Rain Flower
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“The old house? Have you heard it clearly?” Jasmine at once became alert.
“Yes, I have heard it so clear. What they have discussed about that old bungalow I don’t know but I have heard the words so clearly I must say.”
“I see.” Jasmine nodded her head. “It is very important. I think that Tippu might have asked my brother to go to that old bungalow.”
“May be you are right. But why Tippu asked your brother to go to that old bungalow?”
“We cannot say until we do talk with that Tippu.” Jasmine hissed out heavily. “But your description of his expression is surprising me. Tippu is a very good friend to my brother always. Sadistic expression on his face and crooked smile on his lips, I cannot understand!”
“May be I was mistaken.” Marissa said.
“Alright.” Jasmine squeezed her shoulder with her right hand. “Thank you very much for the information you have shared with me.”
***
“What do you want to talk with me madam?” as soon as Dibbu entered into Jasmine’ room he asked her. Jasmine asked him to come into her room saying something important need to be discussed with him
“First make yourself comfortable in the chair Dibbu. Then I let you know what I want to know from you.”
Dibbu nodded his head and sat in the chair opposite to her and looked into her face.
“I want to know about Tippu, Dibbu. Have you had any communication from him recently?”
“No madam, after he had left for his aunt’s village, I did not hear anything from him at all.” Dibbu said.
“Have you tried to contact him?”
“Many a time madam. Many a time I have tried to contact him in his cell phone. But it is always unreachable. It is never before like this with him.”
Jasmine breathed heavily and hissed out. “On what date he exactly left our house?”
“It is on the day Williams came back to our house from hospital. On that day itself he left this palace saying that he was going to his aunt’s house.”
“Have you got any contact number of his aunt with you?”
“No. She is living in a very backward village, a very poor woman and uneducated. She does not have a phone.” He paused for a moment and then asked “Madam why you are asking all these questions?”
Then she explained the conversation that gone between her and Marissa.
“That means Tippu might have asked our sir to go into that old palace, but why?” he knitted his brows.
“That is the question eating away my mind also.” Jasmine said. “One thing I have become quite sure. That Tippu surely knows what my brother had experienced in that palace. If we question him about that we can come to know why my brother had become like that.”
“Why did not he tell us about that then itself? Is it is necessary to us to ask him about it? What that he made our Williams see in that palace turned him mad like that? Really very much puzzling to me to say.”
Then Jasmine said to him about Marissa’s opinion on his expression at that time. “Tippu is a very good friend of my brother. Why there was such an expression on his face at that time I cannot understand.”
Dibbu did not say anything immediately. He remained silent.
“I am thinking that it is better to go to his village and inquire about him. If we find out him we can know the truth from him.”
“But that village is very far from here.” Dibbu said.
“Cannot we go if it is far from here?” Jasmine said irritatingly. “I think that you understand the situation better. It is better someone go there, meet him and try to know what really took place.”
“But I am quite clear about one thing here madam.” Dibbu said. “Considering everything, considering what Marissa madam has said, this Tippu is in league with someone. He has become part of some conspiracy. I am not thinking that he would tell us the truth even we do meet him.”
“You are right. I don’t know how such a very best friend to Williams turned out to be an enemy like that to him.” She said. “Still I prefer that someone goes to that village and meet him. I am having a feeling that almost solves the problem. We can come to know what my brother has seen in that palace on that day.”
“May I go madam? May I go to that village and meet him? It is I who took him here. Even he became an enemy to your brother, I am thinking he hears me. I do try to know from him why he made your brother to go to that old palace on that day and what your brother had seen in it.”
Jasmine thought deeply for some time and said. “No, Dibbu. I don’t want you to go there. There is another person in my mind to send to that village.
***
“So you do want me to go that village and know that whether he is there or not.” John asked Jasmine.
“Not just that, you should also try to know why he did send my brother to that old palace and what my brother had seen in it.” Jasmine said.
“I am having some questions here to ask you.” John said
“Fire away.” She smiled.
“Why you are thinking that it is Tippu hundred percent who sent your brother to that old palace? I am not thinking it is wise to come to an opinion like that basing on what Marissa heard.” John questioned her.
“Who else it can be then?” Jasmine knitted her brows together. “I am having a strong feeling that Tippu knows all about what my brother had seen on that day. Just think why he had left the palace so and never returned to it. He always behaved like a shadow to my brother. His main aim all the time was to see no problem ever come to my brother. But now….….” She paused for a moment and then said. “…….my brother is in such a condition but he is nowhere nearby. He did not even contact any of us. Whenever we do call to his cell phone it always is giving out the message ‘switched off.’ What all this is insinuating?”
