Paranormal

Yes, I said to my friend , the paranormal surrounds us , draws us in and permeates us . We get stirred by its presence but do not know its dimensions . It escapes the grasp of any scientific inquiry. The unknown spirit grips us in fear . We cannot enter into the realm of the paranormal consciously but unconsciously we feel its presence.

There are many ghost stories on lonely beaches in far off islands and I myself had a bizarre experience of one of these.

As the vapour from my cup of coffee arose , with my friend intently viewing in silence , he interrupted, " you are now dying to tell me a story ; Come now begin !"

My spirit of adventure took me away to a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal. My plane flew over the immense expanse of mangrove and coconut palms before touching down on the island of Port Blair and its surrounding other small islands . As I drew near to land I saw long lonely beaches busking in the sun and scattered cottages among the dark green vegetation . I checked into an inn and refreshed myself from the night long travel. I found that the island had few people, mostly tourists. There were small sheds along the beaches for the visitors to rest and eat. Then I boarded on to a ferry to go to the Havelock island and the journey took four hours .

The ferry had many people and there was enough local cargo that filled a part of the deck . The journey was like riding on a roller coaster as the ferry rode high on the waves and then descended suddenly into the depths , continuously rocking to and fro . To make the journey hilarious one of my fellow passengers asked me to take a seat on the roof and how cool he seemed as he continued to read and whistle throughout the journey . Getting down from the roof seemed dangerous on the rocking deck . There was no food or even a drink of water on the journey except the sight of the dark blue sea . As soon as we reached the shore, there was haste among the people to catch a ride in the bus that took to our destination. The road was winding among the coconut palm trees with the sand covering along the road . My cottage was not very far away from the sea and I reached my destination quickly.

A few cottages huddled together and the rest stood further away. I felt absolutely on my own . I went to have a stroll along the beach following some visitors to the island. I had a taste of some local food on the way and by the time I returned back the sun was about to set in the distant horizon .

As I stood on the beach the waves touched my feet, moving back and forth . I kept keenly looking at the froth on the waves that spilled over the wet sand that continuously soaked them in and then quickly dried away .The evening glow slowly faded into the darkness and everything around me grew black and dark and as the wind began to grow in strength , the waves grew bigger and bigger with the sea hissing and murmuring endlessly.

Just then as I turned my back to the sea and headed towards my cottage , I noticed a big tree with empty branches lying across the beach partly immersed in the water. The tree looked white in the moonlight that brought a feeling of emptiness and dread upon me . At times it looked as though someone was lying on the beach . My cottage was quite close to the beach and as the moon arose the sea almost reached as far as the porch of my cottage. After sometime the tree was almost drowned by the waves. The air was cold enough to give me a shudder and I went indoors. I tried to get a glimpse of the sea through the door that was open . Slowly I lay on the bed and began to read a book .

There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a music was playing on the stereo in the wall. After reading a few pages I fell asleep . In my sleep, I began to hear a melancholy song of love lost and betrayal in a sweet voice which sounded so familiar to me , narrating in her deepest anguish the sad story of her love . My thoughts flowed with the melancholy in her song until I suddenly awoke by the feeling of the immense pricking on my feet by mosquitoes . I had left the door and the window in my cottage open. I opened my eyes in disgust but the lights went out immediately and I was left in complete darkness. The curtains were being blown away by the wind and the window rattled continuously with the sea hissing and murmuring tirelessly outside .

I wondered where did the song come from .I was gripped in fear but could not utter a word. I felt haunted in that lonely cottage and a cold sweat ran over me . But the lights soon came back and everything looked the same as before. But to my surprise there was absolutely no one around and the time was 2 AM past mid night. My supper lay cold on the table . I closed the door and the window of my room and lay in the bed gazing at the chandelier for a while .
Just then I heard the sound of the door unlock and the wind suddenly gush in making the chandelier swing to and fro. As I turned to go towards the door I heard the noise of something fall . I found that my book was lying on the floor.
As I bend down to pick up the book on the floor , I saw something like the feet of a man in white trousers . I could not believe my eyes and as I quickly stood up I saw a reflection of a head in a small mirror on the wall. I was terrified and rushed out of the room and inhaled the moist air from the sea. The lapping waves of the sea caught my eyes and the sound of the waves crushing on the shore filled my ears. After a while I went inside to go to sleep.
When I awoke in the morning the sun was out on a clear blue sky shinning upon the gentle and calm sea. I saw the big fallen tree and I drew near towards it to sit upon one of its branches. As I continued to feel the air around me and view the surging sea in the distance , I experienced a certain calm unlike the anxious moments of the previous night and nearly dozed off , until I felt an uncanny cold touch upon my forehead . I hastened to open my eyes in a stir but there was no one to be seen . On the lonely beach the gentle breeze continued for sometime and as the sun rose high into the sky, the surging waves drew closer and the vast sea began to throw the huge waves that broke upon the rocks and the stones in a terrible fury.

That afternoon, I lay in the veranda of my cottage looking at the distant waves when I heard loud voices talking in the vicinity and I walked away to find out whose voices they were but there was no one . Only a few people were lurking in the shade of the coconut palms in the distance. From my afternoon nap I awoke by the smell of coffee. My stay in the island was filled with mystery .

I returned back to Port Blair on a ferry the following day . I visited a prison of yore on the island where captives suffered cruel punishments and hanged to death on charges of treason. Iron chains still hung and lay on the floor that survived the onslaught of time . Immediately black clouds gathered in the sky and grew dark as night . There were powerful streaks of lightening which lighted up the dungeons in a powerful flash and everything seemed to tremble . The empty cells and the sight of gallows brought an eerie to my mind.

I had to take shelter in an old bungalow nearby . I noticed some old furniture and pictures of the bygone days . As I spent the night in the portico a stranger approached me as the caretaker . He told me that the place was seldom visited and there was a room that always remained closed. He heard strange noises of screams of laughter between the Englishmen followed by a quarrel hurtling objects at each other, creating a commotion .

When the storm cleared I headed back to my cottage . On the following morning I remember hearing strange cries in my sleep . When I inquired about the mystery to some locals they told me stories of people crying in distress from the time the tsunami drowned many people on the island.

"What an incredible story !" said my friend . " I hate to leave though I had a good time listening to you . I would be glad to hear more from you ."
Then one winter afternoon as I sat on the couch enjoying a matinee show, I was startled by a sudden movement that pushed my couch aside and I jumped up instantly .What on earth could that have been ?. It was certainly not an earthquake but it was certainly frightful.