◻Murmurs of Mirth◻

With the settling tides, I rise. With happy dawns, I shine. When the clouds of darkness surround you, I become your treasure, but why do you lose me in the array of pain?
~HAPPINESS.
__________________⚫___________________

"Ayya."

She shook his elbows with all her strength, but he sat there, akin to a sore kitten caught in its own mess.

"Ayah. Ayah!"

She waved her fingers in front of his fixated eyes, perching the sunbathing canopies sheltering their roof. To her scare, he didn't recognize anything. With no delay, she poured some water on her wrinkled palms to splash it on his face.

"What the-"

He swallowed the raw phrases as he looked at the alarming face stooping in front of him.

"Ayya! Kutty-"

He signaled her to communicate quietly by placing his index finger upon his pouted lips.

"Oh, seri, seri." She muffled her syllables one by one. Her hands counted something to show eight fingers, making him shrug his shoulders.

"Ettu. Ettu nimisham!" Her whispers made him look vague at her popping sockets as her lids repelled with her hands moving towards him.

She then hit her palm on her forehead and then showed a thumbs-up sign. Shaking them to the sides, she again showed eight fingers, making him recollect something he had forgotten with the tide of time.

Shit! Shit! Shit! How did I not track it?

He quickly gathered the scattered bundles and the slipped lighter that landed beside his foot. Arranging the leaves, he accidentally pressed the lever and ended up burning some leaves of the ferns.

Too clumsy to even do a small chore!

He muttered some profanities while his riotous thoughts oriented to light the incense. As instructed, he signaled the lady to wait outside while he held the ferns to cover the odor from the front.

"Man, this is too musty!"

Ghrook. Hrook Argrhm ahm.

Groans of cough made him compress his throat and run inside the room to execute his commitments.

Argh! Too nefarious!

He kept the bundle near his chest that tightened with not-exhaled breaths. The darkness was too hideous, but his quick-paced strides were organized. Upon his ten strides, the stench of metallic raw blood and salty sweat clouded the odd silence waddling in his nerves.

Should I...

Before he could conclude, his eyes found two arches stilled, something laid on the floor. He inclined his head to glimpse through the snaking smoke only to gawk at what his eyes saw.

Hari Hara!

His jumbled steps tripped him twice, but it couldn't stop his verve from thriving to do all his might. He knelt as he was startled by the rigidly bowed spines and sloping arms of his sister and the stranger. In a moment, he tried to flatten it with his hardened hands, rolling the incense and ferns to the sides. But to his shock, he couldn't even move them down, not even an inch.

"What the heck is happening!"

He nipped their skin and whisked them, but they lay hushed, with their chest rushing to rise and fall deeper than before.

"I should have been early! My mistake!"

Damn the doom!

His remorse made him sweat some more while his eyes ran a race negating and assuming things, litigating and probing him.

Ghrook Rook. Ahem, Ahem! This pungent-

"Maybe this is the only way."

He rolled the leaves of wavy tender ferns and stabbed the smoking incense in the middle.

Come on! This is not a big deal.

He controlled his quaking wrists with his other hand and let the vapors tease her straight but flared nostrils. Upon some specks of time, he could see her sliding down to lie flat eventually.

"Kimaya? Kimaa-"

Her tightened eyes were unlatched to reveal the snowball irises, making him jerk a foot back. He chewed down the lumps that battled in his gut when she calmed her fierce waking. Mustering courage, he crawled to the other side and let the vapors hit his groaning nose.

"Keep the calm! Keep up the calm."

He kept reciting it while twitching fingers placed the incense near his nostrils. All of a sudden, his arched back fell flat with a thud. His eyes shuttered and shuffled faster, trying to push his lids apart.

"Now, what am I-"

'Jerk, or leave.'

Those words made him shake him by his arms. With his sudden jerks, his wobbling lids are torn apart, making all his hopes pitch to fall into the pits of deepening repentance.

Huh? The same eyes!

He dropped the ferns, letting the specks of fire burn some more of the leaves. A numbing shrivel of thrill predated his curious mind.

Zombies! A new illness or an apocalypse. Shit, what am I- Arghh!

He kneaded his hair with rough grips and rested his back on the walls. His eyes glossed as he glanced at the army of ants trailing over the mud prints and blood caked on the walls. The overlapping and dragged figures explained to him what could have happened to some extent.

"Does this have no end?"

