By Anuradha S. Bannore

(Based on a true incident)

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning with a mild breeze rustling the leaves. The birds were chorusing gaily. It seemed to be inviting people to come out of their houses and enjoy the pleasant weather. Nomita had just woken up. She glanced at the bedside clock and jumped out of her bed like a Jack in the box for it was past 11am. She hadn’t realized it was so late. She had an appointment around noon. She quickly made the bed and cleaned her room though it didn’t need that as Nomita was very organized. She was eager to meet her friends and always enjoyed her moments with them. She lived all by herself in a beautiful house hence at times loneliness bothered her. She was an outgoing sort of a person right from her childhood. She never liked to be cooped up in her house all the time. She rushed through her brushing, bathing and so on. Humming her favourite song she sailed downstairs and prepared coffee and toast for herself. She mused on the fun they were going to have after a fortnight.

She put the used crockery in the sink and went back to the couch and jumped out of her skin with a cold shiver running through her from head to toe, her eyes literally popping out of their sockets. Shocked out of her wits she kept glaring at that Alien perched in the corner of her kitchen staring right into her eyes. It was a nine inches long, slim and trim black creature with a long tail. She couldn’t believe her eyes that a squatter had made itself comfortable in her house encroaching upon her privacy. Her happy mood soon dwindled away into thin air. She tried to shoo it away but it kept sitting staring at her with no care in the world. It frightened the life out of Nomi, she called out to a neighbour for help but he too couldn’t do much because by that time the so called Alien had run to hide itself from human danger.

Nomi could neither sleep nor cook for fear of the Alien pouncing on her from just nowhere. It seemed as if she were an encroacher in her own house. It became a nightmare for her. She wanted to stay as far away from her house as she possibly could but that was just a wishful thinking. She sealed all gaps in the entrances into her house. People were consulted as to how it could be either driven out of the house or got rid of. She was lucky to get all sorts of different suggestions which she did experiment with like keeping garlic, coffee balls, glue boards and so on. But the stubborn squatter wasn’t an easy creature to be ousted. All this was driving Nomi nuts with fear in fact she was traumatized by its very presence in her house. She was absolutely helpless trying out whatever she was suggested to do. Then it seemed to have disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared as she didn’t find its droppings anywhere. She felt a bit relieved but in a dubious way and then one day when she was relaxing on the couch with fear still lingering at the back of her mind it scampered on the carpet right in front of her eyes and my god believe it or not she screamed her lungs out jumping on the couch. It scared the squatter too and it immediately scuttled into her dining room making things worse for Nomi. Now she wouldn’t be able to do her laundry as she would have to cross the dining room for it. But somehow she mustered courage and did it the next day shaking in her boots and not wasting any time. Some of her friends found it humorous and tried to laugh it out but when very politely she told them that every individual had his/her own unique fear like being panicky getting shots (injections), going to hospitals, seeing cockroaches and so on, they realized their mistake and apologized and took her problem more seriously. Nomi bought some more glue boards and also made extra coffee balls and placed them in the dining area. For days nothing happened then one evening when she returned from office and was (as it had become a routine) inspecting the boards from quite a distance she saw something long stuck on one of them and realized it was the Alien as she called it. She didn’t have the guts to go near it so she rang up Simmy, one of her friends who immediately came and confirmed that she had finally got rid of it. She also told Nomi that it wasn’t black but blue in colour with some white streaks on its back. It was some sort of a big scary bloodcurdling garden lizard it seems. Simmy too was overwhelmed by its size and look but very courageously picked it up with a long tong and put it in a bag and both of them went and threw it in a big dumpster far away from Nomi’s house. Thus ended the dreadful encounter but its fear still lingers. Let’s hope and pray Nomi will soon overcome it and be able to live peacefully in her beautiful house where she says, ‘No Alien has the right to encroach upon my private property, annihilate my peace of mind and disrupt the tranquility of my life.’

About the Author: Anuradha S. Bannore is a prolific writer and an alumni of Jabalpur University with M.A in English. She retired as a teacher and currently lives in Vadodara India. Following are her thoughts on some of the questions we asked her.