Trembling Shadows
A romantic, psychological thriller
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
He nodded his head. “Alright. Then we shall go into grandma’s room at once and search it thoroughly.”
They entered into the room of old woman and looked at her. There was no change in her at all. She was on the bed as she was when they first saw her. Her lips were in such an extended fashion as she was smiling a little just as before. There was no change in her long white hair cascading on her face veiling some of her features. The white sari she wore then was impeccable and very neat as they found it before. There was a sort of radiance in her wrinkled face. Her breasts were flattened to her chest and the skin on her body was loose and hanging. Everything about her was just like before without any change.
“For this very woman two men were killed each other!” looking at her with those awestricken eyes Anand said.
“Not just that. Four other people also were murdered!” she said like a whisper.
“You are right” Anand nodded his head.
“By then she surely was not like this.” Sunanda smiled. “She is somehow remarkable. She might be a very beautiful woman in her age” she further said.
“She might be just like Sameera when she was young. If you see carefully you can notice a lot of resemblance between them both” Anand said.
“I cannot myself see such a resemblance but may be you are right. But we must start our searching. That Tanuja and Rajesh may want to come into their room at any moment. Then it will be cumbersome to us to search here.” She paused for a moment and then said again. “here is a cupboard” she went near to the cupboard there and opened the doors of it but to her dismay it was all empty. “There is nothing in this.” Closing it with a thud she said with despair.
“Something what has been said is true” Sunanda said after some pause.
“What it is?” Anand asked
“This woman purportedly kept everything worth noticeable away from us. She is a cunning woman” Sunanda said.
Anand nodded his head “We better look under her bed. She might have kept something under it.” Went near to the bed Anand said. Sunanda did not try to stop him but she could not feel much hopeful either. He stooped himself very down and crawled under it. He groped there for some time and said “I have got something strong and solid into my hands. It seems like a very big thing”
“What it is? Take that out” Sunanda excitingly moving near to the bed said.
He came out under the bed with something in his hands. It was approximately two feet long wrapped in heavy cloth. “What it might be?” looking at it with surprising Sunanda said.
“Appearing like a sword. Better we unwrap it among all of us” Anand said excitingly.
Taking it with them they both went into the varandah where all the others were settled except Aravind and Sameera. All their eyes became wide when they looked at the article wrapped in clothes in their hands.
“What it is and where you have got this?” Tanuja came near to them and asked.
“We have found this under grandma’s bed. We thought better open it before you all” Anand said.
“Alright then. Unwrap it” Rajesh went near to a chair beside Vinod and slumped himself in it. “First you all come here and be seated yourselves comfortably. Standing legs pain us a lot”
They obeyed immediately by finding their chairs and seated comfortably. “Now who is going to do the unwrapping work?” Malathi asked looking at the big thing with wide opened eyes.
“Whoever found it has the right to open” Sunanda said weighing it in her hands. She felt it a little heavier.
“Then it is I who found it under the bed of grandma and took it out from there” Anand said.
“I really meant you, I would not mind your doing it” Sunanda with the same affectionate smile said.
All of them watched with excitement and wide opened eyes while Anand was unwrapping the cloth around it slowly. When he fully unwrapped it, all the eyes which were watching it became maximum wide. They were all shuddered at once. It was a big sword in fact and appearing menacing! The rust got on to that was telling indirectly that it was a very old one.
“My God! What a big sword and how heavy it is!” taking that into his hands Rajesh said. “Why grandma has kept this sword under her bed so?” surprising in himself he asked.
“Now I got the idea. I can say why grandmother carefully kept this sword under her bed” Tanuja looking at the sword with awe said.
“You need not bother. All of us can guess why this sword has been kept that carefully under the bed.” Rajesh said.
“You mean this is the very sword which Nagaraju used to murder the people in this house on that day?” while observing the sword carefully without touching it Vinod said.
“Hundred percent. There is no necessity to grandma to keep a sword like this otherwise” closing his eyes and reclining into the chair Rajesh said.
“But why should she keep that sword in this way? That too under her bed itself! She could keep it in the room where she kept the dead bodies of her husband and lover.” Vinod said.
“Don’t say like that. There is no proof that grandma kept the dead bodies of her husband and lover in this house.” Malathi said.
“No one can say why grandma does or doesn’t do a thing. She is a peculiar woman. In fact a sort of mental freak” Rajesh said.
No one did comment on what he had said. They all knew that the statement he had made was true. They could understand that Rajesh was suffering with mixed feelings on his grandmother. He had love and respect on the old woman since she was his own grandmother and looked after most of his education and welfare. But he had lot of anger as well on her since she never allowed him to come near to her, never tried to show any love and affection on him and made him suffer all alone until his marriage. Anyone would really feel pity towards him.
