Eternal love - hima (free ebook reader for android .txt) 📗

to anyone in particular.

"Josh!" he exclaimed.

"Raj, can I have a word with you?" I asked.

"Oh! Sure," he said meanwhile Casper hovered away unnoticed into the group.

"Raj, I appreciate your concern but it's not necessary for them to move away," I said eying the group.

"But," he stammered for words.

"I'm no more afraid of them than I am of you," I said.

"Moreover, there might be some reason for them still to be here, you know what I mean?" Sid added. I felt that, I saw a little bit surprise from raj.

"Yes, let them stay here," I said.

"If it is ok with you, than its ok with me," Raj said and then he turned to the group and said, "you can stay here."

Everyone except the woman, I saw before cheered at the announcement. She seemed to be lost in thought. Feeling like, I achieved something great I turned to go back. Sid gently squeezed my hand and smiled. That is enough to say that he is impressed with what I did.

Casper hovered to us and said "Thanks, I’m sorry for being rude to you".

"It's ok, see you around," I said.

At noon pop allotted each of us a work. Rocky and sunny are to take care of the minor repairs and to clear the pipeline system since it is rusty. Dhi should take care of dusting and garden.

As for me and Sid, we are to clean upstairs and decorate the house. At once we set out to work since pop promised a gift for those who complete the work first. First we started with dusting the old furniture and replacing some of them with new ones.

"Hi," Casper said coming out of nowhere.

"Hey," we chorused.

"Do you need a hand?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said.

After a while other ghosts joined in helping us. I started wondering who all these people are. As if reading my thoughts

"We all once worked here." Casper said.

"Oh!" I exclaimed.

"He is the gardener and his family," he pointed to a stout man and a lean woman and three children alike, probably triplets but one of them is a girl.

"He is the guard," he said pointing to a well built person.

"They are the loyal servants of the master," he said pointing to the woman I saw before and a poker faced person.

"How come you are here? How did you all die?" I asked.

Casper became pale immediately, I felt stupid to ask such a question.

"I am an attendee to master," he said regaining his conscious.

"I will tell you the story some other day," he added after a while and quickly added "Be away from them" pointing to the loyal servants of master.

"Why?" I asked even before the word is out of my mouth, he vanished.

That night I shared my strange conversation that I had with Casper with Sid. His expression was grim.

6

Next morning, when I woke up raj was staring at me hovering over my bed. I felt embarrassed.

Concealing my emotions; I managed to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Hi! Good morning." saying so he handed me a red rose.

"I heard; you like red rose." he smiled.

"Thanks," I said.

I heard someone knocking at the door.

"Come in" I said.

"Good morning," Sid greeted.

Meanwhile raj vanished.

"Happy birthday," he said "a small present from my side"

I dressed up and got down where everyone is eagerly waiting. I took blessings & presents from everyone. This time, Sid gave me a bouquet full of red roses. Mom &pop promised to come back by noon. Dhi helped Hema Aunt with cooking. Rocky & sunny went out for buying groceries. I sat gloomily wishing that time would roll on soon to noon.

"I want to show you some place, will you come?"Sid asked.

I am ready to get out of home for a while.
I said "yes."

I went into kitchen and said that I wanted to go to temple and that Sid would accompany me because I'm sure aunt wouldn't send me alone. She thought for a moment and said yes. When I waved at dhi she sneered at me, I knew the reason for it. (I have to face the mockery of rocky when I come back).

"Where are we going?" I asked when I sat beside Sid in the car.

He smiled alluringly, still no answer. After a while car slowed down I think we reached our destination. We passed through a dense rows of trees they formed like umbrellas over our head allowing the light to pass through small slits, when it came to the end I couldn't avert my eyes from the scene in front of me. Land was fully covered with grass; at length we can find tiny flowers mostly in red shade. There is a pond where different colors of lotus are present, beside it there is a small hut covered with creepers of flowering plants. Different species of birds are present, one pigeon landed over my shoulder.

"It's amazing," I said unable to find a right word to describe the beauty.

"I thought you would like it," he said gazing at me.

"Come in," he said and opened the door in a dramatic way as if I'm a princess

Inside the house was well lit with candles and there in the middle was a table and a cake was placed upon it. I shook my head unable to believe my eyes.

