The Jungle Cafe

“I suddenly opened my eyes, sweat was dripping from my forehead and I was shivering with a cold wave passing through my spine, suddenly I guessed there was someone behind the white curtain.I could see his shadow, maybe an old-man.who was he?what did he want? I don’t know.”

Here the handsome brown beard man paused but we wanted to know all at once.On that evening, by passing through a beautiful forest near “Morris Valley”,we three friends stepped into a cafe that was “The Jungle Cafe”,(written on the entrance).

It was raining heavily and darkness prevailing everywhere.So we thought this cafe a blessing to spend some hours.

All the cafe was neat ,clean and well maintained but empty.I ,with Ali and Ramiz, was discussing the reality of nightmares.

“There is nothing like that but a psychological condition or REM”, said Ali.

“You don’t believe”? I inquired.

“Ha, No,Not at all”,he laughed loudly.Ramiz was silent and looking straight, we pursued his sight and saw a handsome man coming to us.He was hardly crossing his 30.

He pulled a chair and sat down beside me.

“So, you guys don’t believe but nightmares happen and affect our daily life”.

He started to narrate the story of his college mate, Saifi.

We were in all ears ,the brown beard man started;

When Saifi told us about his awakening and the shadow of an old man, we asked him, “what did you see in the dream”?

Saifi told, “a loud shriek was heard by me ,I was at my grandma’s lounge.There was a window at the last corner of the room, I tried to run towards the direction of the sound and became white with fear.Two feet could be seen at the edge of a well ,a lady was crying.Maybe she was cursed or something else.Her head was down.”

Saifi was in a worst condition ,as in the dream he couldn’t see the face of the lady but he thought her voice was familiar.

We all college friends asked him to relax,

“It was just a dream, dream, dream, nothing more”

The very next morning, saifi was sitting in the cafeteria of the college .he wanted to share something which he could not keep to himself.He started to speak and we all friends were so attentively engaged that our breath could be heard.

Saifi told;

“at 3.00 A.M ,the same dream recurred but this time he saw the face of the lady ,she was his mother, in a great pain hanging in the well, with her upside down, and was crying for help again and again.In the dream I froze and couldn’t jump down the window.When I opened my eyes, an old man was staring sinisterly, sitting on the easy chair ,he was one eyed”.

“And the other”,? I asked him, Saifi told us that his face had only one eye .

At the next moment ,a boy came with a telegram and moved forward,

“Here is for you, Saifi, he said.

Saifi opened the telegram and suddenly bowed his head. His mother was at his grandma’s house ,she was taking her coffee in the lawn ,suddenly a 200 years old well erupted , that coffee became her last drink.

We were speechless ,full of fear with this harrowing and scary happening but Saifi was not even willing to go there.His brain filled with the images of wrong happenings.He thought himself responsible, as he could save his mother’s life.

Saifi decided that he would never sleep again after 2.00A.M and always keep an alarm clock beside him.We all friends and professors asked him to relax,and explained that was just a dream and a coincidence.How could a dream can decide the death of our dear one?

I ,Ali and Ramiz were lost in the nightmare of Saifi and eager to know more.At once the brown beard man stopped and offered us coffee.He brought coffee and put on the table.He was the only man running the cafe.Coffee was so good and tasty but taste was new for us .Anyway we enjoyed and he continued the story.

On the fifth day, after the death of his mother, we heard strange sounds coming from Saifi’s room.In the cold night of December, Saifi was wet and pail in a fearful condition.

“What happened”? We asked.

“ inspite of the alarm clock, I could not wake up at 3.00A.M.I saw my father’s house in the dream.”

Saifi told that his father was used to live in the Ist floor, “he did not like to sit or live with us.He used to work there and sometimes he took his friends and mostly girlfriends there.I saw in the dream that all the stairs were reckoned, there was no single step there, when I awoke I saw one eyed old man face on the ceiling, he was smiling.I wanted to talk but my voice disappeared.I was like sinking in a hollow ditch.”

Now I did not tell Saifi but decided to talk with my cousin, a famous psychiatrist ,Aqeel. When Aqeel listened to the whole story of Saifi, he said, “may be some stress, anxiety or he had the effect of the death of his loved one . May be some trauma or past incident, making him restless.He is plagued by nightmares”.

Aqeel asked me to bring Saifi to him, he wanted to take some sessions to diagnose the real problem.

But the next day Saifi was very upset ,at 3.00 A.M same dream recurred and he saw his father’s house occupied by one eyed old man and the dead body of his father was lying downstairs full of blood.when he touched the blood, there was a skeleton under the blood.He said , “I cried and woke up”.

Saifi was in hot water.He wanted to go and see the Morris Valley near the forest where his father was used to live.He wanted to save his life and solve the conflict, so he went.

“ one month passed, one night I saw a strange dream at 3.00 A.M” .The brown beard man’s face was still horrified.

“In my dream, he told, in the middle of the forest in Morris Valley,I saw a lady sitting near a little grave ,grave of a new born baby.I automatically moved on and she told that she lost her 7 days old son ,Saifi due to cholera.Her name was sophie, same as my friend’s mother name.When I opened my eyes , the old man was lying beside me on my bed.I was near to die with fearfulness.It means that Saifi’s nightmares shifted towards me.”

After 3 days same nightmare recurred but this time I was in a jungle cafe, sitting before an old man in blue dinner suit, his one eye was hurt.Old man told me;

“This was the land of my forefathers,my father was a soldier and martyred in a war .I bacame the owner of all his worth.My son and his wife Sophie were very greedy,when I refused to give them my property,Sophie left my son.But my son was not a gentleman,he had all the bad habits of his time.I had an ambition to make a cafe in the centre of the woods for the visitors and travelllers .One day my son fought badly with me ,he was drunk also, he threw a metal piece that hit my eye.I pushed him back and he fell downstairs”.

“Then old man told me that he made all the cafe alone and was running it alone without any helper.I asked the old man his name ,he told that his name was Saifi.I was surprised ,he went inside and never came again.When I awoke at 3.00 A.M ,said brown beard man , my heart was coming out of my breast, recurring of Saifi’s nightmares was sickening.I was so scared that next day I started to explore Morris Valley and The Jungle Cafe.I couldn’t find a newborn’s grave but found this cafe.It was heiress between the woods, so I decided to live here forever ,Now I am running it”.

“But sir,Ali asked him, you did not tell us your name”?

oh, the brown beard man smiled ,paused a little, “my good name us Saifi,” he said and went inside.

Suddenly, the black clouds disappeared, rain stopped and weather became clear and pleasant, we came back in a dilemma.That story left a great impact on us ,sometimes I become confused between reality and Saifi’s nightmares.

Thirty years have passed but all those memories revolve around my mind; the one eyed old man ,Morris Valley, brown beard man, little grave, and Saifie’s nightmares.For many times I tried to find out Morris Valley and The Jungle Cafe but could not.

Even I had no connection with Ali and Ramiz .Oh, one thing I forgot, I did not tell the readers my name, my name is Saifi……….

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