“I agree.” John nodded his head. “But just assume that I have gone to that village and meet him. What is the guarantee that he would tell me the truth?
“First go and meet him. Then we shall think what to do.” Jasmine irritatingly said.
“So I am going to be absent from this place for some days.” With a meaningful expression in his face, he said.
“Yes, it is going to happen like that.” She laughed. She could see what was offing.
“So I have to be starved for that for some days continuously.” He said again.
“I know what do you want. Just come and get it.”
“In the way I want it.”
“Of course, in the way you want.” She smiled and said. “You know that I also like it in such a way. Do you need to ask?”
They both were exhausted completely but satisfied to the maximum by the time it was finished.
***
“I am thinking how it would be if we both go into that old palace and see what is in it exactly especially in that room.” Rose said.
“Not a bad Idea, I must say.” Jasmine laughed.
“How it would be if I too accompany you both into there?” They both startled and turned back. With a smile Liza stood there. “It shall be a good time pass for me too.”
“Why not? Its a pleasure. Please come with us both.” Jasmine said.
“Do you have the keys of the building?” looking at Jasmine, Rose asked her.
“Sure I have. Come with me.” Jasmine led them both out. They went to that building in a car. It was half an hour or so ride from their home to there
“It is a big bungalow.” Looking at that Liza said. “So sad it has been left to be haunted.”
“The situation has come like that.” Jasmine said. “After my father’s death with heart attack in this palace, my mother developed a different feeling towards it.”
“Why it is so?” Liza asked her.
“Difficult to say about that.” They three reached the main entrance of it and Jasmine opened the door of it with the keys with her. “My mother’s intimacy with my father is like that. She could not bear this place without him at all.”
“Some couples feelings would be like that.” Rose intervened. “There is no surprise in it at all to me.”
“In fact my mother is having mixed feelings with this palace.” Jasmine said. “On one way she cannot bear the memories with this palace and the other way for the same memories she sometimes comes here.” There was some silence ensued.
“Why our psychiatrist is not talking anything on this?” smiling Liza asked.
“Natural. What is there to comment on it? The memories which we do feel uncomfortable sometimes give us pleasure on some other occasions.”
“Interior is also beautiful.” Observing the inside of the palace minutely Liza said. “It is appearing clean. Not as it is haunted.”
“My mother is using it occasionally. She comes here and spends sometime especially every Friday.” Jasmine said. “This building has been constructed by my father. He liked this palace a lot. My parents spent their happiest life here.”
The other two could sense a trace of emotion in her voice. There was silence again.
“Do you know your father well?” Rose asked her.
“No. I was just months old by the time my father expired.”
“Very sad. I am very sorry.” Rose said.
“Its alright.” Jasmine laughed. “But my mother never let me feel that deprivation. In fact I spent all my life till now most happily than those who have both parents.” There was some silence again.
“This is the room where my brother has been found unconscious.” Jasmine led them into a room and then said. “My mother found him face down.”
Rose became curious. It was the first time she came into that palace and into that room. She started observing everything there minutely. What could be the reason that made him first swooned and then mad like that?
“Do you come to this place often?” Liza asked Jasmine.
“Not much. My brother and I also never preferred to come here often.”
“Why?” Liza asked her surprisingly. “This is the house which your father constructed under his own supervision. It is associated with your father. Alright you don’t know much about your father. But your brother might have been known him to some extent. Why does not he prefer to come here?”
Jasmine nodded her head. “May be my mother is the reason. She discouraged us much not to come here. I don’t know why she does not like our coming here.” Jasmine said.
There was silence. Jasmine herself broke the silence again. “There were rumors about this palace. In the recent days of my father’s death people every day heard strange sounds from this palace. Now also sometimes people hear strange sounds from this palace.”
“Is there anything supernatural like that in this palace?” Liza asked her.
“First thing tell me do you believe in supernatural?” Jasmine asked Liza.
“I cannot say for sure. There may be.” Liza said. “I never have thought about this seriously.”
Rose laughed and said. “This is escapism”
Those three sat on the bed there. “Then you tell me, do you believe in supernatural?”Liza angrily asked her sister.
“I believe in supernatural.” Rose said with firmness in her voice.
“Is it is true? Do you really believe in supernatural?” Jasmine asked her surprisingly.
“Our famous psychiatrist believes in supernatural! This is unnatural.” Liza said.
“Am I banned to believe in supernatural just because I am a psychiatrist?”
“But you educated people don’t believe in supernatural things.”
“But this educated woman believes in supernatural.” Rose smiled.
(I hope that you enjoyed the story till here. I update the next chapter as soon as possible. Don’t forget to rate and review this story)
