Mystery & Suspense - Daily Short Stories

His Dead Wife's Photograph - S Mukerji

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Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 16 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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It appeared in the papers and many big physicists and natural philosophers were, at least so they thought, able to explain the phenomenon. I shall narrate the event and also tell the reader what explanation was given and let him draw his own conclusions. This is what happened. A friend of mine, a clerk in the same office as myself, was an amateur photographer. Let us call him Jones. Jones had a half-plate Sanderson camera with a Ross lens and a Thornton Picard behind lens shutter with pneumatic release. The plate in question was a ratons ordinary, developed with Ilford Pirosota developer prepared at home. All these particulars I give for the benefit of the more technical reader. Mr. Smith, another clerk in our office, invited Mr. Jones to take a likeness of his wife and sister-in-law. This sister-in-law was the wife of Mr. Smith's elder brother, who was also a government servant that on leave. The idea of the photograph was of the sister-in-law. Jones was a keen photographer himself. He had photographed everybody in the office, including the peons and sweepers, and had even supplied every sitter of his with copies of his handiwork. So he most willingly consented and anxiously awaited for the Sunday on which the photograph was to be taken. Early on Sunday morning, Jones went to the Smiths. The arrangement of light in the veranda was such that a photograph could only be taken after midday, and so he stayed there to breakfast. At about one in the afternoon, all arrangements were complete, and the two ladies, Mrs. Smiths, were made to sit in two cane chairs, and after long and careful focusing and moving the camera about for an hour, Jones was satisfied at last, and an exposure was made. Jones was sure that the plate was all right, and so a second plate was not exposed, although in the usual course of things, this should have been done. He wrapped up his things and went home, promising to develop the plate the same night, and bring a copy of the photograph the next day to the office. The next day, which was a Monday, Jones came to the office very early, and I was the first person to meet him. "Well, Mr. photographer," I asked, "what success?" "I got the picture all right," said Jones, unwrapping an unmounted picture and handing it over to me. "Most funny, don't you think so?" "No, I don't. I think it is all right. At any rate, I did not expect anything better from you," I said. "No," said Jones. "The funny thing is that only two ladies sat. Quite right," I said. The third stood in the middle. "There was no third lady at all there," said Jones. "Then you imagined she was there, and there we find her." "I tell you, there were only two ladies there when I exposed," insisted Jones. He was looking awfully worried. "Do you want me to believe that there were only two persons when the plate was exposed, and then three when it was developed?" I asked. "That is exactly what has happened," said Jones. "Then it must be the most wonderful developer you used, or was it that this was the second exposure given to the same plate? The developer is the one which I have been using for the last three years, and the plate, the one I charged on Saturday night out of a new box that I purchased only in the afternoon that day. A number of other clerks had come up in the meantime, and were taking great interest in the picture and in Jones' assertion. It is only right that a description of the picture be given here for the benefit of the reader. I wish I could reproduce the original picture, too. But that, for certain reasons, is impossible. When the plate was actually exposed to there were only two ladies, both of whom were sitting in cane chairs. When the plate was developed, it was found that there was, in the picture, a figure that of a lady standing in the middle. She wore a broad-edged doughty. The reader should not forget that all the characters are Indians. Only the upper half of her body was visible, the lower being concealed from view by the low backs of the cane chairs. She was evidently behind the chairs and consequently slightly out of focus. Still, everything was quite clear. Even her long necklace was visible, through the little opening in the doughty near the right shoulder. She was resting her hands on the backs of the chairs, and the fingers were nearly totally out of focus, but a ring on the right-ring finger was distinctly visible. She looked like a handsome young woman of 22, short and thin. One of the earrings was also clearly discernible, although the face itself was slightly out of focus. One thing, and probably the funniest thing, that we overlooked then, but observed afterwards, that immediately behind the three ladies was a barred window. The two ladies, who were one on each side, covered up the bars to a certain height from the bottom with their bodies. But the lady in the middle was partly transparent, because the bars of the window were very faintly distinguishable through her. This fact, however, as I have said already, we did not observe them. We only laughed at Jones, and tried to assure him that he was either drunk or asleep. At this moment, Smith of our office walked in, removing the trouser clips from his legs. Smith took the unmounted photograph, looked at it for a minute, turned red and blue and green, and