The moving van screeched to an abrupt halt inches in front of the metallic red Baleno. Kristen
covered her eyes reflexively. Michael chuckled at his wife. The driver and his companion jumped out
of the van and flung the doors open. Their team was ready to unload the truckload of furniture.
Kristen looked around at their new surroundings. The long, narrow road, houses built close together.
It wasn’t as “suburban” as she had imagined. The houses were not even aesthetically planned, apart
from the older bungalows that seemed like they had been there for decades. The homes opposite their
duplex didn’t look modern and stood out like sore thumbs. Kristen thought they looked charming.
“La Marvel Colony,” Michael smiled. “Who would have thought I’d be moving here? I remember
spending a huge chunk of my childhood here, hanging out with the kids from the neighborhood.”
“Posh,” Kristen’s tone oozed sarcasm.
Everyone knew that La Marvel Colony was an upscale place of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was
nicknamed “Beverly Hills 90210 of Goa” in jest. The residents were a mix of middleclass, upper
middleclass, and high society. The houses matched their financial statuses. It used to be a charming
place with lots of empty spaces. The homes were spread around. Four generations of children had
grown up there and if the trees and walls could talk, they would be full of the most exciting stories.
“Michael!” Kristen nudged her husband. “Are we going in or we going to stand here baking in the
morning sun, daydreaming about our childhood?”
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine today?” he stuck his tongue out at her.
“So mature, Michael… so mature,” Kristen sighed and shook her head slowly .
“Take a deep breath, Ten,” he said, following his own advice. “The smell of the salt in the air is
strong. Look at this place! We are surrounded by the sea. I can’t wait to explore the area again.”
Kristen rolled her eyes at Michael. “Before you do all that, please let’s get our stuff indoors and start
getting organized.”
Michael opened the gates to their new residence and led the moving team in. Kristen stood outside
and looked around one more time. It was 10 a.m. on a weekday and there was no one in sight. The
house at the far end was closed up. The house next door was closed; the windows were shut and the
curtains were drawn. She could have sworn she saw movement behind the curtains. She shrugged it
off and entered the house.
She wasn’t too thrilled moving into the colony. It was a fair distance from her parents who were in
Aldona, a charming village in North Goa. Now that was home! Not here in some pseudo-suburban
area. No, she hated this place already and they had even not moved in completely yet. She had made a
conscious choice to leave her cat Gizmo and her dog Bundy with her parents and younger siblings.
“Welcome to my humble abode, m’lady,” Michael bowed clumsily.
“Jackass!” she chuckled and went serious all of a sudden. “It’s not home without Gizmo and Bundy.”
“You know they aren’t too far away,” he squinted at her. “We’re not in Timbuktu. We can visit them
every weekend and holiday, and your parents too. Anyway, your mother, Anna Marie, and Seby will
be here as soon as we’ve settled in. Maybe we can get Gizmo and Bundy here too.”
“Maybe,” Kristen looked around, studying their new home.
All the boxes and furniture had been piled around the entrance and the hallway. Michael followed her
gaze.
“We should start unpacking,” he stated the obvious.
“We should,” she nodded absentmindedly.
“You’re a million miles away,” he observed. “What’s up?’
“I… this place… it’s just weird,” she burst out. “There’s just… I don’t know… it’s weird.”
“Weird as in ‘homesick-weird’ or weird as in ‘weird’?” he raised an eyebrow.
“It’s difficult to explain,” she shrugged. “It’s a little past 10 a.m. and there was not a soul in sight. The
road was deserted. No one’s windows are open. Their curtains are drawn. Don’t you think it’s a wee
bit strange?”
Michael furrowed his eyebrows. “From what I can remember, it has always been rather quiet around
here.”
“That was, what… almost thirty years ago?” she looked him in the eye. “Things have changed from
then to now, in case you haven’t noticed. I don’t know what it looked like in the last century w when
you set foot here.”
