The Snake

"How long have you been having this dream?" The doctor asked.

"About a month." Priya replied.

Priya was in her mid-twenties and beautiful. She had been married to Prayag for a year and they were a happy couple. Nearly a month back Priya had woken up to a nightmare and turned over to sleep again. But she had the same dream the next day and the next. This continued for a month and she couldn't take it any longer. She had to see the doctor. The psychiatrist, Ms. Anu Jain, had been her best friend in college.

"Do you remember it?" Anu asked.

"I remember every detail of it. I dream it every night." Priya said with a hint of irritation in her voice.

"What happens?"

"Well I wake up-" Priya started but was cut-in by Anu.

"Not that. What happens in the dream?"

"I am telling you exactly that. I dream that I am asleep. It is detailed; while I sleep in my dream, I am wearing the exact same thing I wear to bed every night. I wake up in my dream and I try to turn on the light but the switches don't work. I reach out for my phone and turn the flashlight on it but that doesn't work as well. Then I turn towards Prayag to find a snake sitting on his head. I panic and strike it with a hammer that suddenly appears in my hand. The moment I strike the snake it vanishes and Prayag dies instead."

"What happens then?"

"Well, I wake up and turn on the light."

"And the switches work?"

"Of course they do, I wake up after I kill Prayag, don't I?"

"Can you describe the snake?"

"Like any other snake. Long, brown in color and dark strips running all the way from head to tail"

"Did you talk with Prayag?"

"No. I don't know what to tell him."

"And I don't know what to tell you. Recurring dreams are common. They symbolise something that you want done, something you have a strong will to do but cannot. They symbolise unresolved conflict of your subconscious. But I haven't heard of anything like this."

"What do you mean unresolved conflict? What am I supposed to do, kill Prayag?"

"I don't mean that."

"You better mean something Anu. I'm tired of this."

"Listen Priya. This is not a textbook case. I'll have to do my research. Do one thing, change your sleeping place."

"How am I supposed to do that? You know how Prayag is; you know what he will think."

"Go to your mother's place for a few days."

"Good idea. I'll say she is ill, he cannot deny that. Besides, he approves of my mother."

"Great. I'll contact some of the best brains in this field, see if they can help."

Priya called her mother first thing when she got back home. She didn't tell her the reason or the duration of her stay and was glad her mother hadn't asked anything either. Priya, however, knew that her mother had sensed it, over the phone, that she was troubled. Before hanging up the phone her mother had said that she would be ready to receive her any time.

Prayag came home on his usual time in the evening with a box of chocolates in his hands.

"You aren't ready?" Prayag asked. He was clearly shocked to see Priya in her ordniary clothes.

"Ready? For what?" Priya asked confused.

"We had this planned a week earlier. It is our anniversary, you forgot?" Prayag asked again, clearly disappointed.

"Oh! I am so sorry. I'll get ready in a moment." Priya said apologetically.

Prayag and Priya's marriage was a traditional one. Their families had met before them. When Priya had first met Prayag, she had assumed him to be a great man and her expectations were not marred. He was indeed a great human being. He had a respectable bank job and was good towards everyone, superior of inferior. Priya was happy to have a husband like him. She was not happy, however, for one thing. Six months back, Priya had conceived a baby and miscarried it in the second month of pregnancy. Prayag never complained about it and rebuked her mother-in-law when once she had blamed it on Priya. Prayag even got an apartment for them. Priya’s respect for his husband had increased multifold.

Their anniversary dinner was quiet and not quite enjoyable. Prayag was his usual loving self but it was Priya who was not in a good mood. Prayag had sensed it even though Priya had denied of being in any trouble. Priya however had seized her chance. She told him that her mother was not keeping well and that she needed to visit her. Prayag agreed readily and was relieved to know the root of her dilemma.

After a dreadful night of the same nightmare, Priya left for her mother’s house early in the morning. Prayag had dropped her to the bus station.

Her stay at her mother’s house was elaborately long. Anu had not come up with a solution yet and the nightmares had still not stopped even at her mother’s house. After nearly a month and a half, Priya could not hold her pretext of being at her mother’s house any longer. She returned with Prayag who had come to see how her mother was doing. Priya met Anu on the very next day of her return.

“You have to do something. I will go mad if this continues.” Priya said not holding any emotion. She was angry and yet tears were running down her cheeks.

“I don’t know what will treat you Priya but you have to get away from Prayag.” Anu said, she saw the expression on Priya’s face and continued, “I know he is a great husband but I think it is something related to your first pregnancy. You have to divorce him.”

“I cannot do that Anu. What reason will I give?”

“Think of something, you need to get rid of your married life.”

“Anu, this is not a solution.”

“Priya, understand this, I contacted some people. What they told me was very upsetting. I cannot tell you everything. I know you will not believe me. Staying away from Prayag won’t work as long as you know you have to go back to him. You have to leave him once and for all.”

“You are insane.”

“You may call me that but I talk in your best interests.”

The meeting had not turned out to be in favour of Priya. By the end of it, Priya had fought with Anu and was decided that she would not consult her ever again.

Prayag was concerned. He tried to talk to her when he got back home but Priya said nothing. Before going to bed, they made love out of habit. Priya was hardly asleep when she dreamed it again. She woke up with a start, sweat running down her forehead. She reached for the light switch beside the bed and flipped it on. To her shock, the lights didn’t turn on. She reached for her phone on the bed side table and long pressed the short-cut button for flashlight, that didn’t work either. Was she dreaming? She looked at her husband and was terrified once again. A vicious, brown snake was sitting on top his face, poised to attack her. She looked around and found a hammer lying next to the table. She picked it up and struck the snake. It didn’t vanish. She kept on striking it with the hammer for several minutes. Blood splattered all across her face and Prayag’s face was beaten to pulp.

Next day, the newspaper bore the headlines of the murder of a husband by his wife and that the wife was jailed. The dream, however, had stopped.