The Keeck

by Shamit Bagchi

Bool Sheet lay in bed; yet his flailing arms were clenched and moving as if he were fighting
someone!

Bool Sheet was bleeding - his right arm had several gashes, he lay on the ground now but tried
to get up and something big and dark lunged at him and there was a scuffle and a loud growl
followed by a series of sharp sonorous barks.

It was an enormous hound of supernatural proportions, its dark black haunches powerful and
gleaming. Its bared teeth tore into Bool shoulder, Bool gave a cry of intense pain and then
with all the strength left in him Bool kicked hard with his Bata shoes on the side of the big
black dog. And then another and another until a bone crunched. There was a yelping sound
and the huge dog slowly moved its head to one side and licked at his wound. This was the
chance Bool had been looking for. He jumped up and ran.
His head bumped into the door and he gave a sharp cry, rubbing his head in pain. He
constantly kept getting this dream of a ferocious black dog attacking him. Today it was so
severe! He had actually hurt himself in reality - sleep running!

He had an interview that morning, for the summer placements. He prepared in right
earnest and was impeccably dressed when he reached the Career Development Center. A
few green bananas hung from the top of tree nearby! Ah! That’s not a good omen Bool
thought. He just tried to shut out the negative thoughts. He would do well he knew it.

In came Miss Layla, she was dressed in a cream top and before he could see the rest of her
attire, she ran into the room in front of him. Bool now sat nervously along with Madan,
Fighter, Jitesh and Biren. Soccer was taking care of coordinating the interviews. He came in
and called Bool’s name.

“You are next”, he said. And that is what Bool remembers. The rest of it became an offering
to the Greek God of amnesia. All he remembered was having done reasonably well.

Then there was a massive booze party after that and people were dancing and the gaiety
and revelry in the night continued on. He was to report three days from then to work at the
consulting firm!

He reached on time on the scheduled day. He was told to be seated in a conference hall – his
manager would meet him soon. He recalled scenes from Kafka’s Metamorphosis and
shuddered. The manager came in. He was tall and fair, seemed very friendly and yet,
something bothered Bool. He looked very familiar. And although he had never met him
before, he seemed to have… surely!

The Manager started to speak and that is when Bool kicked himself. He couldn’t recollect
exactly where he had seen this man before. He was introducing himself. “Hi, I am Harish
and we hope to work together and as you know from the reputation of the firm it will be
demanding. I hope you are ready for this?”

The next month was work like he had never heard of before. Sometimes well past 1 AM late
at night. And then back again by 10 AM. He quite enjoyed the work although it was
stressful.

What he didn’t like was the black dog’s recurring dreams every night! It would often bark
and bite without any reason! One day the black dog became monstrous and chewed Bool’s
brains off and left him braindead. That is when Bool decided he would reclaim his life.

And another pain was the boss at work; he would taunt and criticize at the drop of a hat. In
the day the boss and in the night that black dog. Bool’s life seemed to be heading nowhere.
One Sunday as he sat glum in the hostel lobby, Jobb came over and started asking
questions.

Jobb was known for his questions in class, in the hostel and anywhere and everywhere, the
one thing Jobb was well known for was for his incessant questions! He could go deep or ask
absolutely useless questions depending on his mood. Some days his mood would say:
investigator and on other days scream: Arbit! When in an investigative, detective mood he
could really be intimidating, everyone else would shut up and look up to him in awe. That
day too he was in a similar mood.

“I have been observing you, what’s the matter with you?”

Bool hesitated first but Jobb was Jobb and after a few minutes Bool told him everything and
actually felt relieved. Jobb was known to be a master in the art of advice - an expert. He
suggested to him that this problem of the Black Dog and his Nasty Boss was easily solvable.
When Bool mentioned that from the time he had met his boss - the manager he had been
uncomfortable. To this on further questioning Jobb figured that Bool felt he had seen the
guy somewhere and he looked familiar.

Just as he was thinking deeply as if everything fell into its place. Jobb clapped his hands and
whispered something into Bool’s ears. He told him to do exactly as told.

The second month was even more torturous. Bool’s boss despite Bool’s stellar performance
demanded more and more and behaved irritably with his habit of sarcasm intact and also
like a spoilt grown up kid!

The last week of his two month summer stint was now here, and he continued to perform
to his best and had become quite a star except in the eyes of his boss.

And today was the last day of his internship, and as the lunch hour came to an end, Bool
went and spoke to Nikita and told her to get the fire safety drill executed through office
staff exactly at 4:45 PM.

At the appointed time, a loud siren went off but quite amazingly the people sat relaxed.
After a while when the siren did not stop, people started panicking - the emergency exit
was opened and in the ensuing melee as everyone started to walk down the iron staircase
to the holding zone, Bool saw his boss also go out through the emergency exit.

In a flash he was behind him and as he was about to land in the open zone where everyone
was - Bool kicked his boss hard on his rump and then slyly moved into the crowd. The boss
kept looking all around, puzzled at who kicked him, his face turning deep purple in anger!

After a while the drill was called off on the news of satisfactory preparedness of the
employees.
Bool felt great satisfaction that evening after having kicked his disgusting boss on his
backside. He felt a relief, a calmness spreading across his whole body and especially his
head. It was in this state of peace that realization dawned on him, that his boss had looked
so familiar because he resembled the black dog he used to see all the time in his dreams!

That night and then onwards he never got the black dog’s dream ever again and could sleep
peacefully, although sometimes scaring his neighbours with whistle-like snores.

Actually unknowing to Bool what Jobb had done and what Bool came to know later from
Jobb was that Jobb had done an ‘Outfection’ on Bool’s subconscious. In parapsychology
terms it is known as ‘The Keeck’ first coined by the famous parapsychologist Dr Haajaar
Hazra.

Bool’s kicking his manager had eliminated the residual image of the black dog from Bool’s
subconscious whose reality was actually the boss!

Although this technique can only be mastered by a few under the guidance of an expert like
Jobb, it is recommended for fewer still, unless it gets to Bool Sheet like circumstances!