A young Muslim woman from Bangladesh told a story on the Internet about a decade ago describing her friendship with an unusual roommate at the University of Dhaka, a girl named Lucy who she firmly believed was a jinn.
The young woman moved into Rokeya Hall on the university campus in August 1995. She soon learned she had a roommate.
‘To my youthful and curious eyes, everything seemed to be beautiful; everything seemed novel and colourful,’ she said. ‘My room number was 247 and in my room I met another girl named Lucy, who was extraordinarily beautiful.’
Lucy’s bright eyes and dazzling smile confused her somewhat. The roommate had a dimple and a mole on her left cheek, long dark hair and a tall, slim figure. ‘With her unparalleled beauty, she appeared before me as though she were a fairy who had just arrived on land from the sky.’ Within a few days, she came to know Lucy’s ‘exceptional goodness of mind and amiable character’. She said, ‘I could not but love
her and I am sure that she loved me the same.’
In time they became very close friends, confiding in each other and sharing good times and bad over the months ahead. ‘Sometimes, however, some of her activities or behaviour seemed unusual to me,’ the young woman said. ‘For instance, Lucy was amiable to me but not to everybody. She would not try to please every girl, which led others to deem her to be vain. Moreover, she would sometimes perform a task so quickly it seemed impossible to me, and I could not but wonder at her and praise her. The more I saw her, the more I loved her.’
As a token of her love for Lucy, she decided to give her a pearl necklace – which she bought at Cox’s Bazaar, the world’s longest sea beach, situated south of Chittagong – on her birthday, December 13.
On December 11, at 11 p.m., Lucy went to meet a friend in the same dormitory, promising to return soon. ‘She was late, however, and a cold wind entering through the open door was making me shiver. So I decided to lock the door, thinking that I would open it when Lucy would knock.’ She began reading a novel, and soon grew drowsy and fell asleep. When she awoke in the morning, to her great surprise she found Lucy lying on her bed. ‘When I asked about the door, she informed me that it had not been locked. It seemed unbelievable to me, as I could clearly remember that I had locked the door.’
Lucy was critical: ‘Certainly, you are not thinking that a spirit has opened the door for me, are you?’
‘Certainly not,’ she replied, and added in a joking way, ‘A brave person like me would never think in such a foolish manner.’
She tried to remain logical, in an effort to find an explanation. She decided that perhaps she had imagined locking the door and had never truly done so.
The next day was Lucy’s birthday. The plan was to wish her a happy birthday at 12:01 a.m. on December 13. ‘At night, I tried to keep her awake until 12:01 a.m. by telling her funny stories.’ When it was midnight, Lucy felt tired and wanted to go to sleep. Before going to bed, she sat down at the dressing table to untie her ribbon and brush her hair.
‘At 12:01 according to my plan, I placed the pearl necklace around her neck while standing behind her and wishing her a happy birthday. I looked at the mirror to see how she looked. To my horror, I saw in the mirror that there was no reflection of Lucy, but the necklace was just hanging before me.’ Terrified, she screamed and fainted.
When she regained consciousness, she found herself surrounded by a crowd of girls. As she opened her eyes, she was subjected to a flood of questions about what had happened. She kept silent and looked aroundfor Lucy but did not see her anywhere.
Lucy was never seen again. ‘I told them what had happened. Though at first they thought that I was nuts, they believed it later, as Lucy was found no more. Everybody became afraid of coming to my room, number 247.’
The girl fell ill soon afterwards and went to her parents’ home for a while, leaving the dormitory temporarily. Her nervousness gradually eased and when exam time drew near, she returned to her dormitory.
‘In my room I felt very lonely and began to recall the memories of the happy days I had passed with Lucy. She had been an excellent girl with whom I spent most of my time. I could not forget my kind friend Lucy.’
The other girls told her that sometimes one of the jinn decides to study at the university in the shape of a human being and perhaps Lucy was a jinn. ‘But I wondered if Lucy had been a jinniya, why she would use mirror? That a jinni does not need mirror was common knowledge. I understood that Lucy would try to pretend to be a human being only to carry on her study. I felt pity for her that she could read no more. I realised that only my silly behaviour compelled her to stop her study. I felt guilty.’
At that moment, the dorm supervisor arrived at her room with a new roommate for her, named Mini, who was also a peerless beauty. Her face was different from Lucy’s but just as lovely. ‘When I stood up to welcome her, she glanced at me with a smiling face and I noticed she had a dimple and a mole on the left of her cheek. The glance she glanced and the smile she gave me were very familiar to me, though I had never met her before.’
[Robert Lebling] Legends of the fire Spirits – Jinn and genies from Arabia to Zanzibar
In Mundo sed non de Mundo 