“Haha! Funny!” he scoffed. “NOT! Just FYI, WE set foot here first a couple of years ago when we
decided to buy this section of the duplex.”
“Which none of your childhood ‘friends’ bothered to tell you about,” she mocked him.
“They might have, had they still been living here. but they’ve all moved out. Some aren’t in the
country anymore,” he retorted picking up the box of crockery. “Where does this box go?”
“It says ‘Crockery’. Logically that would be the kitchen.” She turned her back abruptly and went
upstairs.
“Road-facing or sea-facing?” she asked herself peeping into the spacious bedrooms. “Sea-facing,
though all I can see is a backyard. This room has a balcony.”
She opened the door and stepped out. There was a ladder leading up to the roof. Her curiosity got the
better of her and she climbed up. She stepped out on the landing at the top of the ladder and looked
around. She could see the horizon, the British cemetery, the fort wall, and the steeple of the
governor’s palace in the west. She could see Fort Aguada in the North and the Marmagoa Harbour in
the south. She wasn’t high enough to get to see anything in the east. The view was definitely to kill for.
There was a gentle breeze that carried the smell of the ocean with it. She turned toward the horizon.
The trawlers bobbing on the azure waters looked like tiny dots.
“I think I might be wrong about this place,” she thought. “I love this view. The pictures I can paint.
The photographs I can take and maybe sell on eBay.”
“Ten,” her husband yelled out.
“Right here,” she yelled back hoping to see some signs of life.
“Where’s here?” he sounded confused.
“On the roof,” she hollered. “There’s a ladder just outside the bedroom facing west.”
He found her staring out to sea and handed her a beer.
“Cheers to new beginnings,” he opened his can and grinned at her boyishly as they clinked cans.
They spent the rest of the day organizing their furniture, hauling things around and putting their
possessions away. The bedrooms had built in cupboards and the beds were all custom-made. They
had leftover sandwiches from lunch and settled in early for the night. Kristen’s head began to spin or
was the room spinning? The past and present seemed to amalgamate into nothingness. Kristen felt as
though she was being enveloped by darkness. She felt suffocated. Everything went blank.
***
Lexi swung the door of her house open and stepped into the hallway. Worn out from the events of the
day, she slammed the door shut behind her. She flung her scarf and handbag carelessly on the side
table and kicked off her heels as she proceeded to her bedroom. She grabbed a can of beer on the
way. She had a hurried shower and flopped on the queen-sized bed.
“Lexi? Lexi? Wake up darling,” a gentle voice whispered through the semi-darkness of the room.
“Mum?” Lexi woke up with a start and groped for the light switch. She turned on her bedside lamp.
The room was now bright enough to see that there was no one there. She glanced sleepily at the clock
on her side table. It was 3 a.m.
“Lexi,” the voice whispered again.
“Mum?” she stepped on the soft rug strategically placed to prevent her from having contact with the
stone-cold floor, avoiding her lazy cat Max who was always asleep by her bedside. He didn’t stir.
She slipped her slender feet into her bedroom slippers and headed for the door .
“Lexi, come to me, my darling,” the voice coaxed her.
“Yea, Mum, I’ll be there in a sec,” she was getting agitated but tried to sound patient.
Max let out a bloodcurdling yowl. Lexi swung around.
“Max,” Lexi turned to her bedroom door that had slammed shut. “Max!”
Lexi tried to run but her legs felt like lead. Her cat howled piteously. Her panic levels increased.
Adrenaline pumped through veins. She woke up with a jolt. Confused, she studied her surroundings.
Her eyes fell on the clock. It was 7 a.m. She had an hour to get ready and be at work on time for a job
she was not particularly fond of. The day loomed before her.
***
A loud mewing roused Michael from his deep state of slumber. He groaned, rubbed his eyes with the
back of his hands, swung his legs over his side of the bed, and walked over to the window. The
mewing didn’t stop. He made his way downstairs without bothering to switch on any lights. His bare
feet allowed him stealth. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard the wall strike 3 a.m.