His hands ruffled to part the knotted strands as something caught his attention. He could see her right palm fleeting in the sides while the left palm of the man thrived for her hands. As he assumed, their palms laced each other. As the iffy irks poked his superficial senses, he could see the laced palms rising towards him.

Without any presumptions, he held them in his arms below his chin. Warm wet dribbles glided down his cheeks to get split on his beard. As the drops landed on the hands, a beautiful smile cradled a calming warmth on every lip.

~•🔲•🔳•🔲•~

I! I... I...

His brows knitted in the middle while his eyes felt a quivering prick behind them.

The Hridhay... Hridhayaatmak! aatmak... Mak... Mak...

He peeled his lids apart to glance at the blank white ceilings and the three-foot low polished grey veined white floors. Sliding his palms to the sides, his fingers felt soft gravel markings below that dipped with his moves.

Where am I?

"Taadaa! See who is up. Come on here. Have got something for you." His happy eyes made him roll his anxious ones.

"Seems like someone is exhausted. Mind some drink?" He uprighted two transparent glasses and opened the wrappers to pull the buttery cookies.

"Evening already?"

"Yep. You both were too tired, so I thought of not waking you up and-"

"How many Prahar- Argh! What's the time now?"

He flipped his phone to turn on the display, "It's half past four. Why any appointments or something?"

His gulping throat and distant stares made his tongue taste his lips a bit.

"Whatever it is, don't hide! Even if you don't tell me anything about it, I can understand. But before that, here you go. Aha! How good it is!" His nostrils dipped deep as he smelled the steaming jar.

"Hahaha. Trusting the ocean without knowing the depth? What if I break your hopes?"

His sunken eyes poke his caffeine, rejoicing browns.

"Aye. Aye. Haven't you been breaking my hopes already?" His blunt smashes made him scratch his innocent brows.

"Don't overthink, Jerk."

"Spidy dead, and now I'm Mr. Jerk? That's sudden, Tushant!"

"Ahaa suits wisely. Did you not tell me to 'Jerk' you whenever you feel lost? So sit over and talk. Your system needs some seriously strong caffeine."

He dragged a chair for him and then poured some hot, frothy, brewed bean drink into the glass, letting it reveal a twisted purple figure on it.

"What the hell-" He pushed the cup in a hurry.

Bursts of laughter echoed through the stripped grey-beige walls as he departed his seat away from the table.

"I know technology isn't your kind but haven't you heard of such thermal cups? How funny..." His merry chuckles faded to formal smiles that compressed his bursts into deep sighs.

"Whatever!" He sipped the drink from the cup while his irate demeanor slowly shifted to something serious.

"Tushant. Where is Kimaya?"

"Oh, she is resting in my room nearby. Should I check on her if-"

"Hmm-hmm. Needn't. She deserves the rest. It is better this way."

His sudden revelation made Tushant cough out his sips, splashing some over the table while some drops stained his vermilion t-shirt.

"Your puzzles aren't kind any day." He stroked his throat to relieve the shudders.

"Puzzles? Please be serious. We have less time, and she is so hurt." His hands cupped his temples for a brisk massage.

"So what is it that's causing her so much trouble? And here, wait a minute." Stating that he pulled out a bunch of tag files from the sides and spread them on the table.

"These are her details, and this has everything I know about her. If you would need some video records, I can help you out. I have them in the system." He sighed out the breath that he was holding unconsciously.

He lowered his cup and took some files dated fifteen to twenty years back. As his eyes read the noted symptoms and her changes, his eyes brimmed with unshed tears. Tushant's eyes studied his weakening figure that stung his heart in an unusual haze.

"What happened? I know it is quite sympathetic, but you shouldn't worry about it. After all-"

"After all these, how can I not feel worried?" His voice cracked as he began lisping between his gritted teeth.

"Tell me straight. How are you connected to all of this?" Tushant crossed his arms while his steady eyes poked his shriveling gazes hidden in the brown nutshell.

"Tell me, or should I make you-"

"It was all because of me!"

His words halted everything around. Ounces of crippling qualms clouded the air that choked in every gut.

"Haa- How?" Tushant pinched the skin on the thighs to quieten his bouncing feet.

"I'm not a mere parapsychologist like you think. But I'm not sure if you will believe anything I would have to say."

"Tell me what I must know. Some direct speech would do." His demanding gaze drew the man to the edge of his seat.

"Do you believe in stories and mythology? Epics, Vedic stuff, and parallel worlds?"

"Does that mean you are an alien from Planet F00-T?" His timid words made the man laugh past his tiring rambles.

