Excavating a dream

 

Everybody dreams at night. But we are unable to recall 99 percent of our dreams. But on a recent morning, I saw a black-and-white illustration of a man in a conical hat standing on a road, with the sky jet black and snowflakes falling steadily.

Intrigued, I decided to enter the image.

This is what I saw.

A Christmas Story….with a difference

By Shevlin Sebastian

The sky was pitch black. Against this backdrop, snowflakes floated down to the earth. It looked like tiny paper boats bobbing along in the water. On both sides of the road were one and two-storeyed buildings covered with snow. The gardens in front were all under this thick layer of snow.

It was 2 am on Christmas Day. The people were indoors and sleeping. The previous evening, the weather bulletins on TV had announced an intense blizzard and asked the people to stay indoors on this celebratory night.

The street lights let off a dim glow, as the snow covered the plastic encasing. A man stood, his legs spread apart on the road. His name was Rudy Martin. He wore a long conical hat and a large overhanging coat. As he walked in his black knee-length boots, the snow crunched under his feet. Rudy could feel the faint odour of fish. He wondered where it came from. Then he realised it was from his coat pocket.

Rudy walked forward and turned right into another broad street. It was dark and silent. But in the distance, he saw something flying about, over and around in the air. When he came closer, Rudy saw they were green elves with their red Santa caps and pointed shoes. They were laughing and doing high-fives with each other. Their laughs sounded like the ‘crick crick’ of the crickets to Rudy.

Soon, a lady with white hair and leather sandals came forward, holding a large cauldron in both her hands. Inside it was a long ladle. A large leather bag hung from her shoulders. She stood in the middle, and put the vessel on the ground, as the elves continued to fly about.

Marissa Witch took out a wand from the pocket of her large red skirt and touched the side of the pot. A fire started under the cauldron.

Marissa bent and collected chunks of snow in her palms and put it into the cauldron. From her bag, she took out medium-size plastic packets, tore open the top edge, and poured the powders into the vessel. Thereafter, she put in nettles, grass, plants, and seaweed, followed by dead earthworms, spiders, lizards, flies, bees and centipedes.

She stirred the contents with the ladle. Plumes of smoke rose from the pot as it got hotter. A few minutes went by. Marissa lifted the ladle to her mouth and took a sip. She smacked her lips together.

Marissa took small white cups from her bag and filled them with the hot liquid. The elves stood in a queue in the air and took the cups one by one. They drank the liquid in one gulp. The elves licked their lips, laughed, and flew down and put the cups inside a plastic waste packet.

Intrigued by what he saw, Rudy came closer, even though he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He was not sure about what would happen if the witch and the elves saw him. But as he came closer, he found there was nothing there — just a wide expanse of snow in the darkness. ‘Did it happen?’ he scratched his head.

As Rudy stood looking around, he heard a thumping sound. It sounded like a drumbeat, or maybe, he thought, it could be his heartbeat. He was not sure. But soon, he saw an animal bounding towards him with long and smooth strides. It looked like a cross between a hound and a wolf. It surprised Rudy the animal could run so well on a surface covered with snow.

The animal was at least 4 feet in height. It had two canine teeth protruding from his mouth. Rudy took out a blood-stained knife from his coat pocket. It gave off the fishlike odour which he had detected earlier.

He crouched and waited.

It was clear the animal intended to attack him.

Rudy heard an ear-splitting “Wooaah”. The animal pushed his forelimbs hard on the ground, but it took several inches for it to come to a stop. It looked back.

Santa Claus, a vision in red, stood on his sledge, and cracked his whip. It sounded like a whiplash. The eight reindeer, four on each side, led by Rudolph the Red-Nose, hit their hooves harder on the ground to increase the speed of the sledge.

Santa shouted, “Get lost.”

The animal blinked as drops of saliva fell from its tongue. It swallowed its spittle, moved past Rudy, and sped into the darkness. Rudy put the knife back in his coat.

The sledge came to a stop near Rudy as he put the knife back in.

“Hello Sir, how are you?” said Santa Claus, gazing at Rudy. “Would you care for a lift?”

Rudy nodded. He wanted to get as far away from the town as soon as possible.

So, he sat beside Santa.

The sledge moved on. After five minutes, they stopped in front of a house. The house was in darkness. Santa took out a parcel, covered in shiny purple paper, with a bow, from a large gunny sack behind his seat. He pushed open the iron gate and walked as if on tiptoe down the courtyard. Santa placed the gift on the floor in front of the door.

