I met her in the bus. The bus was crowded and people were packed like sardines. Initially she looked here and there trying to avoid my pathetic glances for a seat. Then deciding that there was enough room in the two seater to squeeze in a third she pushed to her left. In an instant I usurped the seat blind to the angry glances of the other occupant.

When the bus reached my stop I muttered a word of thanks and got down. It was dark; there was a cold breeze blowing with an occasional icy drizzle. Like any other winter evening, the roads were deserted and to top it all, the streetlights were dead. I was late coming home. The Chief Minister, our Chief Guest for the Annual Function, had been late and as a result, all the programmes had run behind schedule.

I knew Daddy and Mummy would be worried so I started walking as fast as my legs could take me. Soon I heard footsteps behind me, then someone asking me to slow down. I looked back, it was the same person who had shared her seat with me on the bus. She too had got down and was walking in my direction.

'Yes, we are the new tenants of 173'. I remembered Mummy saying yesterday that some new people had moved into the house three doors away. The breeze gave way to a gentle shower; we began to walk faster.

'Do you believe in ghosts?'

'What?' The one subject I dreaded the most, and here she was a complete stranger asking me about ghosts on a cold, dark night like this. I turned towards her and there was a faint smile on her lips. Suddenly the image of the female Dracula of Ramsay Brother's Horror Show flashed in front of my eyes. Vampires looked just like normal human beings but sucked away human blood. Was she Dracula?

'What's the matter? You look so pale. Are you scared of ghosts ?'

'I am, but aren't you?' I turned towards her and she was gone. I looked all around but she had simply vanished into the darkness. For an instant I was paralysed with fear. Then from a distance I heard her shouting for help. How could I hear her but not see her? Who was she… the devil, or a soul in search of a body? I could feel ghosts, demons and vampires all around me.

I started screaming at the top of my voice and ran like mad straight into Daddy's arms.

'What happened, what's the matter ?' Daddy had to drag me inside. Numb with fear and exhaustion I fell into Mummy's lap and started crying.

'What happened Piki ?' Daddy sounded worried.

'Ghost, I just saw a ghost. She was in the bus.' I explained incoherently.

'A ghost in the bus ...' Mummy put on her spectacles and looked at me again.

'She got down with me, asked me about ghosts and then vanished into the night. I could hear her asking for my body. She was a soul searching for a human body'. The rain, the darkness and the horror show had their perfect hold over me. Reason had left me long ago.

'I do not know how I escaped. It was so weird ...'.I went on and on. I couldn't quite decide what was more important - the fear of having met a ghost or the feeling that I was going to be our colony celebrity for the next few weeks.

'Where did this happen' Daddy enquired.

'Just in front of Narang Uncle's house'.

'Are you sure she had not fallen down or something'?

'No, I looked every where'.

'The manhole!' abruptly Mummy cried out.

'The manhole?' Daddy and I exclaimed together.

'Yes, Mr Narang had come in the evening to inform that somebody had stolen the manhole cover', she explained. Piki, you....' Daddy was trying to decide whether to give me a scolding now or wait until after the rescue. Urgency of the rescue prevailed; he rushed out. Confused and anxious, I followed suit. From a distance we could see the flickering of a flashlight and Mr and Mrs Narang trying to rescue the damsel.

Soon, between the two of them, Daddy and Narang Uncle pulled her out. Drenched in filth, with her hair sticking to her scalp she resembled a wet rat rather than a ghost. 'The rat ghost'…..the image was so funny that I started giggling. Mummy's sharp rebuke brought me back to the present and I found five pairs of eyes glaring at me with anger and indignation.

Well how could they understand the flights of my fantasy ! Murmuring an apology I walked away, but made three resolutions that night - never talk to strangers, never watch horror shows again, and always carry a flashlight in the dark streets of Bhubaneswar.