THE LETTER

The Letter

THE LETTER

The incident happened in the nineties when mobiles did not exist. In those days, people exchanged news by writing letters. Since the advent of the mobile phone, people have lost the need to write letters. People's feelings were intimately connected with each letter. It could be guessed from its language, choice of words, care for the letter, tendency to read the same letter repeatedly.

Anyway, back to the story. The story revolves around a letter. Mohiuddin suddenly received a letter from his in-laws one day. It was written in the letter that his wife and child were very sick. He should come to their house with a quick leave of absence.

A wry smile played on his face after reading the letter. Leave! Is it possible to get a leave if you want? In fact Mohiuddin managed to get one government job after years of pursuit. He worked in a down town and lived there in a secluded quarter far away from the office. After getting the job any kind of leave cannot be taken was the strict orders of the superior officer. So he sent his pregnant wife to his in-laws' house in the village previously. Because taking a pregnent person to the doctor, and being by her side when necessary, someone was needed. Which was not possible for him now.

On top of that, his resident was far away from the locality, surrounded by trees, from where it was not possible to easily take a pregnant woman to the doctor. He therefore thought it appropriate to send the wife to his in-laws.

Already knew that he would not get leave, but still tried. Being angry, he sent a letter to his in-laws with some money, asking her to see a good doctor. Just two days later, Mohiuddin received a letter. It said that his baby had died, and his wife was still in the hospital. He might go there with a quick leave. After receiving this letter, Mohiuddin applied for emergency leave. His leave was then granted, but he would get leave two days later. Mohiuddin then returned home and sat alone and cried a lot but there was nothing he could do. He fell asleep while crying.

When he woke up the next morning, Mohiuddin saw his wife standing in the yard. He was completely surprised to see her. How did his sick wife leave the in-laws alone? How did she recover so quickly? And how did the in-laws let her come all the way alone? His wife said with a smile, 'What? Won't let me come in?' Mohiuddin quickly opened the gate and let his wife inside.

Mohiuddin was also surprised to see that his wife did not speak about the death of the child. There was not even a trace of grief on her face. Maybe his wife wanted to hide her grief from him, Mohiuddin also did not say anything about it. Then he forgot everything and started living a normal life.

A week later. Mohiuddin was working in the office when he noticed that many people were excitedly discussing something. He called the peon to find out and heard the whole incident from him. There was an mango orchard towards the back of Mohiuddin's quarter. For a few days, the sound of a girl's laughter can be heard there only in the evening. Many travel through that orchard to take a shortcut somewhere. In the evening, whoever came through the mango orchard heard the sound of laughter.

At first, everyone ignored the matter as rumours. Thought someone might be spreading the rumor that laughter could be heard. Or someone was joking. But those who heard that laugh said that it was not human. And they got scared and ran away from there. However, yesterday evening Gani Mia from the office was coming through the orchard on a bicycle. Suddenly, the sound of laughter started.

Gani Mia was a very brave person. Undaunted, he searched for the source of the sound. Looking around, he saw a girl wearing a white sari sitting on a tree branch, smiling and swinging her legs. Seeing this scene, brave Gani Mia could no longer hold his courage. He ran away from there. That day Gani Mia was telling everyone in the office the story of what happened to him yesterday. As a result many people in the office were excited. Gani Mia said, 'She is not a human, she was a witch. I saw it with my own eyes.' I thought Gani was making up stories. And the office people believed that story.

A few months passed. It was usually 9-10 pm when Mohiuddin finished his work and returned home from office by bicycle. One day, for some reason, there was a office closure at noon. Mohiuddin also quickly finished his work, packed everything and rode his bicycle towards home. As it was winter, it was early evening. So it was evening by the time when he reached  home.

On reaching home, he got off his cycle and found the door of the house locked. He called his wife a lot. But no trace of her was found. So Mohiuddin started looking for her around.While searching it was dark all around. Calling his wife's name, he stood near the mango orchard behind the house. As soon as he came there, Mohiuddin heard the sound of laughter. He frooze with fear. What a terrible smile! Is it a human, or something else? Mohiuddin swallowed in fear. It was blind darkness inside the mango garden. Can there be any people in this darkness?

