It was a cold foggy night, which has become very rare in Dhaka City. On those days, Dhaka City used to enjoy 7 to 10 days of extreme cold in winter. It was one such night of freezing cold. The fog was covering the city like a shawl. The whole city was asleep. I was also sleeping, covering myself with my soft blanket.
One strange sound woke me up. Something was making noise in my corridor. I tried to look at the clock. It was 3 am. I heard the sound again. The first thought came in my mind that it could be a thief. But how could the thief enter my house?It was a high rise building and its security was also very strong. Last evening when I entered my house, I couldn’t feel anyone existence. For the last few days I was staying alone at home because my husband was out of city. The sound was coming closer to me. The sound was getting louder.
I was waiting that anytime someone would enter my room with a knife in his hand.
Few minutes passed.
No one came to my room
I still heard the rise and fall of that sound.
At that time another thought came to my mind. Was that a ghosty creature or something like that, I wondered! A cold shiver ran down my spine.
I felt completely numb and paralyzed- incapable of doing anything. Even I was not able to make any sound.
Time was passing but what should I do, I couldn’t understand. After sometimes I some how managed myself to move. I went to my balcony to call a watchman. A cold wind and scariness made me literally shivering. After how long I don’t know I saw a watchman. I called him and told him to come to my house. When he rang my door bell, it was another challenge for me to open the door, because I had to cross the corridor to open the door. I didn’t know how I opened the door. The watchman checked my whole house but he didn’t find anything. When he was leaving, we saw a big rat in my kitchen. He with his bamboo stick hit the rat. Then he took the rat and threw it out into the garage whole. He looked so disappointed; he thought he could catch a thief which could raise his worth in the eyes of the tenants. When the watchman left my house, it was around 4 o’clock.
I went to bed again with a sign of relief.
How stupid I was to imagine a rat to be a ghost!
As I felt a sleep, I heard the strange sound again.
This time the sound was stronger and closer than before. I became ice.
