Short Story: Tikoni and Chakori

By Aratrika Dixit

After weeks of packing, we were finally all set to move. Everyone was excited at the prospect of a new house in a new state. “I wonder if there will be any kids to play with me there”, asked Taru, my younger sister.

 “I’m sure there will be plenty”, said I. There were three cars and 15 -16 of us (including the baby)! Meenu was the eldest sibling of our large family.

We were finally off to start a new chapter of our lives! The first part of the journey was filled with jokes, music, and more jokes. Everywhere then came up with the family stories, it was like a routine we had. We had done this many times before.

As night set in, we realised that we had missed the exit to the hotel where we were supposed to stay. So, we stopped in front of a large bungalow. Its caretaker was just locking the front door.

My father got out of the car and talked to him. He said that we could stay there for the night but he could only unlock two rooms and the rest were believed to be haunted. I laughed when I heard what my father told me, “Haunted? There are no such things as ghosts.” I said laughing. “Don’t be so sure,” said Taru looking at me with a cold stare. We unloaded the luggage while the caretaker unlocked the rooms.

Even though there were two rooms, my mother insisted that we all sleep in one room. I thought she was just being paranoid so I said, “Me, Taru and Meenu didi can sleep in the other room. It’s cramped here.”

After a lot of coaxing, she finally allowed us to sleep in the other room. So we set up our blankets and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up with a cold sweat. Looking around, I saw that Taru and Meenu didi were sleeping peacefully. I put my scary thoughts away and went back to sleep.

The next morning when we were all sitting on the front lawn, drinking tea, Meenu didi described a dream that she had last night. She said “I was sitting right here and two girls came up to me. I told them that if they massaged my feet, I would give them chocolates. While they were doing that, I asked them their names. The one in the black dress said that her name was Tikoni and the one in blue was Chakori.

Everyone was quiet. “I had the same dream,” said my mom. “So did I,” said Taru. “What about you didi? Did you have the same dream too?” I asked. Then Meenu said, ”Taru, who are you talking to? There’s no one there.