In the unusual hours of midnight, I was standing in front of room 301. There was no one in that row and no rooms were seen, other than the room that was seen in front of me. The door of the room was open as if it appeared to be intentionally open. I was in my usual police khaki uniform and I couldn’t recollect why was in the attire in such wee hours. I opened the door a little more, without seeking permission. The door gently opened, and to my surprise, a reasonably tall, sensual and voluptuous woman of mid-thirties was standing and looking at me. Her eyes were appealing, and her smile was equally charming. I hadn’t seen that woman before. I was naturally pulled by that appeal and I let myself inside the room to satiate the beauty. There was no one in the room - only books were all around: from engineering books to prominent fictional novels - it might not be impulsive to say that she was waiting for me. I lovingly touched her waist, caressed and pulled her to my direction. I could sense a breezy romance and mutual attraction existing between us. We paused and looked at each other, and I said, “your smile is killing me”. She smiled again.
I began to unbutton my shirt to make myself comfortable to initiate the act of darkness. I politely kissed her cheeks and she passionately reciprocated at my lips to my satisfaction. I carried and deposited her onto the bed. The act of lovemaking continued for a few more minutes, but that was halted by a sudden telephone call. I took the call at my understandable frustration. On the other end, the voice heard, “V.H. Hospital … she is in an emergency; she should be moved to ICU immediately”. “The beds are unavailable right now”, said the other voice. I started to interfere, “who is critical, please explain”, I began to search for words. Nobody bothers to listen, “Her skull is severely fractured, we must find beds and move to ICU immediately”, and the call disconnected. I turned back and she was not in the bed. Someone knocked on my door; I opened the door with anxiety, and I was not sure who closed the door in the first place. “I am from Press, Mam asked me to meet today”, said a random person but disappeared without waiting for a reply. I decided to leave the place and noticed a note, “Meet Parthasarathy at 9 AM tomorrow”. As I moved out, her body was lying down and heavily stained with blood, and rattling sound of a train was heard to be passing nearby. I was fainted and perplexed; I shut the door and escaped from the room with trepidation.
It was a Sunday afternoon and I woke up from my afternoon nap. I knew afternoon dreams used to be crazier, but that was crazier enough to ruminate about the dream further. Though I couldn’t recollect the complete dream or understood the essence of it, I had vague images of that scene ingrained in my mind. As I drank water, I tried to recollect the important takeaways – that I obviously remembered – from my dream: the beautiful lady standing and waiting for me, an emergency call from V.H hospital, and a note to meet some person. I vividly remember the image of the lady who had come to my dream. I got curious if I could find out the lady in real. Since the hospital name that came in my dream seemed to be a real one, I searched through the hospital for its contact and dialled in. No one picked up. I didn’t mind disturbing their afternoon dreams and dialled in again. Someone picked up. After a brief pause, I said, “I am Kadhir, sub-inspector police of S3 station, Mambalam, I have an enquiry to make”
“Sure sir, what I can do for you”, said the other voice.
“Was there any emergency today”, I quizzed
“Every day, every hour, we would be attending some sort of emergency, we are multi-facility hospital sir”, She tiringly replied, as she was looking for specificities in my questions.
“No, I mean … Did we had an emergency on a person who had a skull fracture and was there any problem with respect to the availability of beds when moving the patient to ICU”, “… and I am looking for a lady”, I tried to recollect as many details as possible to locate her.
“Oh… wait a minute, there was a lady named KayalVizhi admitted two days ago. She had a skull fracture and yes, there was a scarcity of beds, we sorted it out, considering the situation of the patient. But that was internally discussed - how did you get the inside information if I may ask”, she was quite puzzled.
“KayalVizhi…. Sounds interesting… did she survive”
“No sir, she wasn’t. we tried our best in reviving her. She had met with a train accident; she tried to step down from the speeding train when the train didn’t stop at the station that it was supposed to do so. She must be really anxious and desperate to do that”
I was dejected to hear that, “Okay, who is she? I would like to know more details about her. Please send me a picture of her if you have archived. It’s for an important enquiry”
“Sure, sir will send it right away. She was a staff at C.I.T college. One of her friends accompanied her throughout, you may talk to her to get more details”
“Okay … send me the information right away”, I unwillingly ordered.
In a few minutes, my phone buzzed, and I received a picture of her. I couldn’t believe that the picture was that of the same person who had come in my dream. I also received the contact of her friend named Rita. I dialled in her number immediately and scheduled an appointment with her on the next day, as I was getting more curious about my dream to get more details. On that night, my head started to pain, and it was unusual of me to have pain as such because I was not prone to such aches before. I tried with different pain neutralizers, but nothing helped. I had to spend the entire night keeping my eyes open.
