Floating into my Memory -2

  A Mysterious Woman on the River Bank

I was twelve years old. It was afternoon on 15th , 1988 . The sky was blue after the morning rain and the flowing river echoing with a musical chime. Birds were flying back and forth of their nest, and crickets were quite. School was off due to the rainy season for two months with plenty of homework.We had no privilege playing all day and watching cartoons on the TV. My dad was strict person who always focused on the works to be done on time. He used to divide works among the family members so that everyone would go to work without any excuse. Those who refused would be punished.
I was assigned to look after goats. We had twenty goats including baby goats. I put some roasted popcorn in my short’s pocket, grabbed a Nepali book and copy to do homework and went to the forest grazing the goats. The forest with pasture was not far from home. It was just opposite of my home. I left the goats free in the forest and sat under a tree to do my homework. I used to look into the forest in every fifteen minutes to make sure the goats were there. Among them there were two goats which always sneaked unto the fenced area. They used to go to the field and eat the crops and vegetables.
After I finished I went down the forest and started counting the goats.  There were two missing. Those which were missing had been named’ chor bakhra’ since they sneaked into the field. I knew where they had gone. So, I went towards the field of peas and and other crops. They were at the middle of the ‘ Kaulako rukh ko  paato.’ As soon as they saw me they jumped into 'Kimmu Kafal ko paato'. I chased  them off the field. Soon they mingled in the flock. Then I took them up to the top of the Tirtire Danda. When I chased the goats towards home, I saw an image at the bottom of corn field in a white dress. It looked like woman with long hair unto to waist. At that time, mom was only in the house and others were working in Upallo Bari. I thought’ who it could be? Is somebody stealing our grass? I walked down the hill little to see the woman clearly. Now she was invisible. I thought she was hiding in the bamboo trees. I waited for two minutes before giving a shout. But what I saw after that shocked  me. She came out of the bamboo trees like she was floating in the air. From top to bottom was white. She wasn’t carrying anything. She walked towards the cliff and disappeared.
I chased the goats home , and told the incident to my mom. She said that it was a ghost called ‘kitchkeni.’ She asked me if I was scared of it. I said,’no, I was thinking someone was stealing our grass. But she had no sickle or the rope. She looked like floating in the air. Then finally disappeared in the cliff. She said, ‘ go and take a rest. If you were scared, you could be sick. I will tie some ‘ dhaja’ to the evil spirits. You should be all right.’
Next day I had fever and dizziness. Mom said,’ you are under the influence of spirits ( masanle chhalyo). A village priest (lama) was summoned. He offered a black ‘dhajas’ and a black to the evil sprit (masan). He cooked the cock’s mean with had a feast. After a few days I was healed.