The Paper Tiger That Proved Fatal

A weird incident which science and logic could not explain, happened at Amalapuram long ago. It all happened when one of my wife’s cousins, Anil, constructed a beautiful house according to his aesthetic taste. By the time when Anil and his wife Anita moved into the new house after performing the milk warming ceremony, the couple had no children. Anil’s mother lived with her son and daughter-in-law. They began living in the house comfortably. 

  On a fateful day when the couple went out shopping at a supermarket, they chanced upon a huge paper tiger. The paper tiger was ferocious to look at with its mouth open. It was a beautiful toy with its back teeth (carnassials) which it uses to shear the meat of its prey whether human or animal. Anita let out a scream of fright when she looked at the wide open mouth of the paper  tiger. She stepped back from the toy and urged her husband to leave the mall immediately. But Anil did not move. His gaze was fixed at the frightening but enticing toy. “Dear” he said to Anita, “we’ll buy this beautiful toy.”

  “No Anil,” she retorted,” Don’t buy it. The paper tiger looks at me menacingly. Let’s leave the mall immediately.’

  Argument and counter argument followed. Anil was adamant that he would buy the toy and Anita was against his wish. Anita begged him to buy any other toy at the mall. She said that she was afraid that the toy tiger would transform itself into a live one and kill her. 

  But Anil somehow convinced her and bought the toy tiger. The manager of the mall got it packed neatly.

  The couple brought it home. The next day Anil called a carpenter and ordered a big glass case.

  When the glass case was ready in a week, Anil put the toy tiger in the case.

  Weeks passed by. Now Anil and Anita settled down in their new house along with Anil’s mother.

  On that night, Anil and Anita were sleeping in their bedroom and Anil’s mother in her separate room. 

  Suddenly the couple woke up in the middle of the night to the cries of agony of the old lady. The couple rushed into the old lady’s room and found to their horror the old lady bleeding at her throat and groaning. 

  In the matter of a few minutes, she lay motionless with her eyes wide open before she was rushed to a hospital.

  A doctor next door was informed who checked her pulse and declared that she was dead.

  Anil performed the last rites to his mother and returned home from the crematorium with a heavy heart. He sat on an easy chair and looked at the paper tiger vacantly.

  He was shocked to see blood in the mouth of the paper tiger. He got up and walked to the glass case. He opened the door of the case and touched the mouth of the paper tiger. To his horror it smelled blood.

  The sad end of the real life account was that Anil and Anita burned the paper tiger to ashes.

  Till today it is an enigma as to how it had happened. Had the paper tiger transformed itself into a live tiger, charged out of the glass case and attacked the old lady fatally? But the glass case was intact with the door closed.

  Could it be a supernatural happening? Maybe!