“Wrap it with the same cloth again and put it at the same place from where you have taken it” Rajesh said to Anand “There is no point in keeping this sword with us. I am getting a sort of fear by looking at that bloody thing”
All the others as well suddenly felt fear on hearing that. In fact they did not feel any fear until that moment but when Rajesh expressed his feeling so they recognized that it was a thing worth fearing and started feeling it.
“Why you people did a foolish thing like this? What is the necessity to take this sword to here? What benefit we have got so far by this?” Malathi admonished them both.
“There is no mistake of Sunanda in this. It is I who went under the bed and got it from there” Anand confessed himself.
“It is not so mom. I too have encouraged him to go under the bed and look there to see anything worth seeing. I too have my share in this wrong doing”
“It is quite good to me to see that you both supporting each other so. There is no problem that you have brought it from there. Go and put it at its usual place and stop worrying about it” Rajesh said.
Anand immediately obeyed that. Sunanda wanted to go with him but he asked her to stay where she was. By the time he put the sword under the bed again after wrapping it in the same cloth and came in to the room, the people there were already started talking on something else.
“It is indeed very much exciting to me to know whom our grandma really loved. Was it Semanthakam or Nagaraju?” Even the issue was raised many a time before, Vinod still felt interesting in talking on that.
“Oh, my god! Why you people do prefer to talk same thing again and again I cannot understand.” Tanuja irritatingly said.
“Grandma never loved Nagaraju. She might be pretended loving him only because of the fear she had got on him, That was why she married Semanthakam when Nagaraju was out of station.” Rajesh said with firm voice. It was irritating to him to talk on the same subject but he could not escape.
“Who is this Semanthakam? What he used to do?” Anand asked.
“He used to do some clerical work for my grandmother’s father as per the information I had got so far.” Rajesh said
“But how grandmother’s father agreed himself to give his daughter’s hand to a person working under him as a clerk?” Malathi asked
“Grandma might have really loved him. As a father loving his daughter, her father might not object to perform her marriage with Semanthakam” Vinod said.
“Then it had been turned out like that. What everything would have been if that Nagaraju had not killed our grandmoher’s husband and other people” Vinod said again.
“We need not have suffered in this way on this day, I think” Rajesh said.
The painful, ominous silence started playing its part again. They heard a big thunderbolt nearby. None of them wanted to say anything then. It was still afternoon but as the whole sky crowded with black clouds the climate became quite gloomy and fearsome.
By then the rain was completely dwindled. Tanuja and Rajesh looked at each other faces.
“May I go upstairs and take them down” Rajesh said slowly in Tanuja’s ear.
“Not necessary. They come down themselves. I am going into our room.” Tanuja said, freed her chair and went away from that place.
Rajesh looked around and none of the people there were observing them. He too got off from the chair and went into old woman’s room.
&&&
After having a close look at her daughter’s face when she came into their room downstairs, one thing got confirmed to Tanuja. That bad thing had happened. Tanuja noticed the sudden maturity taken place in Sameera then and such maturity would come into a woman only after full and thorough sexual act. That maturity would come into a woman only after, Tanuja well knew, only after having a complete sex with a man. It was just like a new door opened in her life letting new knowledge through it. The maturity was a sign of her preparedness to face new burdens and to become a mother. She could know that her daughter not a little but thoroughly herself has given to that rogue.
Tanuja seethed with rage. But she did not want to say anything immediately. She first needed a confirmation of that from her daughter which she already had confirmed in herself. Aravind could find the change in Tanuja and he felt a cold fear in his spine. Tanuja was very angrily observing them both and her gaze was quite uncomfortable to Aravind. Quite unintentionally he entered into that room with Sameera and he was regretting in himself for that.
“I am going upstairs again” saying so Aravind tried to go out.
“What is the need to go there? You have spent upto now in the upstairs room itself.” Rajesh as well was irritating a lot.
“I shall come down quick. You people don’t bother about me” Aravind said and went out of that room. He just could not stay there.
So desperately Tanuja wanted to stop him and question him but she wanted a confirmation from her daughter about it first. Rajesh and Tanuja both were feeling lot of anger on Aravind then. Both of them liked and loved Aravind a lot. Tanuja would respect and develop love towards anything which Rajesh would love and like. When she realized that Rajesh was loving Aravind, Tanuja too loved him as she would do every time. But now because of their love and affection towards that boy they spoiled the life of their daughter.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
