14. Summary

The wild wind pushes open windows, chokes chimneys, and blows away clothes as it huffs and puffs over the village by an eerie hill, where Usha, Suresh, and Binya live. It was even more ferocious the day Usha is on her way back from the bazaar. A deep boom echoes down the slope and a sudden flash of lightning lights up the valley as fat drops come raining down.

 

In search of shelter, Usha rushes into the devastated place on Haunted Hill, fierce and creepy against the dark sky. Inside, the tin roof creaks, strange shadows are thrown against the walls, and little Usha trembles with fear, for she was not alone.
 
On a haunted hill, swept by howling winds blowing down from the Himalayan snows, stands the ruins of a deserted house. The residents, including two children, had been killed when a bolt of lightning struck the house years ago. An \(11\)-year-old girl has to take shelter at the ruins, caught in a downpour on her way back from the bazaar. As the afternoon dwindles into the evening, the two young children, a boy and a girl are set out in the rain to look for his elder sister. Usha doesn’t know that her younger brother and her neighbour are at the ruins.  The children try not to be alarmed by the howl of the wind. The screech of the oak and plum has spread roots at the ruins. Sounds made by a wild cat and an owl that has also moved into the dangerous structure also scared them. Then as lightning occasionally lights up the dark interiors of the ruins, the children see ghostly figures of other children. Do they see each other, or do they have company?