M aria was very excited. She was finally in Shimla, about to begin studying in her dream school. She had come all the way from Rajasthan just to be here. For almost half an hour she had been walking around the school campus, located in a picturesque spot amidst thick deodar trees. Her legs and feet were both aching, but her heart was bursting with joy and excitement. She rested her back on the rough surface of a deodar tree and gazed up at the school building. She had read somewhere that it had been constructed in 1864 by the British. It was beautiful, with flowers hanging from every nook and corner. It looked more like the venue of a flower show than a school!
'Nothing…nothing ma'am. Just looking around,' Maria blurted straightening herself.
The Sister stared hard at the girl. Slim, short hair, black almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, a shapely mouth.
'In which standard are you? I have never seen you before.'
'I am new madam. I'll be joining eighth standard.'
'Well, you should be in hostel right now, not wandering around the grounds. And the word madam is not used here.'
Sister Helene looked at her watch, it was ten minutes to four o' clock. 'Run along now, it's your tea time. I hope you are not feeling homesick: if you are, it is always better to stay with your friends and your classmates, rather than be alone,' she said as she walked towards the administrative block.
'Yes ma'm, sorry Sister. But I am not homesick,' she said.
Amused, Sister Helene glanced back at the girl and saw that her eyes were shining with excitement.
'That's good. Run along now,' she said, and watched the girl turn towards the concrete path leading to the hostel.
'God bless you,' the Sister murmured as she went her way, thinking, I hope she doesn't bring trouble with those looks!
Maria was on her way to the hostel when she saw an old man pottering among the plants.
'Hello uncle, I am Maria, from Jodhpur. I am new here,' she said tentatively to the old man, whose back was towards her.
'You are no longer new here. It's been more than a week since the school opened,' he answered gruffly.
Maria squatted and touched the plants as gently as possible.
'That is true, but to me everything is so new and beautiful.'
Her happy tone could not be ignored; the old man looked at the girl. A pretty child, he thought.
'Maria—that's what you said your name was, no?— most of the new girls are homesick, but not you. That's good,' he said.
'You are the second person who has mentioned homesickness. I am so excited to be here: alone and independent!'
'I am glad beta, that you have found this place enchanting. Er, don't keep touching that plant, the bud may break off,' he added.
Maria let go of the delicate orange and yellow leafed plant, which she had been trying to straighten. She hadn't even noticed that there was a bud on it.
'Sorry uncle, I will be on my way. It is going to be tea time soon.'
'Yes, you better get going. If you are interested in flowers, trees, plants, come to me again, I will tell you all about them.'
'Thank you, I'm sure I'll meet you soon.'
'In which class did you say you were in?'
'I don't think I did say: I'm in the eighth standard,' she said as she hurried off towards the hostel. The gardener thoughtfully looked at her receding figure.
'God bless you child,' he murmured as he bent down and started working on his plants again.
'Hey! Where in hell were you? If you hadn't returned in another five minutes, I would have come looking for you!' her friend Manveen, whom she met near the hostel entrance, said.
'I was just looking around the campus…'
'Are you crazy? You're not allowed to roam around like that. You're supposed to be in the hostel after school hours,' Manveen said indignantly as they both entered the hostel.
'Silly, I didn't leave the campus. Can't a person look around one's own school? Don't be so shocked! Anyway, I was caught by a ma'am, no Sister, while hanging around near the administrative building,' she said, giggling loudly.
'You really are mad! No wonder Meena told me to take care of you.' Meena was the head girl of the school, and by 'take care' she had meant 'keep an eye'. Just like any other boarding school, here too the older girls were concerned that the new entrants be able to adjust and mingle with the others easily. Sometimes it took newcomers a year to feel at home in the school. It seemed that Maria would be an exception, though. She was already friendly with nearly all the girls in her class.
'Now hurry up, put on your cardigan. Let's go to the Mess for tea,' Manveen said. A few minutes later they were at the Mess. Manveen went to talk to some of her other friends so Maria sat alone at one of the tables. Meena, the head girl, came up to her. 'I heard you disappeared again? We were about to send someone to look for you,' she told Maria.
