It was a glorious morning and Mrs. Rana thought it was a pity to waste it. She sat under the pear tree to read her book. Mrs. Rana had lived in this small hill town all her life. She was one of the people who knew everything and everyone. People often came to talk her of the old times and she loved to reminisce.
“This is life,” she said to herself. “A good book, a beautiful garden, birds chirping in the trees and squirrels running around.” She sighed with contentment. Just then she heard a scream. “Uh oh! It must be Col. Gautam!”
Colonel Gautam, her neighbour, was constantly on the point of hysteria. “How he fought two wars is a mystery,” muttered Mrs. Rana, as she looked towards the fence.
Mysterious letter
Sure enough, a head popped up. “Good morning, Col. Gautam,” said Mrs Rana.
“You are not going to believe what happened to me,” began the colonel. “I was sitting in my front room reading the newspaper when the door suddenly burst opened and a letter fell on my door mat. I was startled and looked up. Would you believe that there was no one there? I ran out of the house to catch the culprit but there was non one. NO ONE!” He screamed to bring home the point.
Mrs. Rana paled; she knew it was the Phantom Postman. And that the letter he delivered was the harbinger of death.
“It’s The Postman, colonel,” she said, softly.
The colonel did not know the story of the ghostly postman. “What postman? I didn’t see anyone.”
“You won’t. Because the postman is a phantom.”
“Whhhaaattttt?” screamed the colonel again.
“A long long time ago, a postman and his bag of letters went missing. He was never found. Now, decades later, once in a way someone receives a letter.”
“What does the letter say?” stammered the colonel.
“I don’t know. People who have read it have not lived to tell the tale.”
The colonel’s face was white. Mrs. Rana told him not to open the letter; instead to pack an overnight bag and spend the night in her house. At midnight, Mrs. Rana and the colonel were woken up by the deadly shriek of the burglar alarm. After a while, they heard the sound of police sirens and officers go inside the house. But they were out very soon.
There was a knock on the door. When Mrs. Rana opened it, the police officer said, “There’s been an intruder in Col Gautam’s house. However, the man has not stolen anything because he died almost immediately on entering. But what is worrying is Col. Gautam is missing!”
Just then Col. Gautam appeared at the door. “Ah! There you are, sir,” said the policeman. “We will get back to the body in your house.”
