The Child's Story: Once... Upon a Time in the Dark

"Ni'mat" is a keenly intelligent girl, diligent at her lessons and bold; nothing is too hard for her — except that she is afraid of the dark!

In the dark a fear comes over her whose source she does not know; it grows stronger little by little until it overcomes her.

Tonight is the first time "Ni'mat" has stayed home alone. Her family is late coming back to the house.

"No — they won't be much longer now," and she goes back to her lessons.

Suddenly she turns toward the wardrobe: what is that sound? She heard a rattling coming from the direction of the wardrobe, as if something had stirred inside it, then gone still. But she calms her alarm: most likely it is just the wood creaking, a small matter — and she goes back to her book. But what is that, there, in the glass? She caught sight of it as she turned back to her book — something black, moving! How dreadful! A thousand terrifying thoughts pass through her imagination in a single instant while she sits with bowed head, staring at the book and seeing nothing. She would like to look long and carefully into the glass, but her heart is pounding hard. Could it be a devil like the one her brother Adel described yesterday while he was doing his tricks with playing cards, saying it was the devil who changed the card? Could it be from the world of the jinn? And why did it move like that in the glass?

Then she turned slowly toward the glass and peered into it — and found, to her astonishment, that it was her own reflection, which she had seen move as she turned! And what had made the image more dreadful and darker was the small light. She got up then and lit the big chandelier, and her reflection appeared in the glass, faint — she had never noticed it before. Then she laughed at herself, though her nerves were still on edge, and she resolved that from now on she would fear nothing until she first knew what it was.

Just then the bell rang, and she ran to open the door. Her mother had come, with her brother and the maid. She sighed, and her heart was at ease. A heavy weight had lifted from her breast.

When her mother saw the great chandelier lit and sparkling, she asked in surprise:

— Why have you turned on all these lights?

Ni'mat did not answer, and Adel got in ahead of her, laughing mockingly:

— She's afraid of the dark.

Ni'mat blushed red with shame and cursed this fear of hers. A little later Adel set about his lessons and sat down at the table to write his exercises — he was late in starting them. In the kitchen the maid was preparing supper, and the clatter of pots and the sounds of dishes reached them. Everything as usual. Then Ni'mat took up her books and began to study, her mind now entirely at rest.

After a while she needed the dictionary and could not find it near her, so she asked Adel:

— Where is the dictionary?
— In the room...

The room is far away and dark; she must go to it — and if she does not go, Adel will jeer at her, and she hates that more than anything. But suddenly she remembers that the electric light from the street always shines into that room, drawing on the floor a rectangle of light framed by the bars of the window; and besides, the electric light will come on the moment she reaches the room.

So she walked quickly toward the room. And when she reached its door and saw the square of light on the floor, her heart settled and she felt safe; she walked toward the electric switch and stretched out her hand, feeling for it. At that very instant the square of light coming from the window vanished. How dreadful! What had happened? But she completed her movement mechanically, her heart beating fast: she turned the switch — no light came. She turned it again and again — no light! The electric current had failed in the house as in the street.

She looked around her in terror and saw dim shapes moving and trembling, and colored circles swimming in the darkness. She knows that all this is an illusion that always appears in the dark — but what is that she sees over there? A tall white specter! There flashes through her imagination, like lightning, what she once read about tormented spirits that appear to the living in the form of white phantoms.

Terror all but chokes her — but she will not scream, for Adel would hear her. What is to be done? And just then she felt something leap close beside her; she nearly shrieked with horror and began to run blindly ahead like a madwoman; her foot caught on something and she fell to the floor — and at that moment the room suddenly blazed with light.

Ni'mat got up from the floor, her eyes brimming with tears, then looked around her. The light had come on by itself, because she had turned the switch while the current was cut off.

Ah! That tormented spirit was a white nightgown hanging on the rack. And there was the cat that had leapt close beside her, now sauntering at its leisure along the table! Ni'mat sat down on the chair, truly worn out. What a coward she was! — but she had managed not to scream.

And from that night on, whenever Ni'mat was afraid of the dark, she remembered the white tormented spirit — and laughed at herself, long and loud.