'I'm sorry. I was just looking around the school complex. I met Manveen on the way, she told me you were, er, worried.'
'Well, be careful of the rules the next time.'
'Do you like Shimla and this school?' Maria asked the head girl, trying to change the subject.
'Like? I've never thought of it like that. It's not bad, we get used to it. For us the school is a second home.'
'Hmm. What about Shimla? The beauty, hills and lush greenery?'
'Well, it's nice. I belong to Chopal, about five hours from here. For me, Chopal is much more beautiful,' said Meena.
'Hi Meena. The meeting is tonight?' a senior from the tenth standard came up to them and asked.
'What meeting?' asked Maria.
'To welcome the prince. The "day" has come early,' said the girl, whose name Maria did not know.
'Shut up…you know you're not supposed to talk about it openly in the Mess,' Meena turned around and said angrily.
'Oops! Sorry! Come on Meena, be a sport. No one heard except for her and she'll probably be there too,' she said, looking at Maria.
'It is I who decides who is to be invited and who will not.'
'Don't be so bossy!' the girl chided, moving away.
Baffled, Maria looked at the head girl. Meena didn't say a word; abruptly she got up and left the Mess. What were they talking about? Maria wondered. What was this mysterious meeting?
There was still some minutes left for the evening studies to finish when the whispering started. Maria had already finished her day's work and was flicking mindlessly through the pages of her English book when the girls around her began to talk in low voices about the meeting later on. Where would it take place? What would the agenda be? she could hear them asking each other.
'I know, I know. I will keep it in my room, and take my advice, use the eyeliner rather than that filthy black polish.'
'Why don't you all listen to Shree? There is sense in what she is saying.'
'Sh…sh…Make sure Sister Helene does not hear.' Maria recognised the voice: it was Manveen.
'Don't be stupid. Sister knows about it. In fact she has known about it for the last twenty years! You were not even born then!' Shree said.
'Shhh…can't you speak softly!' Manveen said as the girls giggled.
'What about the sixth standard girls?' one voice asked.
'What about them? You know this starts from seventh standard onwards,' Shree replied.
Just then the bell rang. The girls filed out, most of them heading out to the playground. Maria went too. She wanted to ask someone what they had been talking about. She looked around for Manveen but couldn't spot her anywhere. She went up to Shree and asked, 'What were you all discussing?'
'What do you mean?'
'About some meeting? Using boot polish and eyeliner…I didn't understand anything.'
'Oh! That! I don't know whether I am allowed to tell you. After all you are not yet one of us.'
'Keep it to yourself then, I am not even interested,' Maria snapped and joined a group of girls playing basketball.
Shree vindictively made up her mind not to let the new girl know about their secret just now. The day—Friday the thirteenth—had come early this year. Usually November came first, and by then they were comfortable enough to tell the new girls about it. She would tell the other girls, especially the bossy Meena, that Maria might laugh at their faces and make a joke of it. She'd tell Maria later of course…she'd see what they were doing anyway. Let her come to me and ask me again, Shree thought.
Maria didn't sleep well and the next day she woke up with a headache and a slight fever. No one had invited her for the meeting yet and she felt rejected. On Meena's advice she went to the sick room in the afternoon where the Sister gave her two pills to swallow and told her to lie down for some time. Maria dozed off and by the time the Sister woke her up, it was evening.
'Have your milk and biscuits.'
'What time is it, Sister?'
'Nearly seven o' clock, finish your milk. I will come back and take your temperature.'
Maria gulped down the milk. She was famished.
'Got ill so soon? Thought you were an energetic girl.'
Startled Maria looked around.
'I'm here.' The voice was coming from the window. She turned and saw the gardener.
'Hello uncle. How are you? How did you know I was here?' she asked in her usual chirpy manner.
'I was working on this ivy, when I saw you gulping down the food,' he said with a twinkle in his eye.
'I hadn't had anything since morning. I did not sleep well yesterday, but now I am feeling all right. They'll let me leave the sick room, won't they?' she asked.