When he returned, he told Rudy, “The poor boy suffers from cerebral palsy.”

Rudy nodded.

They made a few more stops.

Rudy asked, “When will you be leaving for the next town?

“Soon,” said Santa Claus and smiled.

Rudy observed he had yellow teeth. He wondered about it.

Santa read his mind and said, “I had jaundice recently.”

Rudy started, his body leaning forward, and looked sideways at Santa.

Santa nodded, smiled and said, “I can read minds.”

Rudy bit his lower lip.

Rudy thought, ‘How can you get yellow teeth through jaundice? Only your skin or eyes change colour.’

“The teeth of Santas do,” said the burly man.

Rudy said, “Do you know anything about me?”

Santa looked at him without blinking and nodded.

“I do,” he said finally. “Your name is Rudy Martin. You have stabbed your girlfriend to death, and she lies on the carpet in the drawing-room in a house in this town. You have stolen all her gold and silver jewellery. You are escaping. The murder weapon is in your coat pocket.”

A tremor ran through Rudy’s body even as the sledge rose in the air, along with the reindeer, and headed towards the sky.

Santa Claus was going to the next town.

Santa continued, even as they passed through the clouds, “This is your fifth murder. Your modus operandi is simple. You go to a new town and befriend a wealthy but lonely spinster. You pretend you are in love, gain entrance to their homes, kill them and take all their valuables.”

Rudy almost felt his heart seize up. He could not help but think, ‘How did this man know this?’

“We know everything,” said Santa. “We are spiritual beings. The Universal Energy has chosen us to do this job because of this quality.”

Santa added, with a twinkle in his eyes, “That does not mean we cannot get jaundice.”

Rudy was in no mood to enjoy the joke. He did not know what Santa was planning to do with him. He knew he had to do something drastic, but he did not know what. It was impossible to do anything without having a thought first.

The sledge carried on, going deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Rudy was trembling in the freezing temperature. His teeth chattered. He pressed his hands and legs together. He bent his head towards his knees. He glanced at Santa.

This particular Santa had thick arms and muscular thighs, and large feet. Rudy realised Santa was not a pushover. He was not like the spinsters he had killed, with an easy slitting of the throat. There was no sound — only blood spurting out from the carotid artery and rolling down the back of his hand towards the floor.

Rudy opened his mouth wide. In the rarefied atmosphere, he was finding it difficult to breathe. He took several lungfuls of breath. Santa watched silently. Then he reached out and touched Rudy’s arm. Immediately, Rudy felt normal. He did not have any breathing problems, nor did he feel cold.

Santa said, “I know you are a foster child. Your parents died early. You lived in many orphanages. I know some wardens molested you. I know you developed a rage. I can see in my mind’s eye you have molested many girls. In their childhood, many people have been molested. But none chose to be murderers, like you. Rudy, you chose evil over good. You chose harm against kindness. You went into the darkness rather than the light. Remember, Rudy, you made the choice.”

Rudy did not know what to reply. He knew Santa was right. Life was all about choices. And he chose the side which fuelled his rage rather than calm it.

They were silent for several moments.

Then Santa said, “I can see your first kill. Sarah Gorman, aged 48, spinster. Husband died of lung cancer. No children. Life insurance payout was generous. Financially comfortable. Three months of courtship before you slit her throat and took all the jewellery. This was three years ago.”

Rudy realised Santa spelled tremendous danger to him.

A few minutes passed. They went through some dense black clouds.

Rudy could not see Santa.

In a sudden movement, Rudy took the knife out, but Santa caught the wrist immediately. With his other hand, he lifted Rudy by the neck. The cap blew away in this abrupt movement. Santa immediately noticed Rudy’s bald pate. Rudy twisted and turned about, but Santa’s strength was immense. He moved his thumb and pressed it into the carotid artery. Within seconds, Rudy was gasping for breath.

“Your victims could not even gasp for breath,” said Santa. “You were so merciless. A monster.”

Santa grimaced and flung Rudy from the sledge.

Rudy reached out with his hand to hold something, but there was nothing. This action caused him to turn turtle.

A necklace, several bangles and earrings, all made of gold, along with the knife, fell out of Rudy’s pockets.

“You are damned,” shouted Santa. “May you rot in hell.”

Rudy’s screams, as he plummeted towards the earth, could be heard from there…. to eternity.