Suspense Short Story – Looking through the Window
Photo credit: wallyir from morguefile.com
It felt great to get away from the deafening noises of the crowded city. A bunch of friends had planned a weekend getaway to a resort in a hill station. It was a 5 hour drive from the city. We were half way there and decided to take a snack break. As I wasn’t really hungry, I decided to just sit in the car and take a quick nap.
As I looked out of the window admiring the soothing the rays of the late evening Sun, a familiar tune caught my attention. It was one of my all time favorite songs. The singing was almost perfect. I just had to see the face behind the voice.
I started searching for the singer. There were a few small makeshift houses next to the roadside hotel. With mud walls and a thatched roof, these houses reminded me of the visuals from a classic television series set against a fabled village.
Outside one of these huts I saw an old man sitting on the ground and chewing tobacco. Could he be the voice behind my song, I thought to myself. I decided to wait for him to start singing again.
The old man looked at me and started smiling. It was a familiar smile, as if he had known me for years. He was wearing a ragged shirt missing a few buttons. But he had a divine brightness in his eyes which felt hypnotic.
What happened next left me speechless. The old man got up and within a fraction of a second reached near my car window. It looked like he had floated on thin air.
Before I could comprehend what I had just seen, he knocked on my window and signaled to open it. For some inexplicable reason, I obliged his request and rolled down the car window.
The old man patted my back and said “Listen to your heart and stay back. The doubts you have about moving away are not without reason. Having your loved ones nearby is more valuable than any amount of money.” He started smiling again.
“How did he come to know about what I was thinking!!” I thought to myself. I had not discussed this with anyone in my family or friends. But somehow this stranger knew about the lucrative job offer I had received in the far away city and also about the turmoil in my head about deciding whether to accept it or not. So many questions had popped up in my head simultaneously. I couldn’t figure out which one to ask first.
As I was about to ask the old man who he was and how did he know my secret, I heard my friends coming out of the hotel. I turned around and waved at them to come soon. When I turned back towards the old man, he was gone. I couldn’t see him anywhere. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air. I asked my friends if any of them had seen where the old man had gone. But they swore that none of them had seen any old man near the car or for that matter anywhere in the vicinity.
Our car had started moving again. I was too shocked to speak anything to my friends. Did the old man actually disappear? Was he some sort of a spirit or a ghost? Or was it all just a dream that played out in my head as I fell asleep in the car. I had no answer for this question.
But the advice given by the old man was echoing in my ears. This must be the divine intervention that I have read about in books and stories. I thanked the old man in my mind for helping me out in taking the tough decision.
I heard my favorite song being sung once again. But this time it was one of my friends and listening to his voice was truly excruciating. I punched him jokingly and asked him never to sing again in this lifetime. We all had a good laugh.
The evening Sun had already set. But the road ahead looked bright, with the possibility of many such fun filled outings with family and friends.
__END__