Next day, I went and met a friend of KayalVizhi, Rita. She was quite nervous, as she was unsure about the purpose of the meet. She was wondering if the possible reasons that a sub-inspector could have had to call her for a private meet.
“Hey Rita… Let me get it straight… it’s for an enquiry. I understand that you were with Kayalvizhi at the hospital and at the time of her death. Can you tell me more about her and about the accident”, I questioned her purposefully.
“Sir, I had provided the same details to the policeman who enquired me at the hospital. Let me tell you again – it was an accident. I guess that She had been nervous for a few weeks. On that day, she was anxious than ever before. She said she wanted to meet some professor…”
“which professor, do you know his name”, I impatiently asked.
“I think it’s Parthasarathy”
It struck me again. I guessed that it was the same name that was mentioned in the note mentioning, “MEET PARTHASARATHY AT 9 AM”.
“Do you have any more detail about him?”
“I don’t know. I have been here only for the last three months. What I have been hearing from her is that he’s the infamous womanizer in the university. She might have faced troubles or harassment from him. Probably, in hindsight, that could be the reason for her anxiousness and nervousness”, she suspected.
“More likely be”, I said firmly
Even that night, my sleep was disturbed again with a severe headache. The pain was more pronounced, heavier and worse than the previous day. I tried with different pills and felt that the pain was such that none of the medicinal substance could have the potential to cure it. Along with the deadly pain, I was able to hear a voice that told me, “KILL PARTHASARATHY”. The voice and the pain were continual throughout the night, and I was deprived of sleep for the second day.
Next day, I visited C.I.T university and enquired about Parthasarathy, among students and the passer by. Most of the people commented that he had been a womanizer, but he had been a nice person. Then, I got hold of one staff who worked closely with the professor. Firstly, he was reluctant to share any detail. I introduced myself as a person who was sent by head of the university to review about the conduct of the professor. Then, he opened. He too opined that the professor was a habitual womanizer before, but in the recent times, he never involved in such activities – probably he was too busier in his academic pursuits or he completely changed his conduct.
“Ok... what about his relationship with KayalVizhi?”, asked him the vital question.
“I don’t think there exists any relationship between the two. Unfortunately, she died last week. She was a temporary staff in the department; she was literally behind the professor to make her permanent in her job. But the professor was not happy with her work”
“Is there any specific reason …?”
“I don’t know about it. In fact, I overheard once that she would go to an extent of filing a false sexual harassment case against him. But the professor didn’t pay attention to that allegation either”
Oh, really… is the professor completely considered to be transformed then?”
“I don’t know about that. I have a class to take. In case of anything further, will talk to you later”
I was baffled to hear that discussion. A sense of confusion and predicament stepped into my mind and I was wondering if I were on the wrong side or I was just a tool for someone to do insidious acts. Whatever it might be, the pain and the voice to kill PARTHASARATHY didn’t allow me to sleep for the third day. If someone had a ghostly potential to voice inside me, I complained to myself that why it couldn’t do ghostly acts to achieve what it wanted. I surmised that the spineless ghost might not have the potential to achieve its objective. Surprisingly, neither the pain nor the voice was recognisable during the day. With the three continuous nights deprived of sleep, I had decided and wanted to put an end to the stalemate on the following day. Next day evening, I visited the railway station and waited for the professor to board the train. I got to know that the professor would usually leave college at 8 PM and board the train at 8.30 PM. I was nervously waiting for him. He arrived and boarded the train at his usual time. I followed him. It was crowded as we boarded. As time passed by, the crowd was getting disappeared and offboarded to their respective stations. I kept an eye on him throughout. He appeared to be gentle and mindful. After a few more stations passed by, it was only me and him in the compartment. He stepped up from his seat and got ready to get down. I didn’t have another minute to make a judgement or revisit the predicament that I had till then. I went ahead with my initial plan, as I was just helpless. I daringly pushed the professor out of the train with no one has noticed. I heard the people in the adjacent compartments shouting at him being fallen out of the train, but the train halted only at the next planned station. I stepped down from the train. Neither I was relieved not I did have pride in what I did. I calmly sat down and reflected on the events since the dream had happened.
After 10 minutes, I received a call from my senior inspector.
“Hey, Kadhir Looks like there’s was someone who was fallen down from the moving train near Mambalam. Please visit and enquire. It’s a second similar incident in a week “
“yes, Sure”
“One more thing, the corruption case against you has come back. Kadhir, do not take me wrong”
“Sir, I would have been that way before, but I am not corrupted anymore”
I disconnected the call and I realized the mistake what I did to Parthasarathy. I called my junior constable to attend and enquire the case. I was sure that he must be dead. I walked back to my home with heavy thoughts. I missed my supper, and I slept that day peacefully, but not so peacefully.