"Come on, princess." Sid said.

I blew off the candles and said "I don’t know how to say thanks to you."

“Give me the pleasure of a dance with you."

We danced a while but I'm clumsy at my steps because I got through only 2 classes in salsa, still he is at ease to dance with me.

"I love you." he whispered in my ear. All my nerves stirred at the closeness between us.

My mind is racing. I don’t know what to say now. I looked directly into his eyes hoping to find an answer. They are filled with love and affection.

"It's ok, take your time." he said peacefully.

After a few minutes of silence I asked, "Shall we go."

My heart longed to be there holding his hands and enjoying the serene climate around. I found myself moving away from the place with hard steps. When we got back mom & pop are already home; we slipped through the doors unnoticed.

"I heard that you went to temple, you haven't given the prasad yet." Sunny said with mouthfuls.

Everyone at the table looked at me, waiting for a response. I felt like trapped.

"We gave it to a hungry beggar on our way," Sid said saving me from blurting out something stupidly.

"Thank god, no, thank Sid," I thought.

That evening we had a small party and then we went to a movie. I sat between Sid & rocky.

"Josh, tell me the truth where did you go?" rocky asked.

"When?" I asked trying to avoid glances at him.

"Don't act smart, you and Sid went in the morning somewhere right, where you went?" he asked.

"We went to temple. Don't disturb movie is interesting." I said trying to hide my smile.

"Do you think, if you won't tell there is no way to know but I want it right from the horse mouth," saying so he turned to Dhi to chat.

Movie is quite boring so I dozed off, on Sid's shoulder.

When the movie is over Sid woke me up. We ate supper at restaurant and then headed back.

While I was getting ready to sleep; Dhi asked me the same question rocky had asked earlier. It is not easy to lie to a sis like mine. I braced myself and said everything. She listened to everything with an exclamatory face.

"Wow! That's really romantic." she exclaimed "what will you say to him?"

"I don't know" I said truthfully.

“Is there anything to say, no? He is definitely handsome, good, well educated & a sole inheritor to huge property," she added in hush tones "I also heard that pop promised to his sis that he would give your hand in marriage to Sid, anyway he wouldn't do it without your approval"

"If I'm in your place I would say, yes." she said and drifted to sleep leaving me to think over the matter.

7

"Hi," Casper said hovering over our heads. Sid & I greeted him cheerfully.

"Belated, birthday wishes Josh." Casper said.

I smiled and nodded. In turn he asked "What do we do, this day?"

"Decorate the house, first we will start with my room," I said.

"You said to be careful with that woman, why did you say so?"I asked adjusting the flower vases.

"They are up to something, I overheard them plotting against someone." he said.

"Oh! Why don't you say it to raj?" I said.

"Well! I must think of It." he said rubbing his head "do you want to know our stories; I will start with masters because he is the beginner of all this things."

Long ago this mansion used to be under the hands of Mr. Rao. Master is the relation of this man; he brought him here so that he would take care of his properties when he is not in town. He rarely stayed at house, Master used to love this house a lot; he used to keep the house always clean. And one day suddenly the owner of this house went ill and died. As per law this house is inherited by his brother who long ago eloped with a girl. The lawyers searched for them finding that the man and his wife dead leaving their only daughter not a penny. They brought her here to inherit the property. Master preferred to stay here even as a servant by persuading the new owner. When he had first seen the girl, he fell in love with her. Every day he persuaded the girl to marry him but the girl didn't yield to him. He was mad in her love and one day he could not tolerate to live without her, he jumped from that peak calling her love name. After that the girl lived only a few years, she too died of the guilt of seeing him killed. Later no one inherited this for many years until now. We all lost our jobs and our living until, I don't know what has happened that day but I found myself one day like this. I thought that I imagined it but later I came to know that we are dead.

He drew a long breath after the story. I felt sorry for him I knew clearly that he didn't like to be dead. Casper glided away. I called after him to say some consoling words but what could I say here “Annapolis’s medicine” won’t work. There is no positive side for him.

"Let him be, he still wishes to be alive." gardener's daughter said pityingly.

After a while Sid gestured to have a word in private. I nodded and went down following him. We went into study room.

"I wish I could do something for Casper." I said gloomily.

Sid sat beside me, taking my hands into his,