[#11] The Purpose
A tale told by Apurva Chawla
The story begins at The Haveli.
Everybody was stunned and looked at Raghav with blank faces, trying very hard to understand whatever Ramu had just said. Saafiya was pretty sure she had heard him correctly when he said ‘our time’ but didn’t want to believe him. She looked at Raghav with pleading eyes to provide a reasonable, believable explanation. Raghav just kept looking at Ramu. He looked horrified.
“I know who you are, Ryu. I knew we would be meeting in this time”, Ramu said.
“How do you know me?”, Raghav asked him. He was too shocked and horrified to look at his friends who could not understand what was happening.
“I don’t think your friends will understand this but you will. You don’t know it but I was aware that you would be coming to this time even before you did. I was contacted by Leah, then chief scientist at her grandfather’s lab. She told me that they would be sending you to this time because they wanted you to get close to her family for a purpose.” Ramu turned his eyes towards Saafiya.
Saafiya had lost the ability to comprehend. In one day, her life had changed so much. His best friend, whom she trusted blindly for everything, was with her on a mission! She lost her control and cried. She cried like she did when she heard about her grandparents’ demise. Only difference being that this time the person was standing alive before her, yet so far from her.
Raghav saw her crying and couldn’t stop himself from saying, “I am sorry, Saafi.” He had tears in his eyes too. Ananya and Shreyansh looked at everything happening with baffled eyes.
He continued, “I could not tell all this to you. Yes, I came here with a purpose but every happy moment I shared with you has been real. I spent my youth here in this time, with you guys!”
“Stay away from me, Ryu!”, Saafiya shouted at him when he tried coming closer to comfort her.
“I want to know why did my grandparents never go back to their time. Why did they stay here for so long. Why are you here? When Ryu can come to this time, you could have gone back too. Just tell me everything please.” She pleaded to Ramu.
“Saafiya, I want to tell you everything. You are the grand daughter of a great man. A man who is my idol, my God.
“It took us years to find out where exactly and to what time our greatest lab chief, your grandfather had time traveled to. Candles were in testing phase when he did so. Before the technology could be revealed to our world, he tested it and got stuck here. Many years later when we found out, I decided to come here to take them back.
“When I came here and found them, I saw that they had already started a life here. In all those years, they had changed the village completely. After the Candlelight days ended, he tried fixing the candle and tested it by sending a few rich people to a different time that they desired. He succeeded too but years later. Your Momo had already given birth to your father and she did not want to go back to her time. She forced your grandfather to stay here till their last breath. She liked it here. She had seen the future and with all the technological advancements, the future is not as safe as this time is. She wanted to raise your father in this time.
“Slowly, the village’s conditions had improved and people from other villages had settled down here. When I found them, they asked me to go back because they were happy.
“If there is one person who had been my greatest inspiration, my idol, it was your grandfather, Saafiya. I could not leave them. I wanted to stay with that great man and serve him. And so I did. As stupid as it may sound, I could not leave the chance to serve my God.
“It was many years later, when you were in middle school, that Leah came to this time and questioned me. They wanted to know all about your family. Your grandparents were in Delhi at that time. They wanted me to do what they later sent Ryu here for. I straightaway denied them and pleaded them to not do it. They said they would be sending Ryu to do this and that I should help him come closer to your family. The future isn’t a good time, my child. They have a lot more power than we do in this time. They did not listen to me and instead gave me a broken leg to live with. They threatened me to not come in the way of Ryu’s purpose ever.”
“What was your purpose, Ryu?” Saafiya asked Raghav with a sarcastic tone.
Raghav knew he had no option other than telling her all the truth. He closed his eyes for a moment and mustered all his courage to tell her what had been buried in his mind for years.
“To kill your father” he said.
The story continues:
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