'Hmm. What about today? Will you be able to sleep? The day has come early this year.'
Surprised, Maria was about to ask the gardener what he was talking about when she heard the Sister coming down the corridor.
'Who are you talking to young lady? Come, we will check your fever now,' the Sister said.
Maria smiled and looked towards the window, but there was no one there. The gardener had left.
She had her dinner in the sick room and an hour later was allowed to go to her dormitory. As she approached the room, she could hear a lot of noise coming from within.
'What are you doing, standing in the middle! Move yaar,' a senior said, pushing her aside as she entered along with two other girls. Maria stood stupefied. All the girls in the room were dressed shabbily, and all of them had their hair hanging around their faces, uncombed and tangled. But this was nothing compared to what they had done to their faces.
'What's going on?' she asked no one in particular.
'Come on! Change into your dirtiest night-suit quickly. Or wear a mismatching one. There is the eyeliner and the black polish, the rouge…Whatever you want, put it on,' said Meena.
Shocked Maria looked at the head girl. Half her face was blackened, she had smeared lipstick all over her mouth and chin, and it looked as if she had sprinkled talcum powder on her hair. She was wearing a crushed blue top with striped purple and red pyjamas.
Maria looked around her. This was absurd…what was wrong with all of them? All the girls had painted their faces black, blue and red. The beautiful Paharan girls, with their peaches and cream complexions, had made themselves look ugly, and the strangest thing was that they were all so happy about it, laughing, giggling and making all kinds of faces.
'What is going on?' she asked again, feeling helpless. Perhaps it was some strange kind of theme party? She felt left out, she didn't know what to do.
A stern knock on the door made most of the girls scramble to their beds.
'Lights off,' the Sister called from outside.
The bewildered Maria watched some of the girls sneak out to go to their own dormitories.
'Hurry up, switch off the light and get into your bed silly, before Sister comes in,' hissed Shree. Maria still stood like a statue near the switchboard, undecided and confused.
'Lights off, I said!' the Sister called from the corridor loudly.
Maria fumbled with the switch, turned it off, found her bed—third from right—and lay down. It was really not her day! First the sick room and then this hurricane.
'Remember to use that eyeliner,' she heard someone call out to her, before sleep overcame her. The next thing she knew, the shrill six o' clock morning bell was ringing. Stretching, she saw that most of the girls were already awake. Surprised, she looked around and noticed that girls from other dormitories were there too. Either they were scrubbing their faces, or helping someone clean up.
'Will someone tell me what this was all about,' Maria asked loudly.
Some of the girls turned to look at her.
'Oh no…look…' one of the girls said, ashen faced. The other girls in the room stopped what they were doing. Slowly, a hush filled the room as they all looked towards Maria.
'What is it? What are you looking at?' Maria asked, looking at the sea of faces in front of her. She felt she was going crazy.
Slowly, one of the girls pointed towards her bed.
Maria turned to look where she was pointing. Behind her, lying on her pillow—she did not know how she had not noticed it before—was a red rose on her pillow. Slowly, as if controlled by something beyond themselves, all the girls walked closer to Maria and her bed. There was fear in their eyes, she saw, as they looked at her and then at the rose. Maria's heart sank; she felt a chill creeping down her spine.
Finally one of them spoke.
'The dead prince has chosen you.'
'What…what are you saying?'
'Why didn't you make yourself look ugly? Look, he has left his token of love—the red rose—on your bed!' a girl said, pointing towards the rose.
'I don't understand… I don't know what you are talking about!' Maria said, her voice edged with hysteria.
Manveen walked up to her. 'Maria, every year, on thirteenth November or Friday the thirteenth, whichever comes earlier, the ghost of an English prince comes riding on a horse to the school. He leaves a rose on the bed of whichever girl he finds pretty. That is why, on this night, all the girls from seventh standard onwards make themselves as ugly as possible… After all, who wants to have a spirit as a beloved,' she finished, as Maria swooned, fainting near the bed where lay the fresh red rose.