A Face In The Dark

Written by Himangshu Saikia on 7 October 2007

This was one story which had always enthralled me as a kid, to put it into poetry wasn’t that difficult. I hope it still preserves a part of Ruskin Bond’s magic with storytelling 🙂

I was a teacher in a small town
I was kind and giving
Spent my time with simple children
Teaching virtue and truthful living
“Always believe what is seen by your eyes
Or heard by your own ears
‘Cause a rumour spreads faster than light
And confusion is all it smears..”

Villagers there were many
Part of a superstitious lot
No matter what reasoning provided
Fear still lurked in their hearts
The children simple beings they were
Feared the paranormal too
Scared of the graveyard that lied on the outskirts
Made a point to avoid that route
That led right through to school
And was haunted by spirits and ghouls

One day the sun went down sooner
And it had grown quite dark
I had to walk my way back home
All the way down the long path
But there was this route through the graveyard
That was ‘haunted’ yet was short
Ghosts and spirits are all in our minds
Thinking to myself I laughed
While starting to walk that path
Firmly my beliefs I held.

As it grew spookier
Strange sounds seemed to howl
In the darkness lurking shadows
Seem to move and prowl
My heart was pumping hard
A strange feeling surrounded the air
As if someone’s creeping up from behind
Or was it just my mind?
Daringly I walked on
Every step in two minds I took,
Hoping to find my way, with limbs that shook
Telling myself every moment
Not once behind must I look

Suddenly a voice was heard
It grew distinct slowly
A voice seemed to wince
And seemed to weep
It was a girl behind a tree
Face hidden in her knees
An enormous pain seemed to shroud her
Knowing not what it was
I walked right upto her and asked
“What happened, little girl?”

She would not lift her head up for me
No matter how I persist
At length when I bended down to see
A horrifying sight awaited me
There was no face
No eyes, no nose, no lips
A face as blank and pale
As a sheet of paper
Gleaming in the moonlight
Staring fixedly at me..

I took to my heels
As fast as I could
I let my legs run free
In disbelief of what I’d seen

Everything was hazy to me
As I was running out of breath
A glimmer of light came as hope
At the deep end of the road I could see
Someone holding a lantern low
As I neared and stopped to breathe
The man came close to be
“What happened Sir, how come you’re here?”
He inquired in a tone of strange monotony

I huffed and puffed and cried out loud
“There’s a girl without a face..”
“She had no eyes, no nose nor lips..”
“She ought to be a ghost..!”
Calmed down the chowkidar at my story
And came closer still
Held up the lantern high enough
And said these words slowly
“Do you mean it was like this…. Sir?”
And I stared in disbelief
A man without a face.. again
Seemed smiling straight at me..

A gutsy stroke of wind came down
Someone heard a shout
As silence took over everything
And blew the lantern out…

— Adapted from Ruskin Bond’s short story by the same name.

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