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That old man in the train

"This place seems haunted", said the voice.

It was half past midnight and I was the only other person in the compartment of the local train. I was completely drenched and on the verge of catching cold. But that was least of my concerns. I just wanted to reach home safely. The train stopped on the bridge due to power failure and the place was engulfed in darkness.  The only sound I could hear was that of incessant rains.The only other person was an old man, probably in his 80s or 90s, or maybe even 100.

"Yeah. It looks so.", I replied indifferently while shuffling songs on my ipod.

"Maybe, there are ghosts around", he said.

"It surely is scary, and we seem stranded in the middle of nowhere", I replied trying to hide my fear.

"Do you believe in ghosts?", he asked.

"No. I don't", I replied, with a gentle laughter.

"Ah! This current generation doiesn't seem to believe in anything", he replied while allowing himself a gentle chuckle.

"Do you?", I said, trying to hide my arrogance.

"Why not, dear young boy", he said with a cherubic smile.

"Oh, then let it be. You have your beliefs. But I don't and I won't", I retorted, secretly praying for the train to move again.

"Think again", he said and disappeared.

Comments

  1. Nikesh Rathi11:10 AM, November 09, 2010

    Unintentionally, this seems to bear some similarities (or maybe,lots of) to some existing story :( !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ritu1:19 PM, February 10, 2011

    Its been done before ... this story idea, but your treatment of it is fresh

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nikesh Rathi8:39 AM, February 20, 2011

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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