The mewing grew louder. He switched on the light of their garden and opened the kitchen door. He
found himself staring down at a grey tabby cat with striking yellowish-green eyes. The cat held his
gaze for a few seconds and bounded indoors as if it was familiar with the layout of the house.
Michael stared after it, feeling mildly surprised and bewildered at the randomness of a stray cat.
“Friendly neighborhood cat,” he smirked as he closed the door. “Even the animals are domesticated
and free.”
***
Lexi stood before her front door and groped for the house keys in her “bottomless handbag” as she
called it. Nothing had a designated place even though rummaging through her makeup items, work
catalogs, books to read on her long commutes to and from work, and other odds and ends took
unnecessary time. She finally retrieved her house keys, fumbled with the lock and finally got the door
opened.
She headed straight to the kitchen and filled the electric kettle with water. She plugged the kettle in.
She hurried to the bedroom, kicked off her shoes, placed her handbag, and scarf on the antique
rocking chair and returned to the kitchen. The water had reached boiling point.
“Mango, ginger, lemon honey, pomegranate — which flavor should I have? I can’t seem to decide,”
she muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and ran her slim fingers over the boxes and stopped at
one.
“Honey lemon, I guess,” she mumbled.
She poured herself a mug of piping hot water and put the teabag in. She placed a few chocolate chip
cookies on a plate and went to the hall. She switched on the TV. She flipped through the channels and
selected her favorite cartoon show. The reruns would be on for a while. She went to the kitchen to fix
a light dinner.
Lexi’s body shook with convulsions, her arms and legs twitched involuntarily. She was in a deep state
of REM.
***
“All right then!” Mildly infuriated, Michael glared down at the grey tabby. “I gave you five fresh
sardines and one fat mackerel. Off you go on your way then.”
He bent down to let the cat out of the kitchen door. The cat refused to budge. It purred and rubbed
itself against Michael’s bare calves.
“Oh no! I’m not falling for those tricks, Random Cat,” Michael sat back on his haunches and gently
nudged the plump cat toward the entrance of the door.
The cat rolled on its back and looked directly into Michael’s eyes. He shuddered as a chill ran down
his spine. He felt as though the cat was looking into his soul.
***
“Lexi, wake up, your mother is here,” Barry shook her gently.
Lexi’s eyes opened mechanically and she turned instinctively to the radium alarm clock by her
bedside. It was 3 a.m.
“Barry, it’s 3 a.m., what could mother possibly want at this ungodly hour?” she rasped, pulling a
magenta bathrobe over her shoulders.
Lexi stepped out into the hallway and ran her slender fingers lightly over the pictures and photographs
that adorned her walls. Her mother, her father, her siblings, her cat Max, her husband Barry, her
grandparents, Barry’s family.
“Mum?” Lexi called out to her mother. “Where are you, Mum?”
***
Michael sat in front of his laptop and opened Google. He typed in Lexi, Barry, Max but nothing
showed up. He was exhausted from the sleepless nights. He ran his hands through his crew-cut and
pushed his chair back. He felt like life was getting sucked out of him. He made his way downstairs
and went to his next door neighbor’s house. He rang the doorbell.
***
The night seemed ominous, darkness and silence seemed to have fallen simultaneously. It was late and
the streets were empty but then there was never much traffic in the suburban area during normal hours.
There was no sign of life anywhere. A deafening clap of thunder disrupted the tranquility for an
ephemeral moment before the skies opened up and a deluge cascaded through the thick grey clouds.
The raindrops pelted the earth a vengeance. The nocturnal animals hid from sight. The houses were in
complete darkness. There was no movement at all. An occasional streak of lightning lit up the path.
Footsteps splashed through the water accompanied by heavy panting. The old wrought iron gates
creaked open and shut. Unsure hands fumbled in the darkness trying to gauge the surroundings, tired
feet trudged down the uneven track.
