“It’s seriously so hot today!”, cried Samar. “Yes it’s boiling. Can we please take another
stop mom?” begged Prateek. Samar and Prateek were twins. They were heading to
their maternal grandmother’s house in the rural areas of Bengal. Their mother, Rekha
was simply furious by her sons’ constant complaining and whining. She scorned them
saying “can you boys please keep patience for sometime. We are almost there. If we
keep on taking frequent stops, we’ll get very late to reach there”. Their father, Madhav,
was a pretty calm man. He didn’t speak much except when things went out of hand.
It was their grandmother, Arati’s 80th birthday. So all the siblings were planning to pay a
visit to her. It had been months since they didn’t spend quality time with their mother.
Around 2pm they finally reached Shantikunj, their maternal home. On reaching, Rekha
immediately saw Rudra, her brother and Anu, her sister. Their kids got already busy
playing in the courtyard. The house caretaker Damu helped them carry their luggages to
their rooms. All the siblings had met after a very long time. So immediately all the
women and men seperated and got busy to share their individual juicy gossips.
In the evening they all sat together for snacks. “Since when Tara turned 13, doesn’t
listen to me at all. These teenagers are all turning so disobedient. I miss their
childhood”, complained Anu about her daughter. “My Anjali always looks for excuses to
skip school”, said Rinku, Rudra’s wife. Amongst all the palaver, Rudra suddenly spoke.
“Hey ma, do you think the rumours about treasures being buried under this house is
actually true?” His mother, being thoughtful responded, “the village people always
assumed that since we have such a large property we might be having gold biscuits
buried under our house. But nothing of that sort is here”. Rudra, seemingly disheartened
by the reply, didn’t say anything else. That night the children, extremely fascinated
about the idea of finding a treasure, couldn’t sleep. They remained awake till late night
discussing about the possibility of finding a treasure. “We should do something about it”
said Prateek. “Yes, we should definitely make a plan” added Anjali excitedly.
The next day the men went out to the local market to find ingredients for a hefty lunch.
The women planned to cook all the delicious delicacies that their mother loved. After
their father passed away their mother had been through a lot. Well even when he was
alive she never had much peace in her life. She was a victim of domestic violence. Their
father was a drunkard. Contrary to the name of their house, there was never solitude
inside. Well there was a twist to this. No one ever knew how he died. Neither did
anyone know where he went. Nobody even knows if he’s dead or alive to this date. He
just didn’t return from work one day. After the disappearance they did everything. They
filed police reports multiple times, went house to house in the village, but nothing
worked. Finally after a year of futile waiting and efforts, they accepted their fate. The siblings just knew that their mother’s wish came true. She always said, “may god take
your father away. I cannot tolerate this anymore.”
After having lunch everyone got comfortable in their respective rooms. “Now is the time.
We have to think of something fast to unveil the treasure”, said Samar. “What if we go
treasure hunting tonight after everyone’s asleep?” suggested Prateek. Just like that the
children decided search treasures in those 8 acres of property. The backyard was in
their focus.
That night they patiently waited in their room for the noise to die down and the lights to
go off. As soon as they saw the conditions favourable, they went out with torches. From
the backyard they collected shovels. Then they started digging. First thirty minutes, they
an hour and then two hours passed. Nothing was found. After almost three hours they
had no hope or energy left. They gave up. Just as they were finishing up putting back all
the dug up soil in different areas, Anjali felt something hard in the mud. She started
digging it up. She had never imagined what she would find there. It was a human skull!
She shrieked, jumping back. The others ran to her and saw it. They started shouting
and crying not daring to image the inevitable.
Their parents came rushing out of the house hearing the cacophony. “It’s a skull!” they
panicked. The parents astonished to see the scene, stood there, stunned. Suddenly
Madhav said, “But we have to call the police now. A human skull being found in the
backyard. It’s a terrific thing”. “Don’t speak out of your mind. Do you know what the
police will do to us if they get to know about this? They’ll tear us into pieces with
interrogation. One of us can also go to prison for this” said Rudra. “I think Rudra is right.
The cops will suspect one of us as the murderer and we’ll be jailed at once. Rather we
should solve this amongst us” added Anu. In all this disagreement, their mother came
out. She seemed relatively calm. Learning everything, she said “The police have never
stepped into our house. And I don’t want to be dragged to jail or interrogated in the last
days of my life. Nobody will call the cops. We should settle this family matter by
ourselves”.
After much negotiation and disagreement it was decided that the skull would be buried
in the forest, just a few kilometres away from their property. The children were strictly
instructed not to mention this incident to anyone. They nodded in unison.
Arati laid in her bed, satisfied, that such a big burden was now down from her
shoulders. The truth that she hid from everyone was now out and dusted. The truth that
only she and Damu knew.