The Soldier Ghost

The mist was just lifting up for them to witness the wild beauty. The towering shades frantic with the sudden squall, the dense green growling in distant thunder and bursts of lightning in the otherwise impenetrable dark, set the stage for a shivering sight. She was not frightened. This was the usual and they had been so used to this since forever that clear days frightened them. For her this was just another day. The only problem was her wandering bird-brained twin brothers; they considered themselves to be so brave that more often than not they were in trouble. The trio were playing hide-n-seek along with three of her friends and it was the twins turn to seek. The sudden storm had forced them to abandon their play and return to safety but they could not find the twins. Not everybody was as spirited as her and thus the search party did not include one of the players. Their parents had warned them of the dire consequences of entering deep inside the woods and they abided by them, not out of fear but out of respect. The twins were always trying to prove their courage by undertaking such foolish tasks and she was sure they had grabbed this opportunity to explore the entire woods. One of the search party member carried a torch and the other a rope, she thought it was wise to carry a stick. The storm had just started. It seemed that the wind had gone crazy in fury, it was roaring and hooting as the thunder banged and screeched while the lightning sparked to complete the light and sound show. One of them understood the futility and danger associated with the rescue mission and urged the other two to take shelter till nature calmed a bit. There was a dilapidated temple on this end of the woods where their fourth member was present and there they decided to rest for a while. She was pale as a sheet, her hands and feet  had turned cold with the apprehension of certain doom, she could hardly move herself. She knew they were precocious unruly idiots but never wanted them to be hurt. The day had presented signs of an eminent storm and her mother had warned her, but she did not listen. One of her playmates, Babu , shook her out of her apparitions and called the others. There were also Raju and Chumki. Raju was the scared eleven-year old, a bit too tall for his age who had stayed behind. Chumki was short and determined and the oldest of the lot. She, Mili, was taller than Babu but shorter than Raju, the fiercest shooter of the group. Her sling, Mr. lal, never missed a shot. Babu was her age and a loyal devotee of Chumki. It was Chumki’s idea to let the storm pass. Chumki knew Mili was scared and all the others were too but to go snooping in the storm would be like inviting doom. She signalled Raju to talk to Mili. Raju, though a bit faint-hearted was good with words and for the time being he convinced Mili that her brothers were inside some tree trunk. Mili with much effort pushed the gruesome images out of her mind and hoped for the best. They had all got used to the pitch dark, when a candle light startled them. It was faint, from down the stairs. As the others got up, ready to inspect, Raju hesitated. Irritated, Chumki nudged him, “ If you want you can stay here alone. Coward.” Raju’s scared weak voice trembled “ Haven’t you heard of the soldier story.” “ Yes, I have,” Babu cried out. “ Softer,” came Chumki’s sharp rebuke. Suddenly Mili exclaimed, “ It can be them. They are always hiding stuff in their pockets. They can have candles and sticks. There was no current the last night. And why would the soldier ghost have a candle?” Chumki nodded, “ Moreover, the story is about a thousand soldier ghosts. It was a platoon, idiot. Not one.” Babu interrupted her, “ No, No. There is another one Chumki.” He was almost sorry to have corrected her, “The new soldier ghost who has one eye, one ear, one nose.” Mili laughed, “ Everyone has one nose. And that is some insane story the twins came up with. You believe them?” Chumki sounded worried, “ What is this one soldier ghost? Why didn’t you guys tell me?” “ You would have laughed as off,” sheepishly cowered Raju. Chumki’s raising brow indicated him to continue, “ Last Sunday, the twins were playing with us. You had gone to your aunt’s house. We had carved out a boomerang and as Babu threw it, it did not return. We promised the twins that if they found it, the next turn would be theirs. The twins did not return even after a long time and we were sick worried. But it was a clear day and so armed with sticks we went around looking for them in three different directions. After a while we returned in front of this temple, completely exhausted without any trace of the twins. The incorrigible mischiefs came out from the temple, scratched and bruised. They had come across a soldier ghost with one eye, one ear, one nose.” Raju took a deep breath and tried to read Chumki’s face in the pitch black surrounding. He knew, unlike Mili, Chumki believed in ghosts. Her own brother had been a victim of these armed ghosts. The silent dark was suffocating Mili. She volunteered to go in alone. Chumki was very strict with rules; she knew, if there was a crisis everybody had to stay together. She finally decided that they would all go down the stairs but they needed a plan. The storm had graduated to a cyclone and calling for help was not an option. The four war-heads collected whatever they found in the ruins carefully and silently. The light was growing fainter and they had to hurry. Armed with sticks, stones and an old shield, that nobody knew how had ended up in a temple, the four stepped forth sneakily. They could not use the torch but they tied themselves to one another with the rope. Chumki guarded the rear and Mili led them forward. The light was flickering as the children tried to adjust their eyes to the uneven steps, unpredictable with age, missing at turns, half broken or fully absent at places, the stairs