Ghosts are wispy creatures and, in most stories, seem rather flimsy and elusive. The ghost I once encountered was robust and, after the initial moments, quite articulate, almost assertive.
I had just bought a new car, a Fiat – one of the only two brands then available in India – and it had a sky-blue color that the company was marketing that year for the first time. My boss, a French speaking Englishman, loved the fact that I spoke French and adored French authors like Camus and Malraux. That winter, as the Christmas season approached, he rewarded me a Friday afternoon with an expensive ticket. It was to a piano concert by a visiting Argentinian maestro at a local theater. I was delighted.
I had just bought a new car, a Fiat – one of the only two brands then available in India – and it had a sky-blue color that the company was marketing that year for the first time. My boss, a French speaking Englishman, loved the fact that I spoke French and adored French authors like Camus and Malraux. That winter, as the Christmas season approached, he rewarded me a Friday afternoon with an expensive ticket. It was to a piano concert by a visiting Argentinian maestro at a local theater. I was delighted.
The next evening, as the maestro took her concluding bow, in a resplendent emerald costume that still shines in my memory, I quickly exited the theater to escape the emerging crowd and walked over to my sky-blue Fiat. I started the car and revved toward my home in another part of town. To avoid crowded streets, flocked by Saturday’s merry-making hoi-polloi, I decided to cut through the empty grounds north of Chowringhee and drive along the Red Road.
I have to confess that, when I entered and seated myself in the car, I had a faint sensation of discomfort, the mildest, minutest reaction to something amiss. But, what could be wrong with my entering my own, brand-new car? I brushed the feeling aside and proceeded to start the car.
Strangely and inexplicably, the feeling did not quite leave me as I kept driving. In fact, the feeling grew a little stronger as I drove. I was now driving through a dark area, while the city lights twinkled at some distance. The sense of unease grew. Something was not quite right. I did not know what, but my guts quivered with a sense of foreboding.
I have to confess that, when I entered and seated myself in the car, I had a faint sensation of discomfort, the mildest, minutest reaction to something amiss. But, what could be wrong with my entering my own, brand-new car? I brushed the feeling aside and proceeded to start the car.
Strangely and inexplicably, the feeling did not quite leave me as I kept driving. In fact, the feeling grew a little stronger as I drove. I was now driving through a dark area, while the city lights twinkled at some distance. The sense of unease grew. Something was not quite right. I did not know what, but my guts quivered with a sense of foreboding.
As I drove on, determinedly, my discomfort seemed to crystallize. I now had the eerie sensation that I was not alone in the car. Nonsense, I said to myself, there was nobody else in the car, certainly not a ghost. I had left an empty car, carefully locked, and, on return from the piano recital, I had unlocked the car. Moreover, when I entered the car on return, I had seen nobody inside.
Yet, my disquiet simply would not leave. I almost had the uncanny feeling that I was sensing the soft, nearly imperceptible breathing of another person. I was now quite upset. While I kept telling myself that my mind was imagining some absurd phantom presence, my body cringed at the persistent sensation of another presence.
Then, as I continued to race through the dark, intent to reach a better-lit area as soon as I could, I could no longer ignore some muted sounds on the back seat, as if a person was turning on the seat. Shivering, still driving, I decelerated and tried to look back.
Yet, my disquiet simply would not leave. I almost had the uncanny feeling that I was sensing the soft, nearly imperceptible breathing of another person. I was now quite upset. While I kept telling myself that my mind was imagining some absurd phantom presence, my body cringed at the persistent sensation of another presence.
Then, as I continued to race through the dark, intent to reach a better-lit area as soon as I could, I could no longer ignore some muted sounds on the back seat, as if a person was turning on the seat. Shivering, still driving, I decelerated and tried to look back.
Through the corner of my eye, I saw a large, black figure slowly rising on the back. I swiftly turned the steering wheel to take the car to the side of the road and pressed the brake with all my force. As I now turned, I saw a large dark ghost-like figure become upright. My tremulous left hand still on the wheel, I turned on the light with my right hand.
I saw a large man on the back seat, his head and shoulders still draped by the black blanket he had covered himself with while sleeping on the seat. Rattled beyond measure, I wanted to ask what he was doing in my car. But the man pre-empted me. Shaking in terror, he tremulously asked, “What are you doing in my car?” Before I could reply, he followed up with, “For God’s sake, where are you taking me?” Clearly my unease was nothing compared to his.
I saw a large man on the back seat, his head and shoulders still draped by the black blanket he had covered himself with while sleeping on the seat. Rattled beyond measure, I wanted to ask what he was doing in my car. But the man pre-empted me. Shaking in terror, he tremulously asked, “What are you doing in my car?” Before I could reply, he followed up with, “For God’s sake, where are you taking me?” Clearly my unease was nothing compared to his.
I tried to explain that I thought it was my car, the one in which I had gone to see a performance. Now, with the light turned on and a more careful scrutiny, I could see that it was the same sort of car, but it had a baby photo stuck on the glove compartment and a small chain hanging from the rear-view mirror. It certainly wasn’t my car.
The man said he was a professional driver and his employer had gone to see a film with his wife in an adjacent theater. The employer did not want his new sky-blue car to remain unattended and had suggested that the driver sleep in the car while he and his wife enjoyed a relatively long film. The driver had been sleeping peacefully, until he woke up to find the car moving. He feared that he was being kidnapped as the car was being stolen.
We both returned to the spot where the car had originally been. Fortunately, the driver’s employer had not yet returned, and my car stood pristine a few hundred yards away. My key opened my car door as smoothly as it had opened the other car’s.
The man said he was a professional driver and his employer had gone to see a film with his wife in an adjacent theater. The employer did not want his new sky-blue car to remain unattended and had suggested that the driver sleep in the car while he and his wife enjoyed a relatively long film. The driver had been sleeping peacefully, until he woke up to find the car moving. He feared that he was being kidnapped as the car was being stolen.
We both returned to the spot where the car had originally been. Fortunately, the driver’s employer had not yet returned, and my car stood pristine a few hundred yards away. My key opened my car door as smoothly as it had opened the other car’s.
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