I came home from school and looked around for Kid."Kid?.........Kid..? Where are you?" I looked under the dining table, my bed, my grandmother's bed. My Grandmother's bed is made of boxes filled with antediluvian thinga-ma-jigs."Those boxes have my old saris,photographs,my drawings, your grandfather's clothes and books and everything else that make up your grandfather's life and mine." she said when I asked her what was there in the boxes. There were three rows of boxes with two boxes in each row.That's only six boxes that contain the whole life of two people.Between the first and second row of boxes is a gap which forms a cozy niche just large enough for a baby goat. Kid goes and hides there sometimes when he's scared, which is all the time. Kid is scared of loud trucks, buses,cars,bikes, cockroaches,lizards,rats,my grandmother's sneeze, when the anchor on the television yells,"Congratulations Mr. Warner! You have won a million dollars!" and vampires. There's probably more that he's afraid of. "One can never know everything about someone" is what my mom always used to say.She doesn't say much these days.
Kid was hiding in his niche again.He doesn't come out of there till you put a plate of warm and delicious bread in front of him He comes out slowly to the odour that seeps out from the warmth and hides in my lap first and then starts eating. I think he feels protected when he hides in my lap cause I'm bigger and older than him.Then, out of nowhere, Sheela came out and Kid went back to hide."They let you come out today....", I cried with joy. She said,"Sssh... I sneaked out from the window. Peter stole the key from the nurse when she was serving me breakfast." "But how did you know how to get here?" I asked in a whisper that came out rather hoarse as I tried to keep my voice down in all the excitement."You told me it was the house next to the rich man's library, remember? So, I asked around for the rich man's library and found it."
Next to my house is a medium-sized library owned by a wealthy man.My grandmother says he's not really rich.He only looks rich because he always dresses up in a clean, neatly pressed suit and a hat that matches his coat.But, I like Mr. Kohli.He has a very interesting collection of books which he lends to me for free. He also likes vampires which is good because I could take Sheela to the library along with Peter. Peter is a vampire. But, only Sheela can see him. Nobody else can. Sheela used to say that Peter is not one of those horrible and frightening vampires like in the hoary myths we read. He is a vampire of Indian origin who happens to like anthropomorphic beings. He tells the most fascinating and incredible stories. He says that some of his stories are true and from a very long time ago. Peter is much older than he looks because vampires don't age.One of his stories was about a witch Carolina who found the home of God. She and God had a bet that they would both fight each other and if the witch won, then she would win a chance to create three new beings on the Earth with God's creational powers.The witch out-smarted God in that battle by using a mirror against God's spell in the very last-minute. Peter said that what the witch did was very smart because everyone always uses a mirror to defeat a witch and hence, God did not expect the witch to use a mirror on him. Peter said that the witch created vampires, werewolves and fireflies in the world. Vampires and werewolves you don't meet very often, but fireflies are all around like a flotilla of moving stars between leaves, or hovering over rocks. Sometimes, they even come into the house through the window.When the power goes out, I like to lie down on my bed and watch those myriad neon lights flying in circles, higher and higher casting a hypnotic spell that mesmerises me into a dream far away.Reality becomes too distant to come back to and a kind of happiness surrounds me like a warm blanket in the coldness of the dark...
I took Sheela and Peter to the library and I must say that Mr.Kohli rather enjoyed their company.Peter told us all about the Valley of Light, a place at the end of the ocean where all light is created. It has blue elephants and pink monkeys and everybody can see vampires,werewolves and ghosts because of all the light.We wanted to see the Valley of Light,so we went to the cliffs in the evening and sat at the very edge of it so that we could see as far as our eyes could.The wind howled and roared about us and threatened to push us over the edge, but I enjoyed sitting at the edge even more because of that, almost hoping that the strong zephyrs would carry me away,over the frighteningly deep ocean, into the Valley of Light... I met Sheela on the first day I went to visit my mother in the hospital.It had been a month since I had seen my mother.The hospital did not let anybody visit her for a month because she was very sick. I remember how I found her sitting in a corner with her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging herself tightly, talking to someone I couldn't see, with bleeding hands and bruises all over her back. She didn't let anyone come near her except for Kid who sat on her lap and cried with her. My grandmother called the hospital and she's been there ever since. It's strange how Kid was not afraid of that person she was talking to on that day. Normally, he starts shivering when that man is around. But,that day he didn't... Everyday in the hospital I would sit with Sheela and Peter and listen to stories that Peter had to tell.I would bring her books from the library and she would read all of them and return them to me the next day.We spent one evening sticking glow stars that Mr.Kohli gave to me, all over the walls in her room. And at the end of the day, I went to my mother's room and told her everything Sheela,Peter and I did. She seemed to like listening to me, but she never said anything.
The sky roared with a stentorian voice that shook the inside of my heart that started to race as I came back from an intense period of wool-gathering to a terrifying storm."Oh no! We must go back home quickly! Come!" I told Sheela as she held my hand and said,"You go back home.I must go back also." "But, how will you go back in this rain?" I asked."Don't worry. I know my way and Peter is there with me." she said smiling back at me. I quickly nodded and started running back home.That was the last I ever saw of Sheela..
The next morning, I went to the hospital to meet her, and found an empty room.Only the glow of the stars remained.The nurse said that Sheela isn't here anymore. I wondered where she had gone to as my throat started to burn strongly and my head started to feel heavy as a brimful of thoughts started to settle in. I couldn't think and I started to walk quickly to my mother's room. Tears started to run down my cheeks and as I entered the room, I screamed"Sheela's gone! I don't know where she is... We were at the beach yesterday and...." ,I started to tell her everything as she sat and listened to me. I yelled,"What?Say something!" and I started to cry even more.I wanted her to say something, anything! I wanted my mother... She spoke softly,"She went to the Valley of Light.I forgot to tell you earlier." And I looked up at her and ran to her arms and held on to her as tightly as I could.There was silence in the room and I wanted to stay there forever in the silence within her arms.
