Tales from Beyond (continued)

She thought she could hear it distinctly. The sound of sobbing. Perhaps a child. It was a pitiable, anguished sound such as she had never heard before. As far as she knew there were no children in the family of the domestic help that lived behind the bungalow. She decided to ask Rama the maid, the following day. A dog howled in the distance and all was quiet again. She sighed and decided to turn in before she became fanciful again. She picked up her flashlight and opened the door to the house. She was annoyed at the frequency of power cuts in this town. She was in a large living room that had seen better days. She had been told the house was more than ninety years old. It had belonged to one family throughout it's history. The family of Rai Bahadur. The large living room was roomy in the old style with a high ceiling, and big spacious windows with low sills. She could imagine someone sitting on the sill, looking out into the garden beyond or else reading a book. There were two ventilators at the top of each window. It reminded her of her school in Lucknow which had once been the hunting grounds of the Nawab of Awadh, and where owls often looked down at the students from the ventilators of the classroom. A huge mantle piece adorned the wall adjacent to the door she entered through. Over the mantle was the portrait of a young man. It was a strong face. Deep set eyes that challenged the world, but kind. The nose was aquiline, the mouth firm and the chin resolute with a little cleft that would have made a woman swoon. It was not a handsome face in the traditional sense. It had, she tried to find the word...yes, character. She suddenly had this curious sensation of having known this man. She laughed out aloud. That was ridiculous! she had better go to bed before she saw pink elephants!........................continued in next post