FORGOTTEN

This is an old story from my childhood when witches lived on banyan trees and ghosts on banyan trees. There were many such stories, which my grandmother and maternal grandmother often told me. I had come to my grandmother's house after taking my 7th-grade exams. My mother's other sisters and their children were also there, as we always visited at the same time.

  
Our favorite thing to do here was to taste lots of guavas, peaches, mangoes, and litchis. That was the time when there was not enough electricity supply in the summer. Everyone used to spend most of their time in the gardens. All our cousins used to be part of the gang at Grandma's place during summer vacations.

The fun of the day used to start right in the morning. But by ten o'clock, when the sun would rise high, Grandma used to call us inside the house. Here all us cousins spent our leisure time in the afternoon, climbing the highest branches of the trees and eating fruits in the front and backyard. It was all the fun we had during our childhood.

There was a regular feature as soon as we would go out, Grandma would shout from inside the house, "You will fall; wait, I will tell your mom... come down immediately."

We had to get down because we were too thirsty during the hot summers. Grandma would give us cold drinks as soon as we got down and came inside. To be honest, the pleasure we had those days is beyond imagination now.

Source

We always went for a walk as soon as the heat would subside in the evening towards the fields at the end of the town. There were our fields, two pumping sets, and a few small houses for field workers.

Because we lived in a city, we loved such a peaceful atmosphere. That day we went, but the only difference was that there were only two of us, as the other boys wanted to watch a movie in the local cinema hall.

We both went out, and the sun was about to set. The coolness in the air had started increasing. We could hear the sounds of jackals coming from a distance. It was almost six and still sunny, but we knew it would become dark in a little while.

We both had come about five kilometers out of town and reached that acacia tree, where Grandma had asked us not to go. The other boys were also afraid of going in that direction, but today we had the opportunity, so we both reached there.

It was almost night when we reached that acacia tree, and now we realized that it was too late. Thinking that Grandma would scold us, we turned back and started returning with fast steps. We had barely moved 100 meters ahead when we heard a female voice from behind.

"Who is this?"

We heard it but ignored it because we thought that they might be talking to someone else.

We kept moving forward, then we heard the voice again. Then we realized someone was talking to us. When we turned around, we saw Mania standing there. She was wearing a long skirt, something different from her usual clothes. She was the daughter of one of our workers who looked after our fields and lived in one of the small houses.

I felt that she did not recognize me. I said it's me... Dev...! Before I could say anything else, she spoke, "Why have you come here? Go now and never come here again."

When I heard her words, I got angry. She dared to talk to me in that tone, but when I turned back, I saw no one there. I called out her name, but there was no response. I thought she hid out of fear. Anyway, we were in a hurry, so we walked back home.

As soon as we reached home, Grandma scolded us, so to avoid scolding, I said, "Grandmother, I am hungry."

Grandmother said. "Wash your hands; food is ready."

After washing our hands, we went straight to the dining room, ate food, got up, and asked Grandmother, “Grandma, we saw Mania.”
Grandmother asked in surprise, "Where?"

I said, "Near our fields."
Grandmother looked surprised. "She died last year. Where did you see her?"

In reply, I told Grandma we saw her near the last acacia tree in our field, "But Grandmother, why did she talk to us like that?"

Grandmother hesitatingly said, "There must be some confusion because that girl is no longer alive."

"No, she was there, standing in front of us." I was sure we both saw her.

Grandmother, "But she died of a snake bite last year after you went back home. Did she say anything to you?"

I was confused now. "Yes, she told us not to come here again."

Grandma said, "Never go there again. Saying this, Grandma hugged me and she was crying. I felt scared for the first time after hearing this.

My cousin became very scared after hearing this. He had a fever that night. Times have changed completely now. No one believes in these things anymore, but I can never forget what I saw and felt that evening.

I am still having goosebumps while writing this. I still remember Maniya and my cousin's faces and how they looked that evening. We might have debates about whether there are ghosts or not, but I will never forget that mysterious incident. What I saw that evening can never be forgotten easily.

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