“Max! Max! Come to me, Max,” Lexi screamed almost hysterically.
She tried to adjust her eyes to the dark. The cemetery was not the ideal place to be at 3 a.m. She had
no idea why Maxi kept running off to the cemetery. He had always been a strange cat. An owl hooted
in the distance and Lexi spun around, her heartbeat racing like a runaway train.
***
“Please, please you have to help me,” Michael pleaded the moment his neighbor opened the door.
“Come in,” a slim elderly lady gestured him in. “You must be Michael. I’m Izabel Mendes. How can
I help you?”
“It’s Kristen, my wife. She’s been out of it since we got here,” his words tumbled over each other.
“She is delirious, ill, I… I don’t know.”
“You bought the last row house of the property, no?” Izabel began as she stared intently at the
disheveled man sitting before her in a faded pair of jeans and a black superhero T-shirt.
“Yes, that’s correct,” Michael held her steady gaze. “Wasn’t that the D’Souza property? There was a
girl there around my age…”
“You know that family?” she asked, curiously.
“Yes, I used to spend a lot of time here as a child,” he replied. “My friends lived in the area, on the
way to the cliffs.”
“That house you live in, the property, has seen many deaths,” Izabel began dramatically. “Her
grandparents both died suddenly. The father died of a cardiac arrest. Her mother died of cancer.
Colon cancer, if I remember correctly. We started to believe that the house was cursed. Her siblings
gave her their share and left the country. No one knows where they are. They have not set foot in the
place for over a decade. She got married a few months before her mother died. Her husband died in a
fatal road accident. She was pregnant. She lost the baby. She spent an unhealthy amount of time
indoors. A few years ago, we got concerned when we didn’t see her for days. We called the police
and broke the door down. She had taken her own life. The estimated time of death was 3 a.m.”
“Cursed? The house was cursed?” Michael raised an eyebrow to indicate his disbelief, ignoring
whatever Izabel had told him.
“Abel, my late husband, a historian, believed that the house was built on an ancient burial ground of
some sort,” Izabel squinted at him trying to recall more details. “Nothing has been confirmed, of
course. It could be an old wives’ tale… you know… cheap village talk. ”
“Who’s Max?” Michael asked her assuming it could have been the name of the baby Lexi had lost.
“Max, fat Max,” a smile crossed Izabel’s face. “He was Lexi’s beloved cat. She rescued him from the
rain and took him home. He disappeared after she died. No one knows where he went. We haven’t
seen him since. Coming to think of it, strange things began happening ever since she took him in.”
“There’s a strange cat in our home and it won’t leave. It refuses to go outdoors. My knowledge about
cats is extremely limited…” Michael tried to be as informative as possible. “It’s a grey tabby, nice
fluffy coat…”
“There are lots of stray cats in our area,” Izabel shook her head. “My neighbors encourage them by
giving them food and they are all domesticated and friendly.”
“Thank you for your time and hospitality, Mrs. Mendes.” Michael was genuinely grateful. “I
apologize for having barged in on you completely unannounced.”
“That’s all right, Michael,” she patted his arm gently. “I hope you have found the answers you seek.”
***
“Max!” Lexi hollered, ignoring the rain soaking through her track pants and T-shirt. She hated the
dark, but she valued her absconding cat. “Max!”
***
Kristen sat bolt upright in bed with her hands gripping her neck and opened her eyes. Michael sensed
her movements and reached for his mobile. He forced his groggy eyes open and looked at the time. It
was 3 a.m.
“Ten?” Michael was apprehensive.
“Michael!” she exclaimed.
“You were totally out of it,” he began. “How are you feeling?”
“Like a washed-out hen that was left in the rain,” she sighed.
“You were delirious,” he continued as he subconsciously opened the door. “You kept rambling in your
sleep. You kept addressing people we have never heard of…”
The grey tabby cat dashed into the room and leapt onto the bed.
