The Black Woman
One day I found out that my aunt passed away. She was a very sweet lady. She had a daughter who was five years old. The little girl’s name was Anu (short for Ananya). My uncle wasn’t able to take care of her alone as he thought she needed a mother, so he asked my elder sister Maya, to take care of her.
Anu didn’t like to be left alone and never left my sister’s side. Soon it became a problem. My sister couldn’t go anywhere without Anu. She constantly needed someone around her.
One day, my sister told me she had to go out of town for a few of days for a friend’s wedding and asked if I would babysit the Anu while she was gone. I instantly agreed. Since I stayed alone and I could do with some company.
A few days later, my sister dropped Anu off at my place. As she was leaving, she took Anu aside and said, “Anu, be good girl.”
When my sister was gone, I tried to talk to Anu and play with her, but her behaviour was very strange. She had a doll tucked tightly under her arm and never let go of it. She never smiled. She never spoke anything. All she ever did was sit quietly in the corner and play with her doll. It made me kind of uneasy.
I was trying to find something that would cheer her up. Suddenly my eyes caught hold of my old teddy bear. I got that teddy on my 5th birthday. When she saw the teddy, her eyes instantly lit up. There was a bright smile on her face. I was glad to finally see her happy.
At night, she refused to sleep in the guest room and started crying. She insisted on sleeping with me in my room. I read her a bedtime story and after a while, she fell asleep. That was when I noticed her doll. It was half black, as if it had been burned.
In the middle of the night, I was awoken by a strange noise. When I turned over, I saw it was Anu. Her body was trembling and shaking. Her eyes were wide open as if in shock and tears were rolling down her cheeks. I held her close and asked her what was wrong.
“She’s going to kill me,” she mumbled.
“Who is?” I asked in surprise.
“The black woman,” replied Anu.
She wouldn’t say anything more. I tried to tell her it was just a bad dream, but she kept shaking her head and crying. Finally I was able calm her down and put her back to sleep.
The following morning, Anu was fine again. She played with the teddy. But as night came, she would start crying and would insist on sleeping with me. This would happen every night. I would be awoken by her screams in the middle of the night. On asking she would say “The black woman is here again.”
Finally the day came, when it was time for her to go home. I dropped Anu off at my sister’s house and stayed to have a cup of tea. My sister thanked me for taking care of Anu in her absence and we spent some time chatting.
Poor little thing,” said my sister. “She has been behaving strangely since her mother died.”
Curiosity got the better of me as I asked, “How did Anu’s mom die?”
There was a strange look on my sister’s face as she frowned, “She died in a fire.”
“How did the fire start?” I asked.
“Well...” my sister hesitated, unwilling to talk about it. “ It’s a very sad story. She committed suicide. Anu’s mother was a very sweet and innocent woman. Though she did all the house work and obeyed all orders, her in-laws kept abusing her. They ill-treated her, didn’t give food and also hit her. They did all this because she gave birth to a girl. One day she had had enough of it, she decided to end it all. She poured kerosene over herself and burned herself alive.”
“OMG”, I exclaimed. “That’s horrible, I wasn’t aware of all this!”
“Yes,” said my sister. “Her in-laws didn’t want anyone to know about this, so they pretended it was an accident. Anu doesn’t even know her mother is dead. She thinks her mother is just on a long holiday.”
I returned home, back to being alone. I missed Anu. I missed playing with her, missed her bright smile. I kept thinking about her, and how that at such a young age she lost her mother.
The next morning I decided to go to my sister’s place and visit Anu. When I reached there, I was totally shocked.
Anu had died...
I went to Anu’s room, she was lying motionless on the bed.
The doll was lying beside her...
Nobody could understand what had happened. No one could determine the cause of death. There weren’t any marks on her body. She was perfectly fine. She had just mysteriously died during the night. There was no explanation.
After the funeral, I went back to my sister’s house. Everyone was very sad. I saw Anu’s doll. I took it home with me. It was something to remember her by.
I was lying on my bed, thinking about Anu. I couldn’t believe she was dead. Then suddenly I thought about my aunt, and how she burnt herself alive. How her in-laws ill-treated her for delivering a girl. That is when it struck me, though indirectly, but Anu was the reason for my aunt’s death.
It all made sense now.
The burnt doll.
The black woman.
The screams at night.
The doll had burned when my aunt committed suicide, so her soul remained in the doll. Now she had come back come to seek revenge.
The ‘black woman’ Anu kept seeing at night was actually her mother...