finally very pale. Of course, we asked him what the matter was, and this is what he said. The third lady in the middle was my first wife, who has been dead these eight years. Before her death, she asked me a number of times to have her photograph taken. She used to say that she had a presentiment that she might die early. I did not believe in her presentiment myself, but I did not object to the photograph. So one day, I ordered a carriage and asked her to dress up. We intended to go to a good professional. She dressed up, and the carriage was ready, but as we were going to start, news reached us, that her mother was dangerously ill. So we went to see her mother instead. The mother was very ill, and I had to leave her there. Immediately afterwards, I was sent away on duty to another station, and so could not bring her back. It was in fact after full three months and a half that I returned, and then, though her mother was all right, my wife was not. Within 15 days of my return, she died of purple fever after childbirth, and the child died too. Thus it happened that her photograph was never taken. When she dressed up for the last time on the day that she left my home, she had the necklace and the earrings on, as you see her wearing them in the photograph. My present wife has them now, but she has not generally put them on. This was too big a pill for me to swallow. So I at once took French leave from my office, bagged to the photograph, and rushed out on my bicycle. I went to Mr. Smith's house and looked Mrs. Smith up. Of course, she was much astonished to see a third lady in the picture, but could not guess who she was. This I had expected as supposing Smith's story to be true. This lady had never seen her husband's first wife. The elder brother's wife, however, recognized the likeness at once, and she virtually repeated the story which Smith had told us in the morning. She even brought out the necklace and the earrings for my inspection and conviction. They were the same as those in the photograph. All the principal newspapers of that time got hold of the fact, and within a week, there was any number of applications for the ghostly photograph. But Mr. Jones refused to supply copies of it to anybody for various reasons, the principal being that Smith would not allow it. I am, however, the fortunate possessor of a copy, which for obvious reasons, I am not allowed to show anybody. One copy of the picture was sent to America, and another to England. I do not now remember exactly to whom. My own copy I showed to the Reverend Father Blank, MA, DSC, BD, etc., and asked him to find out the scientific explanation of the phenomenon. The following explanation was given by the gentleman. I am afraid I shall not be able to reproduce the learned father's exact words, but this is what he meant, or at least what I understood him to mean. The girl in question was dressed in this particular way on an occasion, say, 10 years ago. Her image was cast on space, and the reflection was projected from one luminous body, one planet, on another till it made a circuit of millions and millions of miles in space, and then came back to earth at the exact moment when your friend Mr. Jones was going to make the exposure. Take, for instance, the case of a man who is taking the photograph of a mirage. He is photographing place X from place Y, when X and Y are, say, 200 miles apart, and it may be that his camera is facing east, while place X is actually towards the west of place Y. At school, I had read a little of science and chemistry and could make a dry analysis of assault, but this was an item two abstruse from my limited comprehension. The fact, however, remains, and I believe it, that Smith's first wife did come back to this terrestrial globe of ours over eight years after her death, to give a sitting for a photograph in a form which, though it did not affect the retina of our eye, did impress a sensitized plate, in a form that did not affect the retina of the eye, I say, because Jones must have been looking at his sitters at the time when he was pressing the bulb of the pneumatic release of his time and instantaneous shutter. The story is most wonderful, but this is exactly what happened. Smith says this is the first time he is ever seen or heard from his dead wife. It is popularly believed in India that a dead wife gives a lot of trouble if she ever revisits this earth, but this is, thank God, not the experience of my friend, Mr. Smith. It is now over seven years since the event mentioned above happened, and the dead girl has never appeared again. I would very much like to have a photograph of the two ladies taken once more, but I have never ventured to approach Smith with the proposal. In fact, I learned photography myself with a view to take the photograph of the two ladies, but as I have said, I have never been able to speak to Smith about my intention and probably never shall. The 10 pounds that I spent on my cheap photographic outfit may be a waste, but I have learnt an art which, though rather costly for my limited means, is nevertheless worth learning, being closely allied to the art that can immortalize the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. End of the dead wife's photograph. Ready for an audio experience like no other? Dive into the world of infinite sounds with crystal-clear high fidelity, only on Saul Good Media. Visit SaulGoodMedia.com today and start exploring the boundless universe of sounds that will soothe, inspire, and revitalize your senses. 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