“Max is home,” Kristen buried her face in his fur. “Max is home now.”
covered her eyes reflexively. Michael chuckled at his wife. The driver and his companion jumped out
of the van and flung the doors open. Their team was ready to unload the truckload of furniture.
Kristen looked around at their new surroundings. The long, narrow road, houses built close together.
It wasn’t as “suburban” as she had imagined. The houses were not even aesthetically planned, apart
from the older bungalows that seemed like they had been there for decades. The homes opposite their
duplex didn’t look modern and stood out like sore thumbs. Kristen thought they looked charming.
“La Marvel Colony,” Michael smiled. “Who would have thought I’d be moving here? I remember
spending a huge chunk of my childhood here, hanging out with the kids from the neighborhood.”
“Posh,” Kristen’s tone oozed sarcasm.
Everyone knew that La Marvel Colony was an upscale place of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was
nicknamed “Beverly Hills 90210 of Goa” in jest. The residents were a mix of middleclass, upper
middleclass, and high society. The houses matched their financial statuses. It used to be a charming
place with lots of empty spaces. The homes were spread around. Four generations of children had
grown up there and if the trees and walls could talk, they would be full of the most exciting stories.
“Michael!” Kristen nudged her husband. “Are we going in or we going to stand here baking in the
morning sun, daydreaming about our childhood?”
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine today?” he stuck his tongue out at her.
“So mature, Michael… so mature,” Kristen sighed and shook her head slowly .
“Take a deep breath, Ten,” he said, following his own advice. “The smell of the salt in the air is
strong. Look at this place! We are surrounded by the sea. I can’t wait to explore the area again.”
Kristen rolled her eyes at Michael. “Before you do all that, please let’s get our stuff indoors and start
getting organized.”
Michael opened the gates to their new residence and led the moving team in. Kristen stood outside
and looked around one more time. It was 10 a.m. on a weekday and there was no one in sight. The
house at the far end was closed up. The house next door was closed; the windows were shut and the
curtains were drawn. She could have sworn she saw movement behind the curtains. She shrugged it
off and entered the house.
She wasn’t too thrilled moving into the colony. It was a fair distance from her parents who were in
Aldona, a charming village in North Goa. Now that was home! Not here in some pseudo-suburban
area. No, she hated this place already and they had even not moved in completely yet. She had made a
conscious choice to leave her cat Gizmo and her dog Bundy with her parents and younger siblings.
“Welcome to my humble abode, m’lady,” Michael bowed clumsily.
“Jackass!” she chuckled and went serious all of a sudden. “It’s not home without Gizmo and Bundy.”
“You know they aren’t too far away,” he squinted at her. “We’re not in Timbuktu. We can visit them
every weekend and holiday, and your parents too. Anyway, your mother, Anna Marie, and Seby will
be here as soon as we’ve settled in. Maybe we can get Gizmo and Bundy here too.”
“Maybe,” Kristen looked around, studying their new home.
All the boxes and furniture had been piled around the entrance and the hallway. Michael followed her
gaze.
“We should start unpacking,” he stated the obvious.
“We should,” she nodded absentmindedly.
“You’re a million miles away,” he observed. “What’s up?’
“I… this place… it’s just weird,” she burst out. “There’s just… I don’t know… it’s weird.”
“Weird as in ‘homesick-weird’ or weird as in ‘weird’?” he raised an eyebrow.
“It’s difficult to explain,” she shrugged. “It’s a little past 10 a.m. and there was not a soul in sight. The
road was deserted. No one’s windows are open. Their curtains are drawn. Don’t you think it’s a wee
bit strange?”
Michael furrowed his eyebrows. “From what I can remember, it has always been rather quiet around
here.”
“That was, what… almost thirty years ago?” she looked him in the eye. “Things have changed from
then to now, in case you haven’t noticed. I don’t know what it looked like in the last century w when
you set foot here.”
