The Lethal Dose

Creative Writing Competition 2012 India
CODE	888
SETTING	Graveyard
OBJECT	Chocolate
THEME	A Strange Day/Night

“Hello!”

The voice, coming from a patch that seemed to be the darkest part around me initially startled me. But I was made of nerve of steel and the challenge that I had playfully accepted compelled me to keep my wits about myself.

“Hi!”

I returned back the greeting at the sari clad figure that seemed to open a door in the dark patch and step out, as if she was stepping out of a dark house into the portico outside.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was about to ask so myself, very surprised to see you here at this time! What brings you here?”

“well, its a long story, would you care to listen?”

“Might as well, if you are willing to tell. In any case, I have miles to go….”

“Well, the night is still young. Do you have a chocolate by any chance?”

 

I was by good fortune, adopted into a loving and beautiful family. Right from the day they adopted me, I knew I was lucky. The family came in a shining red car one evening to formalise the adoption process. We peeped out of the window and looked intently at the visitors; a man and a girl of about ten. I instantly took a liking for them. The girl was short in height and had a slightly longish face that made her look attractive. On top of that she had light brown eyes that seemed so full of kindness that I instantly knew that here was a person who was born to love and be loved.

The man, who certainly looked like the father of the girl child had a balding pate and a rounding countenance. And though his pot belly moved in a jerky sort of manner as he got down from the car I could immediately sense a sort of warmth and friendliness emerging from within him. This is the man whom I deserve, I thought to myself as we all; my brothers and sisters waited in a group eagerly to receive the visitors.

They came, saw and rightfully, flipped for me. The girl picked me up in her arms and nuzzled her nose against my nose and exclaimed about my cuteness.

“She has such soulful eyes,” she mentioned to her father, “I want to take her home, Daddy!”

That decided it. As for me, my wish was coming true. I was going to a home that had loving and caring people; people who could be trusted to provide me with the warmth and friendliness that I so very much desired!

I was a joy that they brought into their home. I judged that by the name they gave me as soon as we reached home-“Sweety”. The child had carefully noted down all the instructions of the doctor and the moment we reached home, she checked her notes and administered the dosage of medicine prescribed by the doctor. Then she offered some milk which I hungrily lapped up. She then led me through the rooms as if giving me a tour of the house till we reached a corner where there was a brightly painted red bed.

“This is where you will sleep,” she said as she picked me up and placed me on the soft white cushion that was placed inside the bed. I immediately fell into a deep slumber comfortable in knowledge that I had been indeed lucky to have found such a caring home.

 

I was listening intently to her story but my eyes kept trying to catch a glimpse of her face. However, hard I tried, the darkness seemed to gather around her more by the hour, as if it was a dense mass of floating mist that enveloped her wiry frame wherever she went.  It was not un-natural for darkness to be a part of the graveyard since most of them are ill-maintained and ill lit in any case. Half of the lamp-posts along the path-way had no bulbs and even though the lamp post by the side of the bench where we were sitting had a bulb, its light was dimmed to half the output because of the many layers of dust, dirt and dead insects that had accumulated inside the shade covering the bulb.

This graveyard was not unknown to me and I have been coming here frequently ever since I was the age of eight years, holding the hands of my uncle who worked here as a care-taker cum guard. Sometimes he was here on day shifts and sometimes in night shifts and therefore this place held no dread or fear for me unlike what a grave-yard evokes in the minds of common people. In fact I used to love the silence that always seemed to envelope this place; as if all sorts of sounds waves stayed away from this place voluntarily for fear of disturbing all those who slept the eternal sleep lying under layers of earth.

Today was however a little different from the earlier days. I had been sitting on the bench enjoying a quiet smoke away from the prying eyes of my uncle who disliked anyone who smoked. Not that I longed for solitude but the silence and the cool breeze blowing across the vast stretch of open field had a soothing effect on me. Then this lady seemed to appear from somewhere and had broken the magical spell that the surrounding had woven around me.

“And then?” I asked her.

Her voice had a sort of melody that seemed to gell with the peaceful surrounding without disturbing it. Not really sure what made me so keen to listen to her story. Was it the way she seemed to appear out of the cover of darkness that had me shocked and at full attention? Or was it the melodious hypnotic voice that added to aura around that made me take note of her? Or was it the mystery surrounding the way she asked me for a chocolate that made me curious to know more about her?

“Well, as the wise men say, nothing lasts forever. My wheel of fortune also began turning.  I didn’t like her the first day I met her. Daddy brought her home one evening and the moment she squealed at the sight of me, I knew that she will probably never take a liking for me. Even when she bent down to pat my head, I knew she was not doing it voluntarily but just to please Dad. Her hands smelt of a perfume that nauseated me and involuntarily I jumped in an attempt to snap at her hand. “

“That was the start of our enmity and when she came into our home after marriage, I had a premonition that the devil had finally laid siege in paradise. I was happy as long as Dad and my sister was in the house but I had to spent the maximum time with her. Every day after Dad and sister left for work, the lady, I refused to think of her as mom, used to give me my food. Initially, for a few days it was the same as I was used to eating.

Then one day the lady suddenly gave me something more- something very sweet, very dark and which melted in my mouth the moment I bit into it.  It tasted so good, so different that I just couldn’t stop myself from eating more and more of it. It was a big bar of chocolate, dark and sugary and which melted into a liquid mass the moment I licked and sucked on it. It tasted so good that I devoured the whole thing at one go. Even though it felt so good at that time, I began to feel sick a little later.

Nausea began to take hold of me, my vision started to get blurred and my throat felt dry. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would leap out of my body! In a span of 20 minutes, it was all over! I realised I was dead-a victim of theobromine poisoning that kills so many of my breed all over the world! The lady had extracted her revenge and had ensured I was removed from her way! My spirit saw my sister cry a lot after returning from school but then there was nothing that could be done. Dad covered my body in a piece of cloth and then brought me to this graveyard where I was buried at one corner!”

The cool breeze seemed to have suddenly become chilly as I sensed fear taking a hold on me for the first time in so many years. This lady was a spirit!! Probably she sensed my fear and discomfort and instantly began to speak again!

“I am so sorry if I have scared you. Please do not be scared. Even though I am a spirit but we spirits do not have the power to harm anyone. I have been trying to tell my story to someone in the hope that the message about chocolates being poisonous for dogs gets spread across common folks. I have seen you come here so many times. I knew you would not be scared to face me because you are familiar with the surroundings here. So I gathered courage and decided to make myself visible to you today, in an effort to tell you the story!”

“But….But, I mean you are not human? I know chocolates, specially dark ones can affect dogs to the extent of killing them at times. I have read about it in my science classes!”

“Yes, I am Sweety, the bitch, who was killed by an overdose of chocolate by a scheming young woman! But to tell you the truth, even though chocolate killed me, I just cant get over the taste of it. Its so good and I crave for the taste of it even today! Do you, by any chance have another chocolate that you can spare for me?”

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