It was a warm Friday evening. My watch showed 8pm. Me and my wife Annushka were returning from one of our friends home in Santa Clara. I stay at a fairly populated villa in Cupertino. I was planning to go on a trek on Saturday and was lost in my thoughts about the plans for the weekend. Little did I know what was to come.
I parked my 2002 beige colored Honda Accord (majority Indians in the bay area do not think beyond Honda,Toyota,Mazda when it comes to cars) in the parking lot. The parking lot was on the backside of the apartment and we had to usually go around the dumpyard to reach the entrance of the buiding.
I realized that Ann (Annushka's nickname) was nudging at me. Whats the matter , I asked her to which she replied "Look at that". Under the orange glow of the corner street lamp I could see a blackish brown wooden cabinet. "Lets take a closer look" I said.
It was a wooden drawer chest, finely polished, inviting to take it home.
Ann said "It seems like someone did not have enough time to put it on Craigslist and dumped it here while moving out of town".
I said "This is too beautiful to be left behind. It must have hurt the owner to part with this lovely piece of wood work"
"Guess its our lucky day. Can we take this home?" Ann asked with her gaze fixed on the furniture.
I was thinking the same and agreed. We both lifted the drawer which surprisingly didn't feel as heavy as it looked. Probably we were just too excited to take it home.
Once inside, I got a flannel cloth to dust the drawer. We set it besides our master bed. Ann opened the cabinet just to check. It was empty except for some dark black stains in the bottom most cabinet.
She got some old magazines stuffed it in the cabinets, placed a knitted tablecloth on the top and kept a Projection clock on it. The Projection clock projects time on the ceiling or wall in a dark room whenever you press the project-button on it.
It was around 11pm when we were done with the entire setup. We had our dinner and were extremely happy with the days event.
We went to bed, watched television for some time and were discussing Saturdays plans. It was already midnight. Ann asked me if I was feeling cold and I said yes its much colder than it was few hours back. I placed my specks on the drawer and at that very moment the clock projected 12:15 AM on the cieling. I thought I might have pressed the button and so I switched off the projection.
The room started getting warmer and I threw off the blanket. Ann was already asleep. Minutes passed and I thought I heard the cabinets open and shut. I was probably dreaming. I sat up and tried to peer through the darkness. The room was getting cold again and I could see Ann reach for the blanket again. She sensed that I was up and asked me whats the matter. I said "I thought I heard some noise like..forget it"."Like what?", she insisted. "Like the opening and shutting of the cabinet", I said. She said "Strange. Even I felt something like that." And at that very moment, for the second time the clock projected the time on the cieling. It was 01:14 AM. Almost one hour. This time I wasn't even close to the clock.
We both felt a sudden chill. But common-sense prevailed and I said that probably the clock is malfunctioning. I held the clock in my hand and randomly pressed the projection button to check if anything was wrong. It seemed fine. So I switched off the projection again and placed the clock back on the drawer.
My weariness and sleep had temporarily vanished and I was thinking all the while about the clock. I saw that Ann was also sitting up and staring at the clock. Minutes passed by and just when we thought things are fine , we both started to feel the the room getting strangely cold again. And to our shock the clock projected the time on the cieling, all by itself. It was 02:23 am.
We both sat up and held each other. We could realize that something wasn't right. It was as if there was someone in the room playing with the clock. I was too scared to touch the clock. Fear blanked out all my reasoning. The rooms light switches were on the other side of the cabinet and going around it in the dark room was something that I did not want to do.
Ann was also scared to utter anything. This time the projection stopped by itself.
Finally I said lets wait and see if it happens again. We both could feel that the room was getting warmer and after sometime again the familiar coldness started to creep in and I whispered to Ann, "Seems like the clock will project now" And to our worst fear, it did. 3:20 am and after few minutes the projection stopped all by itself again.
We both started praying and were desparately waiting for the sunrise. It seemed as if the time had stopped. The projection happened once more at 4:15 am and then switched off again. And then we both distinctly heard the sound of the drawer opening and closing and this time we both were awake and too shaken with the entire episode.
At around 5 am, which took ages to come, reddish sunlight started to pour in. I got the courage to get out of the bed and get my cellphone which I had left in the drawing room.
I dialled my parents in India and explained the entire incident. My parents immediately said that first we should go and dump the wooden drawer back from where we brought it. Then clean up the room, pray to god and light some incense sticks in the room.
At around 5:30 am we both got out of the bed. It took some time for us to gather the courage to carry the wooden drawer back to the dumpyard. It was pretty early. Came back. Inspite of all my education and belief in science I was pretty shaken. So I took a quick shower and prayed to God. There are things which you cannot explain. Ann placed the clock in the bathroom.
We started to feel better with the daylight getting stronger.
Later in the day I checked and found that the wooden drawer was not present where we had left it.
Three months later I was came back from office and took Ann out for shopping.
When we returned ...there in the dumpyard...we saw...unmistakably the same polished wooden drawer chest...perhaps inviting a new family to take it home.
As for the clock, its still in the bathroom and has been working fine.
(This is inspired by a true incident that took place around few months back)