Forcefully removing the fear from his mind, Mohiuddin stepped inside the mango orchard to find his wife. He continued to walk slowly with the torch light on. The sound of laughter was getting louder. Now the sound was closer. The sound of inhuman laughter was shaking Mohiuddin's soul to the core. Still he went on. What else to do, Asma had to find out.

Once Mohiuddin saw a white thing on the branch of a tree. As he got closer, he realized that it was a woman. Who was wearing a white saree sitting on a tree branch, swinging her legs and laughing loudly. Mohiuddin said to himself, 'That's Asma. But why is she doing here in such darkness?

Mohiuddin asked Asma to come down and asked the reason behind her doing so. Asma said, 'I come and sit here every day, I like it.' Mohiuddin understood that even though Asma hide from him, the grief of losing the child was still in her. She was behaving in such a strange way because of the mental stress that the grief has put on her.

Mohiuddin also thought that Gani Mia might have been afraid of Asma that day. Luckily he didn't know Asma. Otherwise he thought Asma was crazy. He doesn't know Asma was going through how much stress. Asma did not agree to return home with Mohiuddin easily. Mohiuddin took her home with great difficulty.

Since then, when Mohiuddin woke up in the middle of the night, he would not find Asma in the house. But Asma was found in the same condition in the mango orchard. Mohiuddin became very worried about this matter. He used to try to finish office work early and reach home. But every day he was late.

Sitting on the balcony one holiday afternoon, Mohiuddin wondered if Asma would be seen by a psychiatrist. At that time the postman brought a letter. Mohiuddin saw that the letter came from his in-laws. But the date was a few months ago. When Asma was hospitalized. He asked the postman, 'Now you are giving the letter? Why are you so late to come?'

The postman said, "Don't tell me sir, there was a fire in the post office of that village. Many letters are burned. Some letters remained intact. It is so late to repair the office and start work again. It took several months to select the intact letters from among them and send them to the right place.” As Asma was busy with household chores, Mohiuddin himself started to open the letters from the envelope without disturbing her. And as he read the letter, he was shocked with surprise.

In the letter his father-in-law wrote:

"Dear Mohiuddin,

I have no words to tell you what happened. Just yesterday, I gave you a sad news. I know you still haven't gotten over the grief of that. It is not easy to overcome the grief of losing a loved one. But I have to give you this news also. You know that Asma was hospitalized. I wrote you in the previous letter that she was in very bad condition.

She also passed away early this morning while fighting with death. Despite many efforts, the doctors could not save her. Please forgive my daughter if she did anything wrong to you. And you come quickly. After your arriving we will bury her.

Your unfortunate father-in-law.”

 

Mohiuddin said to himself, 'What! Has Asma died? Then who is now in my room? Who have I been living with since she died a few months ago? No, it seems all lies. But can my father-in-law lie to me about such a thing?'

He started linking clues one by one. Asma left her father's house alone, anyone did not come with her, sat on the branch of a tree in the dark of night and laughed inhumanly, did not mourn the dead child, etc. This time Mohiuddin started to fear. Because Asma who was then in his room was not a human being. She was a witch!

At that time Asma came to him. Mohiuddin gave the letter without saying anything and let her read it. After reading the letter, Mohiuddin asked her, 'Who are you?' Asma said with sorrow, 'I am your Asma. I have returned to you even after death. Now no one can separate me from you.’ Hearing this, Mohiuddin left the house in fear.

A week after this incident, Mohiuddin came to his house one day at daytime. There he did not find Asma, but found a letter from her:

“I left. I thought, what happened if I lost a child, we will be together for the rest of our lives. You will be very happy to have me. So even after death I came back to you. But you are afraid of me. Don't want to stay under the same roof with me. I'm leaving, have a good life.

 

Asthma”