The price I paid....

She kept on roaming in the house at night. I tried everything; making her sleep with me, locking the door to her room, tying her to the bed, giving her mild sleeping pills, psychiatric sessions; but nothing worked. You may not believe all this, even I did not at first, but then one night I stood outside the gate and saw the lock open from inside and she emerging out of the room. She was always in trance. I was frozen that night for the first time and now every night I silently look at her while she walks up and down the stairs, jumps on the couch, opens and closes the refrigerator, stares out of the window and talks to the cat. She does not sleep and so do I.

She is very cheerful during the day, with no recollection of what she does at night. She never sleeps, but is always fresh. On the other hand, I cannot go through the torture and horror of watching her every night. How she unties herself or opens the lock has always been a mystery to me.

One day I noticed that she was talking to someone at the window. It was past midnight. It was a scary face, the one you imagine that a ghost would have. I could not hear what they were talking about. I screamed and ran towards the window. He did not seem to notice me and kept talking to her. I picked her up and shut the window closed. She kept talking as if he was still there. While I was shutting the window, I saw his face closely and skipped a heartbeat. My dead husband was standing outside the window.

I was alone at home next evening when the window opened by itself. I saw the face and screamed once again. He called me by the name he used to. He kept a figure on his lips and gestured me to be quiet. Then he spoke. He said that he knows what was troubling her. He also said that he knows how to cure her, but there is a price to be paid. He asked whether I was willing to pay the price. Then he left, I do not remember when and how.

And then everything changed. I do not know how, but it did. I could not believe when I saw her sleeping. I kept watching her entire night and cried with happiness. Every following night, scared that I was, that things will not be like this for long, I saw her sleeping. And after a long time, I also started sleeping again. Life became normal. Weeks passed. I was convinced that she was cured now. Though I could never understand her powers of opening locks without keys, but I did not want to think about it. I also wanted to forget that I ever saw my dead husband. It was all a nightmare and it was over.

One day, principal of her school called me. She was worried. My daughter was sleeping in the school. My first thought was that she might be making up for all years of lost sleep. I started making her sleep early in evening. She had stopped talking, had dark circles under her eyes and had lost appetite. I started taking her out to play with other children but she just sat in a corner. She trembled and shivered when I spoke with her.

Once again I had to take her down to the psychiatrist. She went back to her memories in a state of trance. She said she did her homework, had dinner and went to her room to sleep. And then she started trembling, scared to hell and had to be brought back to her senses. I could not let her go through the nightmare again.

It took me lot of time to make her comfortable enough to talk to us. I took her in my arms and asked what is she so afraid of? She said “you”. I told her that I loved her a lot and will not do anything to hurt her or let anything happen which will hurt her. I asked her why she was afraid of me.

She innocently asked – “Why do you keep walking at night?”