"Hahaha. That's too dramatic, but I'm an Amara from the less-known horizons of pranpanja."

"So you are telling me you are an immortal with no name from the heavens?"

"Heavens? Maybe. And yes, we have no names. We are known by the titles that we earn with our deeds." He slid his elbow upon the table, careful enough not to shake the steaming glasses.

"So, who were you?"

He bit his lips to keep his sarcastic tone under check.

"I was the Hridhayaatmak, the knight of hearts. The one who leads the heart of every creature as per the karma nimitha of every yuga."

"They have a separate department for every organ or something? Oh, wait-" He waved his fingers in the air for some time and then began again. "Did you design my sister's heart with the wrong material or something? Does that need any repair?"

He pushed the files and scattered things from the table.

"Tushant, I know these are too much for you to bear. But the truth is, I broke the niyama and upturned the Kalachakra."

"Wait, hold on. Does that mean you made humans with not-so-proper hearts?" He tossed his hands as he furrowed his brows.

"Okay, I'm explaining it." Tapping his foot for the umpteenth time, he gave in.

"All ears to you." He grabbed a pen from the shuffled stuff.

"Like you have the stories told, there exists a court. The court of the truth, Nyay Sangh. It is governed by the principle of Thrikalyasadha, which means the past, present, and future are interrelated." He rested his elbows on his restless thighs.

"The past deeds preside over the present and decide the future." His fingers rolled the pen, pacing it with his patience.

"Indeed. By the principle, we are allowed to visit the Earth and every other world at a particular time."

"Kind of surveying to create the changes?" The pace of his fingers increased.

"Yes. The changes made are what you humans call evolution, and some believe it as the change of yugs."

"So, where did you go wrong?"

"It was my fault. I didn't wait for my turn."

"So you broke into this world?" Impatience was palpable in his words.

"In your words, yes. That had disturbed the wheel of time. Many creatures couldn't be born to wither their karma. After some time, the Kaal healed, but-"

"But the crack you left had its effect?" The clinks kept rising.

"Has it is."

The pen groaned as it fell upon the floor.

"What! A terrible crime."

"Yes, I am guilty!" His weak words made his breaths deepen while a vague ache leaped out of his head from within.

"And your punishment?" His anger-etched voice softened.

"I was banished to live on the Earth by the court of dharma. With that, my powers diminished with every year that passed."

No creation of god is perfect, then?

"What has it got to trouble my sister? She is human, right? Like me. Like my parents?" The tension was palpable in the air.

"Whenever a soul is born, it comes to earth along with its mate."

"The soulmate thing?"

"Sort of. When your sister was born, the soul twin, her purush, was affected. He couldn't survive the effect, but your sister had bound her soul to his when the Kaal denied him."

"He is the one?"

"The one visiting her all night. It's him for whom she cries and mourns."

Tushant gulped down the hot caffeine in one go and kept the pot with a loud, clear thud.

"I know an apology would do nothing much. I want to change every wrong. My regrets and hatred for me is-"

"Shush! Just hush!" He pressed his quivering lips.

"I'm sorry, Tushant! I really am."

His words couldn't reach his ears. Deafening silence clouded them for some futile minutes.

"The plan is to separate him from her. Is that all?" He ruffled his palm as his transfixed gaze demanded him.

"I have certain other plans. I can explain it. But without your help, nothing is possible." He kneaded his palms as he studied his frantic breaths.

"I don't see why I should be trusting you. After all this. Damn!" His hurried palm ruffled his messy hair. He kicked the floor, making him press his trembling lips to tolerate the niggling pain.

"Tell me this. Can you heal her?"

"I can, but I'm-"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes!"

"Then you have all my hands on one condition."

"Anything-"

"I do not want her to remember anything once it is over. Clear?"

When he could sense a nod, his hurried steps took him to the veranda. Choking queries arrested his heart for a moment. His eyes clasped as he shunned them all away while a lingering question poisoned him.

Will this be the end?

FOOTNOTE:

Ayya: Tamil word for calling a man with respect.

Seri: Tamil word for ok or fine.

Ettu: Tamil word for eight, pronounced as 'yet-to'.

Nimisham: Tamil word for a minute.

Hridhayaatmak: Sanskrit term for 'knight of the heart'.

Karma nimitha: Sanskrit word with its meaning as the rule of one's past and present deeds.

Kalachakra: Sanskrit term for 'wheel of time'.

The penultimate chapter is here! One more chapter away from the end!

Ever in your memory,
🪢..Yaris..🪢