“Haha! Funny!” he scoffed. “NOT! Just FYI, WE set foot here first a couple of years ago when we
decided to buy this section of the duplex.”
“Which none of your childhood ‘friends’ bothered to tell you about,” she mocked him.
“They might have, had they still been living here. but they’ve all moved out. Some aren’t in the
country anymore,” he retorted picking up the box of crockery. “Where does this box go?”
“It says ‘Crockery’. Logically that would be the kitchen.” She turned her back abruptly and went
upstairs.
“Road-facing or sea-facing?” she asked herself peeping into the spacious bedrooms. “Sea-facing,
though all I can see is a backyard. This room has a balcony.”
She opened the door and stepped out. There was a ladder leading up to the roof. Her curiosity got the
better of her and she climbed up. She stepped out on the landing at the top of the ladder and looked
around. She could see the horizon, the British cemetery, the fort wall, and the steeple of the
governor’s palace in the west. She could see Fort Aguada in the North and the Marmagoa Harbour in
the south. She wasn’t high enough to get to see anything in the east. The view was definitely to kill for.
There was a gentle breeze that carried the smell of the ocean with it. She turned toward the horizon.
The trawlers bobbing on the azure waters looked like tiny dots.
“I think I might be wrong about this place,” she thought. “I love this view. The pictures I can paint.
The photographs I can take and maybe sell on eBay.”
“Ten,” her husband yelled out.
“Right here,” she yelled back hoping to see some signs of life.
“Where’s here?” he sounded confused.
“On the roof,” she hollered. “There’s a ladder just outside the bedroom facing west.”
He found her staring out to sea and handed her a beer.
“Cheers to new beginnings,” he opened his can and grinned at her boyishly as they clinked cans.
They spent the rest of the day organizing their furniture, hauling things around and putting their
possessions away. The bedrooms had built in cupboards and the beds were all custom-made. They
had leftover sandwiches from lunch and settled in early for the night. Kristen’s head began to spin or
was the room spinning? The past and present seemed to amalgamate into nothingness. Kristen felt as
though she was being enveloped by darkness. She felt suffocated. Everything went blank.
***
Lexi swung the door of her house open and stepped into the hallway. Worn out from the events of the
day, she slammed the door shut behind her. She flung her scarf and handbag carelessly on the side
table and kicked off her heels as she proceeded to her bedroom. She grabbed a can of beer on the
way. She had a hurried shower and flopped on the queen-sized bed.
“Lexi? Lexi? Wake up darling,” a gentle voice whispered through the semi-darkness of the room.
“Mum?” Lexi woke up with a start and groped for the light switch. She turned on her bedside lamp.
The room was now bright enough to see that there was no one there. She glanced sleepily at the clock
on her side table. It was 3 a.m.
“Lexi,” the voice whispered again.
“Mum?” she stepped on the soft rug strategically placed to prevent her from having contact with the
stone-cold floor, avoiding her lazy cat Max who was always asleep by her bedside. He didn’t stir.
She slipped her slender feet into her bedroom slippers and headed for the door .
“Lexi, come to me, my darling,” the voice coaxed her.
“Yea, Mum, I’ll be there in a sec,” she was getting agitated but tried to sound patient.
Max let out a bloodcurdling yowl. Lexi swung around.
“Max,” Lexi turned to her bedroom door that had slammed shut. “Max!”
Lexi tried to run but her legs felt like lead. Her cat howled piteously. Her panic levels increased.
Adrenaline pumped through veins. She woke up with a jolt. Confused, she studied her surroundings.
Her eyes fell on the clock. It was 7 a.m. She had an hour to get ready and be at work on time for a job
she was not particularly fond of. The day loomed before her.
***
A loud mewing roused Michael from his deep state of slumber. He groaned, rubbed his eyes with the
back of his hands, swung his legs over his side of the bed, and walked over to the window. The
mewing didn’t stop. He made his way downstairs without bothering to switch on any lights. His bare
feet allowed him stealth. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard the wall strike 3 a.m.
