage took place and the couple was to spend their aadhya raatri or the ceremonious first night here. All the close family members and friends were staying back in the mansion that night. The night was breezy and the moon was full. When the next day dawned upon the mansion, nobody woke up. There was absolute silence. The townsmen grew suspicious of that silence and a few reached the mansion. They found a hundred and eight sleeping bodies; bodies that would never wake up again; they had all slept to death. Each and every member of the family was dead including the bride, groom as well as His Highness. No heir left alive except for Mrityunjaya, who did not die because he did not attend the wedding. All eyes were on Mrityunjaya, for he had motive to kill them. However, there was no proof. Someone had poisoned the entire family.
How? Who? When? What? Nobody knew. Mrityunjaya was the only legal heir left. He inherited everything. He married a girl from the royal family of Tripunithura shortly after the inheritance. He had always been a pathetic human being who craved for money, intoxication, and women. He sold off most of the property in the city for money that he used for gambling. He would come here every night when there was a full moon with a woman of his choice and would rape the life out of her. Some survived, most did not and they were thrown into the sea.
Mrityunjaya had two sons, one from his wife and the other from one of the women who had survived his exploits of one moonlit night. The woman left the newborn baby at the doorstep of the mansion and jumped into the sea. This illegitimate son was born when Mrityunjaya was thirty six. Although, he had started hating everyone by that time, he developed a soft corner for this little baby. The psychotic man raised him amidst his fancy exploitations of desire. He grew up here witnessing the lunatics of his father. The boy became a social outcast. Upon learning that that he had a stepbrother, Mrityunjaya’s elder son, Chandrasena, came to the mansion with sentries to take custody of the young one. However, upon arriving they found two dead bodies; one that of a naked Mrityunjaya and the other of some woman who was half-naked and on top of the dead man. The illegitimate son was found in his room attempting to hang himself from a rope. The sentries came in at the right time, they stopped him. The elder son took charge of the illegitimate son and took him home. The elder son had been married to the princess of Thiruparayur and had a son who was the same age as this illegitimate son. Therefore, he raised this stepbrother like his own son and gave him proper education and a life that a boy deserved. Since that day, nobody ever came back to this mansion. It was locked forever.’ the priest stopped and took a sip of his buttermilk.
‘Just because some crazy old man lived and died here does not mean that…’ I wanted to reason but I was interrupted by the priest.
‘… However,’ he licked his upper lip and cleared off the cream that had settled on the surface and spoke, ‘two years back, the people of the shore saw some light from the upper window on a full moon’s night. Some claimed that they had heard shrieks and moaning of a woman. However, nobody had the courage to go up there and check. But the next day, the fishermen found a floating dead body of a naked woman in the sea. A woman who was never seen in this region before. Since then there have been over twenty instances of a light in the house, one every full moon of the month, and six dead bodies have been found in the sea. The dead bodies were found exactly after the night of Pournami. Tonight is Pournami. Nevertheless, we have not witnessed any encounters in the past six months, so some believe that the visitor has gone back to hell.’ He ended his story.
‘You never told me about the dead bodies.’ I accused. I glanced at Lavanya. She was tense and pale with horror.
‘I had warned you about the visitor.’ Saami defended himself.
‘Yes, you said there was some ghost! But you never told me about the recent happenings.’
‘I warned you that the ghost visits the place. You never listened, you kept mocking at me.’ He cried.
‘But why do these ignorant people warn outsiders to stay away?’ I asked as I had been told by quite a few people I met last week in the town.
‘That is because Mrityunjaya only brought women from foreign soil. He never brought women from Kochi. Most of the women were from Kovai, Mysore or Malabar. Outsiders they all were! Mrityunjaya hated the natives so much that he only brought outsiders for pleasure and pain.’
I asked Lavanya to retire as I did not want her to burden herself with such stories. After she left with the maid, I showed Saami the way to the door.
‘If you want, you can stay at my house tonight in the town. At least you can skip this night of Pournami.’ Saami offered. His eyes were red filled with tears of regret and horror.
‘That would not be necessary Sammy, I do not believe in such legends. The man is dead. As for the dead bodies, they might have belonged to some tourists or ignorant souls who slipped from the cliff at night, or of people who committed suicide. It is also scientifically believed and proven that the sea carries bodies, dead and alive, across continents, so those bodies may have been carried by the sea from some distant shores. Just think empirically. And in case if there is some killer here, I can take care of him. I do have a gun, not as rusty as my fingers, but yes I know how to use it well.’ I reasoned and smiled confidently.
‘But Mr. Baxter…’
‘Good evening Sammy.’ I said and shut the door on the poor Brahmin. I heard him chant some mantras in Sanskrit and fade away into the distance. If anything had to happen, it would and I was ready to deal with it.
Chapter 28
Later that night
The night was rather eerie. The full moon thickly covered by evil clouds and the sound of thunder occasionally bolted in chorus with the howling of Chennaya. It would be raining soon. Lavanya had gone off to sleep early. She had been upset after hearing the story from the priest earlier that day. I enjoyed it as a story, for it was a perfect plot for some Hitchcockian suspense thriller but too absurd to be true. In fact, reality was the most rational case of the absurd. Talking about absurdity, I was about to read this highly talked about book by a French chap called Albert Camus. The French write weird things that the English world cannot understand or appreciate. I had picked up the English translation of the book from London. I had hea
rd a lot about it; praise and criticism from the same mouths, and I wanted to experience the story of the stranger. I took the book and a lantern into the study room after a solitary dinner. I placed the lit lantern alongside the book on the reading table and sat on the wooden chair. After adjusting the intensity of the light, I put my right hand into my breast pocket and brought the shining half rupee coin out and examined its surface under the incandescent light of the lantern. I thought about the visitor's story and how I had placed myself in the lap of that legend, all because I let my life follow the toss of a coin. I sighed and placed the coin on the table. I opened the book and started reading.
Suddenly I heard the sound of glass shattering and it came from the staircase. I got off from my chair, picked up the lantern with my right hand and started walking towards the staircase. I must have looked like a maiden in distress. I was curious, not scared of course. The mansion had two staircases, one was a typical spiral one that led to the terrace and the other one was a closed compartment that led to the cellar. The sound came from the one that went down to the cellar. I was presuming some valid explanation for the same. But the continuous thundering did raise the hair on my arms. The staircase commenced beneath the wooden floor that was just half a dozen steps to the right of my reading table. There was a square tile that had to be pulled in order to open this passage. The tile had a small handle and a high tensile bronze bolt that locked it from outside. I unbolted it and I pulled it open. It was pitch black below and smelled like pungent vinegar. There was a distinct buzzing sound. I sneaked inside; the light from the lantern partly illuminated the dark world. Upon placing my leg on the third or fourth step, I felt as if I had stepped on something. It felt like broken glass. Indeed it was broken glass. I swept the lantern across the pungent air right in front of my face. I kneeled down and let the light hit the step where I had found broken glass. On the next step, there was a glass jar and top edge of it had a piece fallen off, on which I had accidentally stepped. So, that was the sound I had heard. But what was this glass jar doing there and who had broken it five minutes ago? There was no other passage to the cellar, and if someone had broken in, he or she must be still inside. I descended downstairs carefully and the buzzing increased with each step I took. I reached the cellar; my foot was finally on the mushy floor of the basement. I was surprised to see that there was a wall right in front of me. The buzzing sound seemed to come from behind me so I turned around. To my surprise there was a golden glow behind the staircase. I walked past the staircase and there it was a splendid sight for the eye. A room of gold!
