Unforgettable Chill

Truth be said, I still have not gotten over that experience.

It was a cold day and a hot afternoon and colder night, and six cricket matches had been played in the yard next to my house.

I had scored an overall of ten runs and taken two catches, which in itself was a miracle.

We were around ten really young people with a few slightly elder ones mixed up like a good salad. Every Saturday we came back from school and finished our home work and ran to the road to play.
The big tree next our house had to bear the brunt of our matches.

After play, we went back to our houses and got ready to go to a house just beyond our road end where an elderly couple organized bhajans every Saturday.

And the main attraction of the show was the Prasadam. Each occasion it was different ; each time it was lip smacking and free.

And so the boys gang set out at 7.30 to their house.

Ah, I forgot to tell you the most important thing of the day. Our local road dogs; Grahana, Blacky had just given birth to a new band of puppies and they closely guarded the lower rung of the road, just beyond which the house was located.

They were good dogs on good days and on bad days they were bad. And the first trip had all of us in good spirits and they too were sleeping and we slipped away.

And the Bhajan was as usual done, our minds constantly upon the food counter and it took ages for the uncle to announce the festivities for the day were officially done but not before I bowed in reverence to Lord Hanuman's statue that was kept there.

And it was very late and so the boys decide to walk back home , taking the risk with the local dons.

The twist in the tale was yet to come.
While coming on our initial walk to the house, it was quite dark and the frequency of the night lamps was very small in our area, which meant a shadowy road in a lot of places, and the leader of our gang had already told us something about devils hiding in the trees at night.

Twenty steps in the road, the death trap with the dogs safely negotiated and a shadowy road ahead, the navigation was smooth.

But then the current electricity board decided to enforce a power cut, the road instantly turned pitch black.
The wind picked up speed and the trees began to sway. And we were exactly at the spot where my friend had just explained to us about the devil folklore and we all froze when the dogs suddenly gave a shout that chilled our bones.
It was not a shout but a howl.

And in slow whispers and trembling hands we gripped each others hands, slowly made our way home.

Too dazed to utter anything.

It was a cold night that night.