The first thing my parents hankered for me to do upon our homecoming was to make friends.
And really, for the first I didn't have much to work for.
One day, a week after, when I came home from school there was this girl of my age in a white blouse and a blue vintage skirt with a white lily in her long black hair perched on the windowshill of my bedroom.
She fixed her deep black eyes at me and demanded. "I want my heart back. Now!" And I screamed my lungs out which I swear must had vibrated all through Goa. By the time my parents hurried upstairs she was gone. I know, I should have told my parents about the ghastly girl claiming for heart- whose, I think I had a vague idea- but for some reason I didn't and around the week I saw glimpses of her. On the dinning table staring longing at the food, in the kitchen with Maa while she cooked, beside my Baba and over my brother Dev, like really, hoveirng over him and my eyes would go this wide, my brother would think something's wrong with me, he would tell Maa, she would tell Baba and he would call the doctor and next thing, I was in the hospital while the nurse would feel my pulse. You see, I didn't wanted to believe. I didn't know how to explain to my parents. Hallucination or was I going crazy? Was she really......
On sunday as dusk appraoched, my parents out with Dev and I pulled a book to read, I felt her, like literally felt. A swinging feeling in the air, temperature dropping and stuff. I turned and she was there near the window. As if waiting for me.
This time I was scared out of my bones. My throat felt dry and when I opened my mouth not a single word came out.
But then, she thought I was going to scream again so she interupted from the window. "Don't scream. God, my ear would literally bleed this time if I hear you scream once again."
I frowned at her. "My voice is not that awful."
She scoffed. "Ofcourse not. But your scream is."
"Hey!" I retorted.
"Oh, come on." She drifted over to my bed. "There's a way of how to scream. Specialy for a lady which you lack so grievously as if you have seen a ghost." Which I did. "And even if you did. The ghost would run away. No need for spiritual experts. Ha! You know, I can scream better than you. Once I saw a lizard slithering the wall of my parents bedroom I screamed so hard even my mother thought something awfull had happened. Not that she cared, because, well, technically, she was busy preparing for this get together or something my parents were having which was like really important. You see, my father was this banker, at very high post, so he had to maintain his image and he would have a party which really was not a party. I mean, do you call it a party with Kishore Kumars Apni To Jaise Taise playing in the background, Coca-Cola and plate of fried besan deep veggies? Like really? You know, my friends and me had this party one summer evening on this high terrace which-"
"Stop!" I shrieked.
She scowled. "What?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, screaming ofcourse, because you are awful at it. You see-"
"Nevermind." I snapped. "What do you want? Why are you here? Who are you?"
"Well, ofcourse, I want my heart back and you havd it. IN THERE!" She pointed at my chest and I clasped my both hands over it.
"No, stop. This is mine now. And..." I scrambled for anything to say because when in danger, if not fighting, talking and trickery works. "And...and previous to that it was..."
"Reya's." She said and flopped on my bed. "Its me. Reya."
I pressed my temple seizing her. "But she was a..."
"Yeah, whatever. I don't know! Now my heart." She drifted over to me and I squealed clutching my hands over my chest.
"No! Its mi-mine. If you take it I'll die."
She waved her hand. "Oh, it won't hurt." She had a gleaming look on her face, almost giddy as if she had been thirsty and hungry for eons and I didn't like the look of it. As she reached out over me I ducked and sprinted toward my desk.
"How are even going to use this heart? You are dead, already!"
Her mouth hung open. Then she narrowed her eyes at me. "You are awfully rude!"
"You are rude! Who wants others hurt. Not a very...." I tried to think of a emphasizing word. "....appreciative manner!"
"Oh, well." She sat on my bed. "Now that you mentioned it, I wonder why I am here then?"
"You..." I stared at her, wide eyed.
"What?"
"You don't know why you are here?"
"Well, at first I thought it must be because I wanted my heart back, though, it won't be of any use to me as I am already dead and please if we could avoid mentioning that. It feels somehow real..."
"It is really."
"I wonder now, what really is the reason I'm here for?"
I shrugged. "I...once heard that dead people returns becuase of....somekind of last wish they had....something they wasn't able to do when they were alive..."
"Absolutely!" She jumped, grinning. "We are going to do what I never got do."
I opened my mouth. "I don't think..."
"Oh, you are so nice."
And thus my first friend in a long was the ghost of my donor.
Creepy? I know.