The family was all excited for Papa had informed
them that they would soon be moving to a new house. Being not too affluent and
just an ordinary middle class family they knew that the move was just from one
rented house to another. However, the very thought of moving to a new
neighbourhood and getting used to a strange environment excited the kids.
Before proceeding further I must tell you a little
bit about the family I am portraying here. The parents were both employed and
while Papa was an ordinary cog in a mean corporate machine, Mama was a rather
special school teacher in a very ordinary school. The three kids, Tee, Dee and
Stee were all of school going age and the parents were concerned enough to find
a house as close to their schools as possible.
On the pre-determined day the moving van came with
four labourers who roughly took apart all the belongings of the family while
Mama fluttered around them, concerned that their meagre possessions were packed
and carted safely. When the family entered the new house they were quite happy
to find the house rather airy and bright though small in size. The first thing
that Stee the youngest of them all noticed was the rather quaint electronic
door bell. The bell was special in the sense that it would chime a different
tune every time it was pressed and therefore did not seem monotonous. Stee and
Dee enjoyed playing with it and took turns pressing it and guessing what tune
would come next from the compact electronic box.
Mama’s sister had also come over to assist the
family in unpacking and setting the new house in order. On the first day after
moving in, the family had a veritable feast which Papa had ordered from a
neighbouring restaurant since the house was cluttered with boxes and bags and
in a state of disorder as result of which Mama could not do any cooking. That
night the family had gone to bed tired after a strenuous day of shifting their
belongings and unpacking them. They slept like a log but it was at midnight
that the bell suddenly started chiming. The children were fast asleep but Papa
who was a light sleeper immediately woke up Mama who was fast asleep and they
together went to the door to check who could be ringing the door bell at that
odd hour.
Papa opened the door and looked all around and
could find no one outside. Papa thought it must be a prank carried out by one
of the neighbour’s children and grumbling and fuming the parents went back to
bed. Within moments they drifted back to sleep. Their slumber was short lived
as the bell rang again. This time around, Tee their eldest daughter also heard
the bell and woke up along with the parents. They again went to the door step
and looked around but could find no one, who could have caused the ringing of
the bell. It was pitch dark outside and eerily quiet. The only sound that came
to their ears was the howling of a dog in the distance.
Papa, Mama and Tee retreated back into the house
and while Mama and Tee went back to sleep Papa laid tossing and turning in bed
rather weary and restless.
The next day morning both Papa and Mama frantically
readied themselves to leave for work while simultaneously assisting the
children in their preparations to go to school. However, before leaving for the
office Papa managed to find time to visit the land lord who lived next door to
inform him of the strange happenings the previous night.
The land lord too was of the opinion that it could
only be the handiwork of some prankster who was deliberately playing the fool
with the people who had come afresh to the neighbourhood. The incident was soon
forgotten as the family engrossed itself in the day’s activities. The children
returned home from school early that evening while Mama returned a bit later.
Papa was the last to return home late in the night and after a simple supper
the family geared themselves to rest for the night.
The family had slept hardly for two hours before
the bell chimed once again. It was a repeat performance of the previous night
and Papa became very anxious. He barely slept a wink after that and went to
work the next day tired and haggard. Later that evening Papa dragged himself
over to the land lord’s residence and informed him once again that the mystery
of the chiming door bell had continued for the second consecutive night. The
land lord comforted Papa and assured him that he would keep an eye out that
night to ensure that no neighbourhood
kids were stealthily ringing the door bell.
That night Papa could hardly sleep and at the
stroke of midnight the bell chimed once again. Papa rushed out to the door and
once again could find no one there. He switched on all the lights and went to
wake up his neighbour the land lord. The land lord was already awake and was
surprised to hear that the door bell had chimed once again for he had
deliberately kept watch that night and had been sitting at his window from
where he could observe the new tenant’s door. That night the bell chimed five
times.
The next morning a haggard and visibly annoyed Papa
disconnected the bell and removed the small batteries from within the chime
box. The family then left for work and school, happy that they had solved the
problem of the ringing bell by disconnecting it.
That night Papa felt much more secure and relaxed
and slept deep safe in the knowledge that the bell would ring no more. At the
stroke of midnight, the bell chimed again.
