Ghost Corp — Part 3
Read part 1 here: Ghost Corp — Part 1
Read part 2 here: Ghost Corp — Part 2
The next day after dinner, Abhilash took 2 empty coffee cups and placed them on the dining table. Shankar sat on a chair in front of one of the cups. “Let’s start.”
Abhilash sat down awkwardly and put his right hand out as if to shake and then decided halfway to stop. “I remembered that you can’t shake hands.”
Shankar just stared. After a few seconds of staring at each other, Abhilash cleared his throat, and said, “Hi, I’m Abhilash.”
“Hi, Abhilash, nice to meet you. I’m — what’s the new girl’s name?”
“Deepti.”
“I’m Deepti.”
Silence again.
Shankar broke it. “Don’t you have to ask me anything? Hobbies, future plans, nothing?”
“I read her biodata, I know what her hobbies are. She paints. She doesn’t want to move after getting married because she doesn’t want to change her job.”
“Ok, but don’t you want to know more about her? You can keep the biodata as the starting point and go from there.”
“Okay. So, Deepti. I got to know from your bio that you paint. I went to your Instagram profile, but it’s private. But I saw that your artist profile was there in the Insta bio, so went there and saw all the posts you did. The paintings are very beautiful. Then I tried searching for you on Facebook but you haven’t updated it since 2019. Your LinkedIn is also the same. I don’t use Snapchat, so I didn’t try there.”
“Woah, hold on, that’s too much information. You’re coming off as a bit of a creep.”
“But people do this all the time.”
“Look, I’m of a different generation, but I’ve haunted a lot of you young ones. I know social media. I know people do it, but it doesn’t mean that you have to say it out loud. You’re coming off as either completely uninterested, or a stalker type. We need to find a middle ground here.”
Abhilash threw his hands up. “I’ll never find love.”
“Now, don’t be discouraged, you’ll get better at this, I promise. Now, let me lead the conversation, let’s see where it goes, alright?”
“So Abhilash, how’s work? Is your work-life balance good?”
“Yes, it’s pretty okay. There are times that I have to work late nights, but that happens around every few —
Wait. How do you know about work-life balance? Didn’t you die hundreds of years ago?”
Shankar looked indignant and sat up straight. “I’ve been dead for around 150 years, but that doesn’t mean that I stopped observing. I’ve been listening to people all this time, and I’ve updated my knowledge. I know everything to know about your lifestyle and culture. I’m not some bumbling old ghost. Now stop interrupting me. It breaks the flow.”
Abhilash looked both apologetic and impressed. He shook his head lightly and continued, “Yeah, so I have to work late nights every few months, but it’s not too bad.”
Both of them stared at each other silently for a few seconds and then Shankar asked, “Are you not going to ask about it?”
“I thought you were leading this.”
“I am, but this is not an interview where I ask questions and you answer. When I say I lead, it means I start the conversation. You need to also add something.”
“Right. How about your work?”
“Pretty much the same as yours. Sometimes I have to work a lot for a few weeks straight, and then it’s okay for a few weeks.”
Abhilash nodded and kept staring at Shankar.
Shankar frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for your next question.”
“You’re going to just stare into her soul until she asks another question? You’ll freak her out!”
“Then where do I look?”
“Anywhere else!”
Abhilash turned his neck to the left and stared at the kitchen counter.
“Not like that! It’s like you forgot how to be human. Oh man, we have a lot of work to do.”
They practiced that whole week, twice a day. On the day of the meeting, as Abhilash was getting ready after they practiced for the final time, he looked at Shankar and said, “Can you come with me? You can sit beside me and tell me if I’m doing something wrong.”
Shankar smiled. “No, for two reasons. One, I cannot leave this house, and two, I think you’ll handle it well on your own. If you get nervous, breathe just like we practiced. Don’t stare into her eyes too much, and engage like a normal human.”
“I’ll be okay, right? Do you have confidence in me?”
“Surprisingly, I do. You’ve improved a lot this week. There’s still work to be done, but compared to our first day, this is a whole new you.”
Abhilash’s face lit up. “I’ll tell you everything once I’m back.”
“Good luck!” Shankar waved goodbye and waited at the gate until Abhilash’s bike disappeared.
“It went great!” Abhilash was grinning ear to ear. “I faltered a bit in the beginning, but then it just fell into place and the conversation flowed.”
Shankar also had a big smile on his face. “I’m proud of you. Now, remember, even if she rejects you, it’s fine. You now know how to navigate these meetings.”
