The doorbell
rang twice in quick succession, paused for a moment, and rang a third time.
“Coming”,
yelled Gaurav, as he reluctantly got off his comfortable bean bag.
Just when he
was about to unlatch the door, the bell rang a fourth time. Probably the guest hadn’t
heard the approaching footsteps- so, with the door ajar, Gaurav could see the
tall figure in front of him appear somewhat embarrassed. The middle-aged man
standing outside in a loose shirt and denim jeans had his head shaved clean.
Before Gaurav
could ask, the man smiled at him and extended his right hand, “Hi, this is
Harshil.”
“Gaurav”, he
shook Harshil’s hand.
“I saw the ‘For
Rent’ board there, and was wondering if you could show me around.”
“Sure, let’s
go”, said Gaurav, not with much enthusiasm.
Every Sunday,
this was the drill, he knew. Already into the third week, Gaurav still hadn’t found
a tenant who wanted to move in.
The house was
at a prime location, slightly off the main road, which offered the dual advantage
of convenience and not having to live through noise and dust of the city. But no
potential tenant ever talked about the rent he would charge; they simply did
not come back. Did they not like the rooms and the garden? Very unlikely, but
then what is it?
Gaurav kept
Harshil waiting outside as he went into his room to fetch the bunch of keys.
The exterior
of the house looked well-maintained. Indeed, it had been painted a month back
when he had decided to rent it out. The elegance of the architecture would
impress anyone. Harshil was no exception- but he chose not to express.
It was the
ground floor. The door was unlocked and pushed wide open. The interiors were
visible faintly in the dark. Gaurav went inside what looked like a drawing
room. He navigated through the room without stumbling onto the furniture,
reached for the windows and jerked open with his palm. Harshil waited for light
to pour in before looking around.
“We’ll clear
the mess of furniture when you decide to move in.”
“That’s not a
problem.”
“Okay, this is the drawing room. Let’s go see
the dining and bedrooms.”
Harshil
nodded. While Gaurav moved inside, Harshil stayed back to evaluate the room
further. He looked satisfied.
“This is the
dining hall. There’s the kitchen and a small garden just as you step out of the
kitchen. That one is the bedroom.”
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“Oh, sorry. It’s
there, to the right, next to the kitchen”, pointed Gaurav.
Harshil imagined
where he would place the dining table. He realized space was not a constraint.
He touched the walls, and then rubbed them with three fingers. The bedroom was
spacious too- no complaints there.
But he found
the kitchen weird. He did not expect what he saw: everything was wiped clean,
unlike the other rooms he visited. The racks had some basic utensils from which
water was dripping. Harshil was scared. Does someone stay here, cook and eat
here?
He looked for
Gaurav. Rushing to the dining room, he couldn’t find him.
“Gaurav!”
No response.
As he walked
towards the bathroom, he was relieved to see Gaurav inside washing his face.
“Everything
okay?”,Gaurav turned.
“Umm…can you follow
me to the kitchen once?”
As Gaurav
stepped away from the bathroom mirror to accompany him to the kitchen, Harshil
saw something on the mirror that almost made him faint.
Even when
Gaurav had moved aside and Harshil was staring right at the mirror, it was
Gaurav’s face that lingered on the mirror in grey.
“What
happened? Let’s go to the kitchen.”
Numb with
fear, Harshil followed Gaurav. In the kitchen, there was another man slicing
vegetables now, with his back facing them.
“Meet Harshil”,Gaurav
introduced him.
The man turned
to Harshil with a knife. Instead of water, this time it was blood dripping. There
were two Gauravs in the room- the new one was an aged version of who had so
long been accompanying him. As the two Gauravs started laughing, Harshil fell
on the floor. His body was found later in the day outside the wall that separated
the garden from the alleyway.
In the
evening, the doorbell rang again. Gaurav opened the door.
“You did not
talk about the rent. Shall we discuss?”,Harshil smiled at Gaurav.
