“Where have you hidden it?” asked Nihal
Pranit looked with wide eyes, sweat rolling down the side of his head.
“So, you are not going to tell me,” said Nihal, “Do you know what I do to those who don’t listen to me?”
Nihal raised his arm in a fold with his hand forming into a punch. Pranit wanted to close his eyes and raised his own arms to protect himself from the hit, but he didn’t. This time he pushed himself ahead, grabbed Nihal and tackled him to the ground, and that is when the dream faded and Pranit woke up to another morning.
Pranit had just begun high school. The nightmares were a constant occurrence despite his parents being very understanding of the situation. They had tried quite a lot to help Pranit and were very hopeful and indeed some progress had been made. The progress was him getting a full night’s sleep unlike before. The nightmare had started losing its control for some reason.
Nihal was however not a creation of a dream. He was a boy in the real world, not particularly known for his kindness. He bullied the younger children and when Pranit was small Nihal used to tell him, “I am just waiting for you to grow up more before I can get to you.”
Pranit’s fear of Nihal grew more as time passed. His imagination combined with what he saw and heard Nihal do led to the beginning of the nightmares. One day Nihal was gone, his kidnapping was over the news; the police came into the society asking questions. Meanwhile the parents made sure their children did not know of it and the absence of social media back then helped. The children were told that Nihal had gone to his grandparents’ house where he would stay for a long vacation and no one knew when he would be back.
Pranit was still afraid of the day Nihal would come back and get to him just like he had said he would.
“I got him this time,” said Pranit at the breakfast table to his mother
“Really? What did you do?” asked Mrs Basu
“I hid his bicycle and when he tried to punch me, I tackled him down. I think he might learn a lesson,” said Pranit
“Oh..” said Mrs Basu
“But I find something odd,” said Pranit
“What?” asked Mrs Basu
“I think I am growing, but he is the same as he was when he went to his grandparents’ house. Maybe this is why I am becoming stronger than him,” said Pranit
Mrs Basu did not talk anything further in the matter, thinking of how one day Pranit will outgrow his nightmare completely, hopefully before he learns of the harsher truth.
Nihal was not found.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 