An eventful night

An excerpt from ‘The Curious Case of the Abandoned Temple’ by Maya Chandrasekaran

It felt like Anusha had just fallen asleep, when she heard an insistent hissing in her ear. Thinking it  was a mosquito of some kind, she tried to swat it away, but then there was a muted, “Ow!” and she sat up abruptly. 

Of course, it was Aryav, leaning over her anxiously, his face too close to hers, and sniffling as usual. “Oh jeez, Aryav,” Anusha hissed, “I thought you went to the loo before we put the lights off. How  much do you need to pee??” 

Aryav shook his head vehemently, put his fingers to his lips and indicated to go out of the bedroom  into the veranda. Anusha was still very annoyed at being woken literally just as she had fallen  asleep, but she was also just a little intrigued now, so she tried to quietly slip out of bed without waking Tara up on the other side of the room. Picking up her phone and the big torch, she followed  Aryav to the door that was slightly ajar.

Outside, Missy was awake as well, standing up alert, looking into the distance. Anusha adjusted  her glasses and looked out in the same direction. Then she squinted and stared. She looked down  at Aryav and he nodded quickly, as if to confirm that he was seeing the same thing. 

In the distance, somewhere just off the farm, there were a number of dancing lights. They seemed  to be coming and going, almost like they were flickering on and off, and then Anusha realised it  looked like that because they were moving around and going in and out of some structure. 

She squinted again and then lifted her phone to try and get some pictures. But it was quite far away,  and even with her camera completely zoomed in, all she got was some grainy dark shots that could  have been anything at all. It was frustrating and quite pointless, so she stopped taking photos and  instead turned to Aryav and whispered, “How long has this been going on?” 

“Dunno,” he whispered back. “I probably came out 5 minutes ago. Missy heard it and licked me awake,” he continued, stroking the top of Missy’s alert head. “Do you know where it is?” “Not 100% sure,” Anusha replied thoughtfully, “but I took some photos and maybe in the morning  those will help.” 

The three of them stood over there for a little longer, watching and straining to see if they could hear anything. Outside, there was no city or traffic noise, but lots of insects and crickets. Through the chirruping though, if they listened very carefully, Anusha thought she heard some chanting. 

Then, just as suddenly, it all stopped. The noises, the lights, everything. 

Anusha and Aryav stood there and waited just a little bit longer, but now it was all still and quiet  again. 

“Really bizarre,” Anusha muttered. Then she said, “Ok, looks like the show is over. Let’s go back to  bed.” 

Aryav looked sheepish, and then said, “Actually, since we’re awake…” he looked meaningfully at the toilet and Anusha sighed loudly. Really, how many times did this boy need to pee? 

Wordlessly, she switched on the large, powerful torchlight and shone it on the path so that Aryav could go across quickly. She waited on the main veranda though; she drew the line at waiting  outside the bathroom while he used it. 

A minute later he came out. “That was quick. Did you wash your hands?” Anusha asked sternly. 

“Yes, of course!” Aryav looked indignant. Anusha gave him what she hoped was a quelling look, and they walked back inside, calling Missy after them. 

Inside, Anusha carefully locked the bedroom door, now glad that Preetha’kka and Samuel Anna  were just across the patch. There had definitely been something going on either on the farm or just outside it, and it was all a bit spooky. 

When she checked about 10 minutes later in the other room, she could hear Aryav breathing loudly  but regularly again — he had fallen back to sleep.

It took Anusha much longer though, and she slept fitfully, with strange, somewhat disturbing  dreams that she couldn’t quite remember the next morning.

In conversation with the author:

1.What inspired ‘The Curious Case of the Abandoned Temple’?

My younger son, 9 years old at that time, was my inspiration for writing the book. He raced through all the Enid Blyton mystery and adventure stories and then started complaining about how there weren’t enough modern and Indian mystery stories for him to read. This gave me the impetus to write the book. 

2. What can kids expect from the book?

Kids can expect some sinister activities, lots of interesting clues, many picnic meals, and fun interactions between the team of detective-cousins.

3. What are your top three book recommendations for young readers?

‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’ by Trenton Lee Stewart

‘Ajay and the Mumbai Sun’ by Varsha Shah

‘The Adventurers’ by Jemma Hatt

(Maya Chandrasekaran is a Bengaluru-based author and entrepreneur.)