As the sun rose on Sunday morning, the air was filled with the cheerful chirping of birds.
Suraj Verma groggily stirred in bed, berating himself for neglecting to close the curtains the night before. The soft morning rays filtered into his 8th-floor apartment.
Barely able to keep his eyes open, Suraj fumbled for his phone to check the time, but his fingers grazed against something unexpected. It felt thin with a wavy pattern; as he traced it, a faint jingling echoed in the quiet room. He squinted at the bedside table and discovered a silver anklet adorned with tiny bells, though only two remained, indicating that one had likely been lost.
Whose anklet was this? And how had it ended up on his table? It wasn’t as though it could have walked there on its own. The only other person who had been in his apartment was Shalini, his middle-aged maid. Suraj rushed to the kitchen.
“Shalini Tai, what’s this? Is it yours?” Suraj demanded, brandishing the anklet dramatically.
“Baba, I found it by the main door.” Her reply muddled Suraj further.
Unease tightened in Suraj’s stomach, a disconcerting sense of déjà vu washing over him as he regarded the anklet.
With his wedding approaching, this strange incident felt like an omen. Suraj wasn’t the typical naïve bachelor; he had fully embraced his freedom, reveling in life’s pleasures with a hefty pay cheque and no ties back home. His parents, retired deputy collector Darshan Verma and his mother Devyani, had found a suitable wealthy match for him–a move that they sensed would chain him down.
Suraj accepted a cup of tea from Shalini, studying her with keen interest. She showed no sign of surprise at stumbling upon a piece of woman’s jewelry in a bachelor’s home, and the mystery of how it arrived nagged at him.
The day dragged on without much excitement, as discomfort kept Suraj at home. He skipped several calls from friends eager to pull him into a night out at a bar; he was aware of his parents’ warning to shift his lifestyle. Yet, it wasn’t their advice that caused his reluctance to engage; rather, it was something he couldn’t quite grasp himself.
That evening, Shalini returned to prepare dinner. Suraj felt an urge to interrogate her further about the anklet. However, he chose not to, unwilling to reveal just how much the piece troubled him. Questions raced through his mind—what had brought it there? Where was its match? And what had happened to the missing bell?
As night fell, Suraj struggled to find sleep. Whenever he dozed off, he found himself haunted by visions—dreams featuring a foot adorned with an anklet missing a tinkling bell. In the early hours, he forced himself to sleep, only to be stirred once more by the sound of jingling. This time, a pair of feet appeared in his dreams, both decorated with anklets, but abruptly, they began to resist. One anklet was flung away in protest, and one bell from the other…
Despite the chill in the air, Suraj woke up soaked in sweat. His mind raced as he restlessly paced the room, haunted by troubling memories that kept bubbling to the surface.
At that moment, the sound of keys clicking into the lock announced Shalini’s arrival.
Confronting her in the foyer, Suraj erupted, “Where did you get this anklet?” His bloodshot eyes burned with intensity.
Unperturbed by Suraj’s outburst, Shalini looked him squarely in the eyes and replied, “I found it right here,” gesturing towards a spot near the main door.
“You’re lying!” he shouted once more. She remained composed.
“Why would I lie, Baba?” she asked, attempting to move into the kitchen, but Suraj blocked her way.
“I know this anklet belonged to that girl.” The confession slipped from Suraj’s lips. “I didn’t do anything to her; it was my friend Raj who… who…” He faltered, realizing he had blurted out information that should have remained private, especially in front of a mere maid.
“Anyway, I know you have got this anklet here, no one else has come to my apartment recently. Why should I have to explain anything to you? Just get back to your work,” he sneered, but Shalini was ready to finish the narrative.
“Baba, you didn’t rape her, I know that, but you were an accomplice in the crime.”
The words lodged in Suraj’s throat. He glanced at the small figure of his maid, suddenly feeling as if she towered over him.
“This anklet belongs to my twenty-year-old daughter, Vanita. She recognizes you. She worked here with me for a short while when I was too ill to manage alone. You may not have paid much attention towards her.
That night, as Vanita was returning home after her shift at the government hospital, you and your friends…” Choked with emotion, Shalini found it hard to continue.
“She finally spoke barely two days before, then she passed away. Vanita insisted that Suraj Baba was among the three, but only one of them physically abused her while you and your friend held her down.” With that, Shalini snatched the anklet from a stunned Suraj.
“The other one fell off while she desperately fought to escape your grasp, and with it, one of the bells in this became lost. You are responsible for this murder, Baba. As a widow, I decided against knocking the doors of law, under the fear of word about my daughter’s disgrace spreading rapidly, but the doctor who had to certify her death refused to proceed without lodging a complain.
The police maybe doing their job, I do not want to land you in a mess by exposing the truth. You are getting married soon. After all I have survived on the salary you paid me all these years.”
Later that afternoon, Suraj sat before the police inspector, ready to give his testimony and turn himself in as an abettor for the rape of a hospital employee.
This Story is featured in the online magazine Authoropod July 2025.