Evading sleep my drooping eyes are managing to see blurred words. My mind, determined to finish the last few pages of the book, urges, goads and sometimes forces them to see.
The eyes are compelled to reread full paragraphs again if unable to communicate clearly.
It is quite late after dinner. The book is "How to improve eyesight".
There is a knock on the door. The room is dark except around the table-lamp.
Before I could reach, the door opens—a stranger greets me, with a grin made out of overlapping long teeth. I felt his mind and body did not participate in this act.
"I have been watching you from the wrong side of the peep-hole—I have reverse perspective vision."
A stranger-guest at this odd hour. My irritation might have been apparent, but my tolerance invited him. "Please come in."—"You want it otherwise. Don’t you? "—I hate myself. I have reflected my irritation. I bypass his remarks. —"You are welcome." The stranger-guest comes in and seats himself in the chair with the straight back. It is the darkest corner in the room. I sit opposite him. "I have reverse perspective vision—" —my mind begins to ponder, casually. My eyes unwillingly grasp the guest. He is dressed just like anybody. How can it be? " I am amused—farther objects are bigger than the objects near to him. The same grin is now reflected from his eyes. His eyes are small slits and are set at the far end of two black holes. Now he smiles through his black protruding curved nose and now from his black hanging ears. The stranger-guest has not spoken a word—for long—so it appears. His skin is ghostly yellow-green - it is not due to the blue light of the lamp - My eyes are now wide awake and enlarged. My mind is uneasy. I am sitting on the edge of the chair. I don’t move. I try to appear normal.
"The cockroach on the wall behind you is bigger than your are", my guest tells me in a manner as if it is a fact of life. —My eyes avoid him.—"May I prepare a cup of coffee for you?"—"I don’t drink", my guest answered. I try to behave normally.
Suddenly my eyes begin to feel that my mind is going astray. My mind feels, my eyes are faltering. The stranger-guest appears to grow smaller and the cockroach on the wall behind him, is growing bigger. My mind curses the eyes. My eyes curse the mind. The cockroach has become gigantic in size and horrid looking. My guest has become small - I feel I can hold him in my hand.
I can no longer behave normally. Panic takes hold of my mind. I am pale and perspiring. In a fit of madness, I rush to catch hold of my guest in my hands. I want to crush him. The stranger runs to the door and disappears. I am gasping and scared. I want to run away from the room. I open the door but fall unconscious. When I regain consciousness—my neighbour, his wife and the stranger guest are standing by my side. My neighbour is sympathetic and speaks - "What happened, are you alright? " I grow paler and shiver. Now I want to run into the room and shut the door from the stranger. I hear my neighbour introducing me to the stranger-guest—"He is my brother-in-law and has come to stay with us."—I feel mad and cannot speak. I dare not look at the guest. I run into the room, shut the door and bolt it.
I hear the stranger guest, behind the door—"odd behaviour". I think I became unconscious again. When I woke up I was lying on the floor. I was in hysteria and was laughing—"The stranger guest is brother-in-law of my neighbour. God bless him. He has to live with him"—I am better off.
"Do you believe it is a true story?—I don’t."