Today’s prompt brings two thoughts to mind. One is of a creepy nightmare I had years back but somehow I still remember it in detail and the second is cold winter mornings.
The first “shiver” inspired thought – The nightmare. I saw this just around the time I started college.It went like this. I was watching TV lying on the sofa, as usual. My parents are asleep in their room.I go to look through the window because I feel uneasy. We lived on the first floor and the view through the window from that room was of the road outside and there was a street light right on our side of the street. We could see the light and the road if we stand right at the window because otherwise the view was blocked by branches of a neem tree. In the nightmare when I look through the window I see a black figure standing underneath the street light. I can’t make out features but I know that it is looking right at the window, right at me. In the dream and afterwards I referred to it as IT.It just did not feel human. In the nightmare I felt a dread creeping through me as IT watched me.It kept staring and I kept looking back getting scared by the second until I just ran from the window. I woke up right then. I haven’t had that nightmare again but I still remember every detail and it still creeps me out!
On to the second thought – The winter mornings. The winters here would seem like nothing to those of you who have actually seen snow but for us it was the coldest it got and hence COLD. Room heaters are only used in homes with really old people or babies so ours was not one of them. We instead bundled up in sweaters and blankets. I had a pet cat at that time, the one I mentioned in an earlier post. Even he had a blanket to keep warm at night.
The time I have experienced uncontrollable shivering due to cold is when I had to drive my two-wheeler in the cold winter mornings back in high school. A little background information, kids here are given two wheelers when they reach high school. Parents see it as freedom from having to pick up and drop kids from school and the various coaching institutes they would have to attend in high school. Kids see it as a sign of Independence and what not. Anyway, I too had one and driving it in winter mornings all the way to school was something akin to “the hunger game” tasks. Didn’t matter that I had on a sweater, scarf, gloves and various other clothing meant to keep one warm. I always reached school with numb hands and tears streaming from my eyes because of the cold. It took a good fifteen minutes for the shivering to stop. Thinking back on it the funny thing is all of us preferred to go that way even though we could have taken the bus. It was a chance to drive and no one gave it up.
On comparison I would have to say the nightmare is the one that would make me shiver more than any winter morning.
-S.M.
Second Time Blogger 