Abhilash wasn’t listening. He looked at his phone for a few seconds and started skipping through the kitchen, hands in the air. “She asked to meet again!” He lunged to hug Shankar but fell through on the floor, laughing. Shankar pretended to hug him and joined in the laughter.
After a few more meet-ups between Abhilash and Deepti over the course of 2 and a half months, their parents met each other at Abhilash’s house. Shankar stood in the living room corner and kept giving thumbs-ups to Abhilash. The wedding date was decided to be six months later.
After Abhilash’s parents left, he sat down on the dining chair and motioned Shankar to sit.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Abhilash said, his eyes welling up lightly.
“No problem, kid. I’m very happy for you. Now, do the grunt work and give your all to your marriage. Never take her for granted.”
Abhilash smiled and nodded. “I almost forgot. When is your Inspector coming?”
“Ah, yes. He’ll be coming next Wednesday and might be here for a week. Now what you have to do is…”
That Wednesday after work, Abhilash slowly unlocked the front door and stepped inside. A cold breeze swept through him, making him shudder. He grimaced and went to his bedroom to change.
After dinner, Abhilash went straight to bed, covering himself up fully with blankets. A few minutes later, the locked door opened by itself halfway, revealing rhythmic thumps coming from downstairs. Abhilash groaned and peeked out of his blankets. He decided to go back to sleep when the whole bed shook, making him shriek.
He got up slowly and walked down, and the thumping sounds got louder. They were coming from the kitchen and Abhilash let out a squeak when he saw that the kitchen drawers were closing and opening, creating a thud — thud — thud thud — thud rhythm. He screamed, “Stop this! Stop! I can’t take it anymore!” he slumped down to the floor and started crying, clutching his hair. All the drawers closed suddenly and an eerie silence fell.
Abhilash stood up looking defeated, and walked back to his bed.
This went on for a week. There were messages for him on the bathroom mirror, written with shaving cream. His shoes kept on disappearing and reappearing in the weirdest of places. Abhilash kept saying, “Whoever you are, leave me alone!”
The next Thursday, Shankar quietly stood behind Abhilash’s shoulder, and said, “Hi.”
Abhilash jumped and turned around. His eyes darted left and right, and then he let out an uncertain, “Ahh! Ghost.”
Shankar chuckled. “You can drop the act now, he’s gone. He was very happy with how things went.”
Relief spread across Abhilash’s face. “Thank goodness. I was getting tired of all this.”
“I was, too,” said Shankar. “And I also talked to him about no new ghosts haunting this house.”
“Really? How did he agree to it?”
“I said that you’re too weak and on the verge of a mental breakdown. Any more hauntings may cause your death and we don’t want that for Ghost Corp.”
“Hey!”
“What? It worked, didn’t it? Be grateful.”
Six months later, Abhilash’s wedding preparations were in full swing. Shankar helped a lot in cleaning the house, especially in the places where Abhilash had trouble reaching. The house was buzzing with his relatives and children running around a week before the wedding. Shankar made sure that he was visible only to Abhilash, although he was tempted to scare the kids.
One day after dinner, Abhilash motioned Shankar with his eyes to follow him out.
They stood at the gate side by side, away from the noise, facing the road. The house glowed behind them with the lights all over it.
“Three days left,” said Shankar. “How do you feel?”
“Honestly, weird,” said Abhilash. “It’s almost like I’m having an out-of-body experience and I’m just an observer watching all this happen to me. Not sure if you’re familiar with this.”
Shankar chuckled. “I’ll miss you, kid.”
Abhilash turned to Shankar. “Can’t you stay here with us forever? I think we can tell Deepti about this, or else this could be our little secret.”
Shankar smiled, shaking his head. “No one is as weird as you to have what we have. It’s time to go on our separate journeys.”
Abhilash didn’t want to agree, but he knew this was for the best. “When do you leave?”
“On your wedding day, actually. But I want to stay till the end of the day and see you as a married man before I leave.”
That brought a smile to Abhilash’s face. “Will you visit me after you’re gone?”
“Every year, without a miss.”
The evening after the wedding, Abhilash and Deepti entered the gate of their house and walked to the front door together. The pathway was decorated with flowers and they were being showered with flower petals as they walked. As they stood outside the front door while Abhilash’s relatives readied for their entry, Abhilash looked to his right at a beaming Shankar, who couldn’t have looked any happier. He nodded at Shankar, who nodded back and floated away as Abhilash and Deepti entered the house, holding hands.
