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Bats that have Human Faces

by Dincy Mariyam
(Bengaluru, India)

His wife, wearing an old sari, her hair tied in a bun and a few strands hanging loose on her troubled face, came running to the living room completely vexed. She looked way older for a person who has seen only 30 years of life. He, in his early forty’s, was reading the newspaper while sipping in a hot cup of coffee. There wasn’t anything worth reading, sensational news than sensitive news. His wife said, ‘A Bat has entered the kitchen from nowhere and it is troubling me. Please do something about it!’ He wondered ‘from nowhere how is that possible?’


He got up from the sofa and walked towards the kitchen with his wife following. The kitchen was a perfect mess. He couldn’t find the Bat. Then suddenly something fast and black flew over him. His wife started running behind it with a broom in hand trying to hit it. He caught hold of a stick from the corner of the store room and started running behind the bat. The bat put up a good fight for an hour and a half and was finally chased out through the kitchen ventilator. They were really tired. His wife went to get the jug of water.

He returned back to the living room and sat in the sofa, tired. He remembered the lines in an interesting article that he read in a fortnightly magazine, "…..If Bats had human faces then they would have been the most interesting mammals to study…….” He looked at his black long coat that was hanging
and thought, 'Who said there are no Bats with human faces. I think the author forgot about the Bats in the law courts’ and laughed to himself.

The bat became a regular menace at nights when his wife was working in the kitchen. She tried to trace its path and came up with unique ways everyday to chase the bat away, but her attempts always went down the drain.

One morning his wife came running to the bedroom where her husband was sleeping and woke him up. Her face was brighter than the sun, whose rays lit up the room. She said, still panting, ‘you should come…outside…there is…just come! She held his wrist and almost dragged her husband who was still yawning and went to the backyard and excitedly pointed at the electric line on the other side of the road. There was a dead Bat that was hanging on it. His wife said, ‘it’s that troublesome Bat.’ He was surprised, ‘but how do you know it’s the same Bat that troubled you? It can be any of the other bats around here.’ His wife disagreed, ‘I’m sure that this is the same Bat. Look at his wicked face.’ but he couldn’t find any wickedness on its face. He walked back leaving behind his wife who was still staring at the dead creature.


After a week he realized that his wife was right about the Bat because it had never troubled them thereafter. A month later, one fine evening his wife came running to him screaming, ‘THE BAT IS BACK!!!!’
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