The face in the window

Last but not the least, there was an insane woman who lived in the exactly opposite apartment in our block. She was not really your out-of-sorts woman. Mostly she was quite composed and level-headed. She seldom ventured out of her place. She lived with her husband and two children. The unusual thing was that on a full-moon day, she would let her hair loose, smear her forehead with red vermilion, roll her eyes on and on, and let out an air-rending wail. And she would continue screaming and wailing and rolling her eyes and rotating her neck as if something wanted to be unbound from her being. Her teeth would clamp and her lips would be drawn apart to display her clamped jaw and gums. As children, we were mortified by the apparition and usually watched the drama play out peeping through our windows. Nobody ventured near her on such occasions.

One weekend evening I was alone in my apartment as the others had gone out. I was working over some mathematical assignments and was engrossed in it. From the study room, the door led to the dining area. One wall of the dining room was latticed for ventilation. This was covered with a wooden partition except for a small window the size of a hand-held camera. This was just above the wash basin.

After deliberating unsuccessfully over the math, I walked to the dining room towards the wash basin for a face wash. I ran the water and amply washed my face with the running water hunched over the basin. As I straightened up to towel my face, I could feel the hair on my arms and spine stand up on their roots. For framed against the wooden partition, exactly in the window over the lattice, was the face of the woman watching me!!