Grandpa, Is That You?

I was sleeping in my room when a sound woke me up. It was almost 3 am at midnight. I went to the hall and it was little dark, the moonlight from the window made me saw a figure seated on my sofa. I was scared and quickly I switched on the light.

It was my grandpa. I was surprised seeing him here because he was in my uncle house for 2 years in Kolkata, West Bengal. If he was about to come and visit us he would have informed us, but he didn't. And how did he come inside? The door was locked and how did he knew this address? Because after my grandpa went to uncle's house 2 years ago, we also shifted from that place to somewhere else. He didn't have any bags too. All this questions made me terrified.

He was sitting on the sofa, quiet, no movement at all; I went near him, confused, asked him "Hey, Dadu (I called him) how are you? And why didn't you inform us you were coming? We would have picked you up." He looked at me and smiled; he got up from the sofa, kissed my forehead and said "take care".

That time I got a call on my mobile, it was my sister Enakshi (uncle's daughter) from Kolkata, and I said to grandpa "Look, maybe they are calling to confirm if you have reached here or not." I took the call and my sister was crying, I asked what happened. She said "Sonai, (my nickname) grandpa is no more."

After hearing that I quickly turned myself and I was alone in that room, grandpa was gone. My sister was asking for me if I was available on there, but my lips were shivering and I was breathing heavily. I dropped my mobile and screamed "Mom!" Dad, mom and my brother (5 years old) came running to me, just asking me what happened, I just gave my mobile to mom, she heard the news and also said to my dad, they started crying.

My dad booked flight tickets for Kolkata and we left the very next day. I was still in shock, I didn't come out of that. My mom knew something was suspicious, but she didn't ask me that time. We reached Kolkata, met my uncle and went to his house, did all rituals and everything. This time we all were warned to be careful because it was 7th March, my grandpa died on the same day, when my grandma died 17 years ago.

We all were asleep in one room, when suddenly my uncle heard a sound "crack". He went looking when he realized that his fish aquarium has broke. He was cleaning that place when a sound made us all wake up. Someone was walking with pockets full of coins, and we all remember my grandpa did, he walked with pockets full of coins. We all gathered in the hall and my brother pointed at the kitchen and said, "Look, white man". That time we were froze to death, it was something light fog, we could see across that, was moving and the coins clashing sound was coming from that, it stopped and "puff" gone.

We all knew it was grandpa, we couldn't sleep that night. Next day was our flight back to Mumbai, we said goodbye to them and we left. While coming back my mom asked me about the night, she asked "What were you doing that night so late? You were completing your assignment or something?" I looked at her and I said about that night what exactly happened. She looked at me with huge eyes that made me scared.

Few months later, we got a call from my uncle; he said he met with an accident; he had fractured right hand and leg. We asked how did this happen? He said he was going out of town in a car for official work; while travelling the road was getting narrow and a truck from behind wanted to crossover him. My uncle gave him space to do that but to his surprise the truck disappeared. He looked back again but there was no vehicle behind him. When he looked at front, that same truck came and they both crashed. Uncle's left side of car was gone totally; he was seated in the right, shivering, hurt his left side hand and leg.

Few months later, it was my 18th birthday that day, and my doorbell rang, there was a parcel, it was kept outside of my door, and it was for...ME? I never got a parcel in my whole life. 'From your beloved' was written on top of that gift. I opened it and inside I found a small pendent, heart shaped, my mom snatched that pendent from my hands. I asked "Mom? What was that?" she was in a shock, she said "This pendent! This was supposed to be given you on your 18th birthday from your grandparents. Your grandpa brought this after you were born. He said me once that he would gift you this when you become 18, on behalf of your grandma and him."... So I asked "So why are you shocked, Mom? Maybe uncle found this and delivered to me."

But what she said made believe that yes, my grandparents are still with us. My mom said, "But this pendent was lost in shifting from your village to Mumbai. We all tried searching it but couldn't found this. We thought maybe it's robbed because it was of real gold." And that made me go blank.

My 18th birthday was good, surprising and also the one which terrified me. I still feel them sometimes, but I'm not sacred because I know they won't hurt me.