A Night in the House

I saw Allen enter the kitchen, her shoulders loose and her arms swinging aimlessly by her sides. She sat down and wished us all a very dull ‘Hello!’. She settled herself on the dining table and started fiddling with the peas in her plate. Apart from being the dullest child you could find on earth, my sister was also someone who is totally crazy. She likes to live in a world of her own and thinks that there are nymphs who live in the trees of our backyard. I had no idea what nymphs actually were before she told me that they were the spirits living in the trees. I don’t know what introduced my little sister to this silly little world of mythology. Maybe it is those television programmes that she almost every day watches. Well, that is how she got to know of fairies and dwarfs and mermaids.

Even at school, I see her in the garden, sitting under some or the other tree and talking to herself. Maybe it is some psychological problem of hers or she has some funny intention behind all this. None of these seems to be very likely, but what else can it be? If it was a few weeks back, I couldn’t even have thought of Allen in such a way. Even Mom and Dad are trying to figure out the reason behind all this.

In the kitchen, Mom asked, “What were you doing in the backyard all day? Talking to the nymphs again?”

“How do you know when they call me out to talk to them?” asked Allen.

“That’s where I find you whenever I look for you.”

“That is rude! I spend my time that way because none of you three is interested in talking to me."

“Don’t be a fool, Allen. Nymphs do not exist.” Allen’s father scowled. “Tell for yourself, do centaurs exist?”

“For if Phoenix, Nymph and Pegasus can possibly exist, then why not centaurs?” Allen also had an answer for the next question about where did she learn all this from. “Dad, anyone with common sense knows this.” With no further unnecessary use of words, both of us were ordered to bed.
Allen ran upstairs without a word. I hesitated for a moment, walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. Now, that I was at the vantage, I put my ear to the door and heard Mom say, “We should take Allen to some doctor, shouldn’t we?”

“Again? We just took her a couple of months ago. Don’t you remember the medicine he gave her? He did say that it will work eventually.”

“Ohhh! When will this Eventually start? When? It’s just that I’m worried. I’m not even sure it really is a psychological problem. Maybe she is just making it all up in her head!” I knew that Mom could convince dad of anything if she wanted to. I knew that they could be out of the kitchen any moment. And the most of all, I knew that I had no time, I had to go tell my sister about it. So, I ran upstairs.
On my way, I felt cool air rush in through the hallway as though someone had opened the back door of our house. Having no time to think, I raced myself to Allen’s room and opened the door panting. It was quite weird a thing to find no one inside. She must’ve gone to have some water, I thought and went to my own room making up my mind to tell it all to her the next day.

An hour passed and I was still worried about Allen. I climbed out of my bed and went to check on her. She was still not back! That is when it all made sense to me. How could I just not see it, it being right before my eyes. I rushed down the staircase, into the backyard. What I saw out there is still almost a blur in my sight. Allen was climbing over the fence. I stood stunned as I watched her run away from home with a wood nymph.