A LITTLE SCARY EVENING

Jack came home from his work to find his house in darkness. He tried the doorbell.
It buzzed but no reply. So, there is electricity, he thought. He checked the windows
but the curtains were drawn. Unable to deduce what was happening, he took the
spare key from the pot beside the purple flower bed. The key fit but the lock
wouldnt budge. Fear-of the unknown and for his family inside- started creeping
into his heart.
Noiselessly, he moved to the backdoor and used its key that he carried with
himself, in the lock. It fit and turned. Releasing a breath he didn't know he had
been holding. He carefully stepped inside, first pushing the door in wide, so that it
touched the wall beside it. He used his phone to light up the way to the switch
board. When the lights came on, he blinked, blinded for a while and then as
expected, he was in the kitchen. The kitchen island was a mess. Vegetable excess,
used spoons and bowls and knives...all spread out like some cooking contest had
just taken place. He called out to them, his dear ones, but no reply. The floor too
was covered in some sort of dirt. He carefully stepped toward the hallway,
switching on the lights as he walked.
There came no reply to his repeated shouts. The drawing room was immaculate
and so was the downstairs bathroom. He switched on the lights on the landing and
immediately missed the pot of indoor plant kept at the window-sill there. He tried
to tread noiselessly but the third step creaked loudly under his feet. He grimaced
but having grabbed the baseball bat he had kept under the stairs, he kept on
climbing. The two rooms upstairs were where he expected to find the culprits. He
had deduced by now that something had happened here, not trying to picture what.
His concern more was on where and how his family was.
The bedrooms were a mess though nothing was missing. He found blood on one of
the pins his wife used to pin up her hair. The cupboards were open, but the locker
was safely locked, the keys exactly where he had kept it the previous night. He
opened and checked and nothing was missing apart from a few bracelets his wife
loved. They were her mother's wedding gift, a family heirloom. His son's room was
the same though more books strewn everywhere than clothes. Max never leaves his
books like this, he thought. The window was open and there was dirt in the sill, the
same dirt that was on the kitchen floor. His heart beating fast, he went downstairs
again and put the bat down. His calls to their phones had been futile.
He dialled 911 and reported to the official that his family was missing. The officer,
a lady asked him whether he had checked with the neighbours. He said, "No, they
are out. And the old lady who lives on the right side of his house is partially deaf
and probably asleep." The officer then asked him where had he been the whole
day. He replied, his voice reaching the pitch that nervousness and outrage create,
"I was in my office, working till 7 this evening! My boss had given me piles of
work and half of his team went home early for some excuse or the other!! Now
miss, will u please send someone over and send out a search party for them??"
The calm lady replied, "Sir, so you didn't go to church today?" That made him
pause. Church? Why would he go to church? He turned to look at the calendar and
his eyes widened. The officer on the phone continued,Theyll be at the church sir.
Don't worry. Wash up and go there before the mass ends, okay? No need to panic.
These things happen." He must look like an idiot, calling the police to locate his
family today. He murmured a thank you and sorry to the lady on the phone and cut
the call. But the blood on the hairpin and the books strewn everywhere were still a
cause for worry for him. He quickly grabbed his jacket and keys and went out of
the backdoor again. He started his car and drove to the church.
After he went inside, yes, the mass was just about to end. He tried to locate his
family and finally found them sitting four rows ahead of him. But his worry hadn't
ceased. What of the mess at home? Nothing seemed to fit as a reason. After the
mass was over and people started spilling out, he tried his wife's number again and
this time she picked up. "Hey, baby, where are you? Saw your calls. Sorry, phone
was on silent."
"Mary, I'm at the church. What happened at home? I had forgotten about today and
when I went home...what happened? I am beside the car, outside. Is Max with
you?"
"Oh dear. I am so sorry, honey. I can explain. I am out and coming towards the car
park. Wait for me. And yes, he's with me."
Jack blew out a sigh of relief. Yes his fears were coming out to be a bit
unnecessary but the sight of the house... He looked up to see his wife and his son
walking towards him. He smiled when they reached him and hugged them. They
got into the car. He didn't turn on the engine but turned up the heating. He turned to
Mary sitting beside him and asked her, "I had a nightmarish experience before
coming here. Could one of you explain what exactly happened back at the house?"
He almost shouted at them. Mary replied, "Jack, calm down. There's no cause for
worry. I am sorry if we gave you a fright." Jack stopped her, "You didnt. Your
absence did. The kitchen was a mess, Mary. The dirt on the floor? The state of the
bedrooms? There was blood on your hairpin, Mary! The flower pot on the landing?
Max, your books? I know how you are so possessive and careful about them and
the way they were strewn about the room and the dirt on your window-sill? I
nearly had a panic attack. And what more? I made a fool of myself. I called up 911
and then the officer on the line reminded me that it was Christmas Eve and you
guys were at the church. But what of all that......destruction of order?" I sighed and
put my head on the steering. Mary moved closer to me and put a hand on my
shoulder. "Jack, I am sorry. I slept in the afternoon and woke up late to prepare my
contribution for the church dinner. I managed somehow and went upstairs to wake
up Max and realised he was out. He had jumped out of the window to go, in order
to not wake me up. Then I heard him in the kitchen, calling out to me. The dirt on
the floor was from his shoes. I asked him to take them off and he must have put
them on the window-sill to dry them a bit. While dressing up, being in hurry, I hurt
myself while opening the pin. That must be how the blood came on it. And I had
knocked down his books while dragging him out as he was taking so much time to
dress. He wanted to set it right but we were getting late, the Basins had already left,
so in all that, the house ended up being a mess when you came back home."
He looked up, all the pieces falling into place. He relaxed and drove them home.
They walked up to the front door when it struck him. "Hey, have you changed the
locks again? The spare key fit but the lock wouldn't budge when I tried to open It."
"What? No. You used the spare key? But I had removed it months ago, when we
had changed the locks." He looked at her for a minute as she slid her key into the
lock and opened it. He went to their bedroom upstairs to change while Max went to
his and Mary went to the kitchen to set it right. He closed the door and took out the
key from my pocket. It was a small golden key, light as any other key but had
some miniature engravings on it. He took it near the table lamp and looked closely.
It wasn't something he had seen before. He heard Mary calling and put the key in
his drawer. Soon, he forgot about it. But, every Christmas, his thought would go
back to that key, still in his drawer, unchanged, unaffected by the various
experiments he conducted on it over the years.
It remains his secret, the only scary, mysterious part of that 'little scary evening'.