ROLE REVERSAL

           Dolores was rudely shaken out of her pleasant reminiscence by a volley of barks from outside, which were partially mute owing to the buzzing rain. It was followed by a mournful howl that died down as suddenly as it had started.

           Dolores did not move, straining her ears to verify if what she had heard was for real. Her perseverance was rewarded by another protracted howl, which by her peculiar notion, sounded closer than earlier.

           Are there any wolves near this place? she wondered. She did not remember seeing any hills or mountainous terrains on her arrival three days back. Though she had spied, or so she thought, a forest towards the north, beyond the fields.

           The howling was insistent this time and definitely much closer. Dolores could feel the increasing thumps of her heart. Minuscule goosebumps popped all over her body. She shivered, and then cursed the old heater.

           She pulled her comforter off and slid her feet into her slippers. She walked to the window and tried to look out through it, but the glass had completely misted over as if some chronic smoker had taken a deep swig on his disgusting stub of tobacco and had emptied the entire smoky contents of his lungs onto the window panes. She pressed her hand against the pane to stop the rattling. Then she hoisted up the window and craned her neck to look out.

            The screaming and shrieking wind almost knocked her over and the chilly rain swathed her face. Wiping off the excess water from her face, she peered down into the backyard.

            The heavens chose that precise moment to take a celestial photograph, the lightning blazing across the sky to illuminate everything under the tumultuous sky.

            Dolores glimpsed someone....... or something standing in the backyard near the flowerbeds. She strained her eyes to see better through the succeeding darkness after the lightning.

            The lightning obliged her and this time she made out the features of a teen-aged boy, almost her age, standing silently, his rain-soaked head turned up in her direction.

            "Hey, who are you?" shouted Dolores, trying to make herself heard over the din created by the wind.

            The boy kept staring, offering no reply.

            "You shouldn't be standing out there in this rain. You'll fall ill," she continued loudly, wondering simultaneously whether she sounded like her mother and what the hell was the guy doing in their backyard at that unearthly hour.

            "Go home, do you hear me?"

            The boy's obstinate silence persisted.

            Dolores listened for sounds from within her house. There were none. She wanted to go out and ask the boy why he was out there in this storm and not in the comfort of his own bed. It struck her that perhaps he needed help- some seriously sick relative at home or maybe someone had met with an accident in that inclement weather. She wanted to help him if she could.

            Her parents appeared to be in deep slumber and she did not want to wake them unless it was required. She would have gone out the front door but the hallway outside the first floor bedrooms had some particularly nasty creaking floorboards that could wake up even a comatose patient, and she was yet to work out a combination that would allow her to navigate the tricky floorboards without making noise.