The mewing grew louder. He switched on the light of their garden and opened the kitchen door. He
found himself staring down at a grey tabby cat with striking yellowish-green eyes. The cat held his
gaze for a few seconds and bounded indoors as if it was familiar with the layout of the house.
Michael stared after it, feeling mildly surprised and bewildered at the randomness of a stray cat.
“Friendly neighborhood cat,” he smirked as he closed the door. “Even the animals are domesticated
and free.”
***
Lexi stood before her front door and groped for the house keys in her “bottomless handbag” as she
called it. Nothing had a designated place even though rummaging through her makeup items, work
catalogs, books to read on her long commutes to and from work, and other odds and ends took
unnecessary time. She finally retrieved her house keys, fumbled with the lock and finally got the door
opened.
She headed straight to the kitchen and filled the electric kettle with water. She plugged the kettle in.
She hurried to the bedroom, kicked off her shoes, placed her handbag, and scarf on the antique
rocking chair and returned to the kitchen. The water had reached boiling point.
“Mango, ginger, lemon honey, pomegranate — which flavor should I have? I can’t seem to decide,”
she muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and ran her slim fingers over the boxes and stopped at
one.
“Honey lemon, I guess,” she mumbled.
She poured herself a mug of piping hot water and put the teabag in. She placed a few chocolate chip
cookies on a plate and went to the hall. She switched on the TV. She flipped through the channels and
selected her favorite cartoon show. The reruns would be on for a while. She went to the kitchen to fix
a light dinner.
Lexi’s body shook with convulsions, her arms and legs twitched involuntarily. She was in a deep state
of REM.
***
“All right then!” Mildly infuriated, Michael glared down at the grey tabby. “I gave you five fresh
sardines and one fat mackerel. Off you go on your way then.”
He bent down to let the cat out of the kitchen door. The cat refused to budge. It purred and rubbed
itself against Michael’s bare calves.
“Oh no! I’m not falling for those tricks, Random Cat,” Michael sat back on his haunches and gently
nudged the plump cat toward the entrance of the door.
The cat rolled on its back and looked directly into Michael’s eyes. He shuddered as a chill ran down
his spine. He felt as though the cat was looking into his soul.
***
“Lexi, wake up, your mother is here,” Barry shook her gently.
Lexi’s eyes opened mechanically and she turned instinctively to the radium alarm clock by her
bedside. It was 3 a.m.
“Barry, it’s 3 a.m., what could mother possibly want at this ungodly hour?” she rasped, pulling a
magenta bathrobe over her shoulders.
Lexi stepped out into the hallway and ran her slender fingers lightly over the pictures and photographs
that adorned her walls. Her mother, her father, her siblings, her cat Max, her husband Barry, her
grandparents, Barry’s family.
“Mum?” Lexi called out to her mother. “Where are you, Mum?”
***
Michael sat in front of his laptop and opened Google. He typed in Lexi, Barry, Max but nothing
showed up. He was exhausted from the sleepless nights. He ran his hands through his crew-cut and
pushed his chair back. He felt like life was getting sucked out of him. He made his way downstairs
and went to his next door neighbor’s house. He rang the doorbell.
***
The night seemed ominous, darkness and silence seemed to have fallen simultaneously. It was late and
the streets were empty but then there was never much traffic in the suburban area during normal hours.
There was no sign of life anywhere. A deafening clap of thunder disrupted the tranquility for an
ephemeral moment before the skies opened up and a deluge cascaded through the thick grey clouds.
The raindrops pelted the earth a vengeance. The nocturnal animals hid from sight. The houses were in
complete darkness. There was no movement at all. An occasional streak of lightning lit up the path.
Footsteps splashed through the water accompanied by heavy panting. The old wrought iron gates
creaked open and shut. Unsure hands fumbled in the darkness trying to gauge the surroundings, tired
feet trudged down the uneven track.