were the perfect death trap in the enveloping darkness. Mili was a quick thinker and a survivor. Her mother was relieved she was a girl and would not be included in the fights but her father was not. He recognized the rebellious spirit, it had evaded his generation but he felt its presence in his children. Constant escapes and hideouts had made him conservative about joining the fights and sharing his parent’s enthusiasm for rebellion but his daughter was stubborn and smart. Mili took the torch and asked babu to light it from under his shirt, double folded; then with the stick she felt the stairs before stepping. Chumki carried the shield, alert at every sound. Suddenly Raju whispered I smell chicken. Babu smacked him and ridiculed “chicken. It is your growling stomach.” Nobody followed suit. Chumki remarked, “ It is meat. You sure it’s chicken?” Mili replied, “ You think the ghost is cooking the boys?” Raju chuckled, “ It’s chicken. I’m sure. You know I never make a mistake with food.” They did know that. Raju had a gift. He could pick up obscure scents and foods were his specialty. Babu shyly apologized, his tiny nose had failed him, the miserable cold had blocked his nasal cavity; for days he could smell nothing. Mili halted abruptly, “ Guys, I hear voices.” Babu nodded, “ That’s strange.” “ What?” asked Raju. “ There are shadows. Ghosts don’t have shadows. There is a gun see,” he pointed at the moving shadows. The light was brighter this time. They must have lit another candle. Chumki frowned, “ that isn’t the twins Mili.” This time they heard peals of laughter dying down slowly. Suddenly the lights went off and Babu switched off the torch to avoid suspicion. Raju spoke with authority, “ It’s worse than the ghosts Mili. It’s them.” Death descended steadily, wrapping the four merry spirits in dismal gloom. They were the 'enemy' and even the bravest feared their breath. Mili knew, it was possible to escape ghosts but not possible to flee from ‘THEM’. Many of their fellowmen  had been taken by them. Raju had seen a mutilated corpse hanging from the Peepal tree and that was the beginning of his fears, his hesitations and over-cautious behaviour. Milli knew that their parents told ‘they’ were the ghosts of the platoon soldiers who died in the great battle against the British, but they were not. At that time soldiers did not carry such weapons. She had seen these weapons on tv. These are new. And the soldiers were not dead, they bled. Chumki drew a deep breath and assembled the gang. “ Mili and Babu will go looking for the twins. If you two find them, light torch. Take the sticks with you. If you find anyone else, return immediately. Do not try to be smart and pull off some trick.” Both of them nodded in approval and headed forward. Raju looked at Chumki. He admired her nerve. After a while when none of them returned, Raju nudged her, “ I think we should move.” “Which way?”, she sounded scared. With all the courage he could muster he declared, “ Forward. We can’t leave them.”  Meanwhile Babu and Mili were lost. They could not use the flashlight as that would give the wrong signal and thus they could sense nothing. Not a single sign of life. Babu muttered that the other two must have got a bit jumpy as quite some time had passed. Suddenly an all-encompassing scream broke the veiled silence and took the life out of the two scared kids. Both of them stood stupefied unable to move when Milli saw the flickering light approaching along with heavy steps and a screeching metal. She pulled Babu aside against a pillar; they felt a hand on their shoulders and everything blacked out.

When Mili opened her eyes, her friends were right in front of her sitting around a fire. The twins were there too, fanning her relentlessly. Chumki gave her a glass of hot milk and some chocolate. She explained that it was her shriek that had scared them to death. On deciding to go after Milli and Babu, Raju and Chumki had taken the left turn unlike them. There on the floor she stumbled upon the twins and got blood on her hands. She deduced in a moment that the twins were dead and the thundering cry came out spontaneously as she fainted. Raju somehow kept his cool. It had so happened that nobody was dead. The twins were sleeping. They told Raju about the soldier ghost who was actually a very tall bearded man with a cheerful spirit and a wounded foot. The twins had seen him that day with his face bandaged and thus the one eye, one ear story and it was his hands that had scared the duo. He was actually Chumki’s elder brother. He told the children that there were no ghosts. He made them sit together and started the story. “ We are not free children. There are some soldiers who fight for us and some against us. I had to flee the village so that the bad ones don’t get me. Remember Raju the body,” Raju shuddered at the thought, “he was my friend. He was no soldier, still they killed him. They have no honor children. They are evil.” He took a sip of his milk. “ That day I came to see Chumki. She had grown so much, I missed her. But I could not find her. The twins told me that she was out of town. So I stayed in the hope that I get a chance to meet her again,” he cuddled his little sister. “The woods are dangerous children but not because of ghosts but because of men. Stay away from them and never ever become like them. Also let this meet be our little secret. Tell the elders you all decided to take shelter inside the temple. Twins, don’t spill the been.” This storm had passed but the other storm was waiting for the children to grow. The soldier asked about his parents and cautioned them to be careful. The temple was an old hideout and many-a-times it is the enemy who takes shelter here. As they all left the temple, Chumki hugged her brother one last time never knowing when they might meet again. Mili knew what she would learn to shoot now, she did not like the idea of not being free.