“Max! Max! Come to me, Max,” Lexi screamed almost hysterically.
She tried to adjust her eyes to the dark. The cemetery was not the ideal place to be at 3 a.m. She had
no idea why Maxi kept running off to the cemetery. He had always been a strange cat. An owl hooted
in the distance and Lexi spun around, her heartbeat racing like a runaway train.
***
“Please, please you have to help me,” Michael pleaded the moment his neighbor opened the door.
“Come in,” a slim elderly lady gestured him in. “You must be Michael. I’m Izabel Mendes. How can
I help you?”
“It’s Kristen, my wife. She’s been out of it since we got here,” his words tumbled over each other.
“She is delirious, ill, I… I don’t know.”
“You bought the last row house of the property, no?” Izabel began as she stared intently at the
disheveled man sitting before her in a faded pair of jeans and a black superhero T-shirt.
“Yes, that’s correct,” Michael held her steady gaze. “Wasn’t that the D’Souza property? There was a
girl there around my age…”
“You know that family?” she asked, curiously.
“Yes, I used to spend a lot of time here as a child,” he replied. “My friends lived in the area, on the
way to the cliffs.”
“That house you live in, the property, has seen many deaths,” Izabel began dramatically. “Her
grandparents both died suddenly. The father died of a cardiac arrest. Her mother died of cancer.
Colon cancer, if I remember correctly. We started to believe that the house was cursed. Her siblings
gave her their share and left the country. No one knows where they are. They have not set foot in the
place for over a decade. She got married a few months before her mother died. Her husband died in a
fatal road accident. She was pregnant. She lost the baby. She spent an unhealthy amount of time
indoors. A few years ago, we got concerned when we didn’t see her for days. We called the police
and broke the door down. She had taken her own life. The estimated time of death was 3 a.m.”
“Cursed? The house was cursed?” Michael raised an eyebrow to indicate his disbelief, ignoring
whatever Izabel had told him.
“Abel, my late husband, a historian, believed that the house was built on an ancient burial ground of
some sort,” Izabel squinted at him trying to recall more details. “Nothing has been confirmed, of
course. It could be an old wives’ tale… you know… cheap village talk. ”
“Who’s Max?” Michael asked her assuming it could have been the name of the baby Lexi had lost.
“Max, fat Max,” a smile crossed Izabel’s face. “He was Lexi’s beloved cat. She rescued him from the
rain and took him home. He disappeared after she died. No one knows where he went. We haven’t
seen him since. Coming to think of it, strange things began happening ever since she took him in.”
“There’s a strange cat in our home and it won’t leave. It refuses to go outdoors. My knowledge about
cats is extremely limited…” Michael tried to be as informative as possible. “It’s a grey tabby, nice
fluffy coat…”
“There are lots of stray cats in our area,” Izabel shook her head. “My neighbors encourage them by
giving them food and they are all domesticated and friendly.”
“Thank you for your time and hospitality, Mrs. Mendes.” Michael was genuinely grateful. “I
apologize for having barged in on you completely unannounced.”
“That’s all right, Michael,” she patted his arm gently. “I hope you have found the answers you seek.”
***
“Max!” Lexi hollered, ignoring the rain soaking through her track pants and T-shirt. She hated the
dark, but she valued her absconding cat. “Max!”
***
Kristen sat bolt upright in bed with her hands gripping her neck and opened her eyes. Michael sensed
her movements and reached for his mobile. He forced his groggy eyes open and looked at the time. It
was 3 a.m.
“Ten?” Michael was apprehensive.
“Michael!” she exclaimed.
“You were totally out of it,” he began. “How are you feeling?”
“Like a washed-out hen that was left in the rain,” she sighed.
“You were delirious,” he continued as he subconsciously opened the door. “You kept rambling in your
sleep. You kept addressing people we have never heard of…”
The grey tabby cat dashed into the room and leapt onto the bed.
“Max is home,” Kristen buried her face in his fur. “Max is home now.”
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