[#16] On The Knee
A tale told by Mohit Mamoria
The story begins at The Haveli.
Ramu brought out the candle out of his pocket. Shreyansh saw it from the corner of his eyes while staying focused on the road. Saafiya, from the back seat, said, “Pass it over, kaka!”
He did as demanded.
“How do we use it?” Saafiya said to no one particular person. She said it more to herself than the two other souls sitting in the car. “It has to glow before it can be used, isn’t it?”
Shreyansh nudged Ramu to help her figure out, “Kaka… she is asking something.”
“Uh… what? Sorry I wasn’t paying attention. I was worried about your father — my God’s own son. What did you ask, Saafiya?”
“The candle has to be glowing before someone can use it, right?”
Ramu cleared his throat and said, “Well, yes and no.”
“KAKA! Focus. We all are fighting for her father’s life. This is no time to play a riddle.” The agitation was building up in Shreyansh’s voice. He was trying hard not to leave Saafiya alone on the expedition but unwanted riddles made him impatient. “We can play games when it comes to saving my life. It is her father’s turn right now!”
Hearing the words, the trance in which Saafiya was lost for last few minutes was broken. She stared blankly at him and asked, “What do you mean by ‘your turn’?”
Ramu added, “You are already safe with us, son. You’re safe with us!”
Shreyansh realized he had said something that he must hadn’t. To brush the issue aside, he said in a casual tone, “It’s nothing. It’s just a memory that is stuck in my head. When Raghav threw that ball down on floor and we got a glimpse of his thoughts. In them, one Raghav was strangling me to death.”
Saafiya kept the candle on the seat and bent forward so that her hand could reach to his shoulder. She held his shoulder tight, trying to console him, “He was never our Raghav. He was always Ryu. Nothing like that will happen. We won’t let that happen. Whatever happens, I am with you, Shrey. Always.”
Shreyansh broke his focus from the road and looked at Saafiya’s honest face. Every word that came out of her mouth felt like a promise being made to him.
Saafiya continued, “Talking of his memory… I saw something too. I saw him bending down on his knee and making a marriage proposal to Ananya. I think he was in love with her.”
“With her? I thought, he loved you. And you loved him back.”
“Us? No Shrey. I don’t know what makes you say that. But when I saw that memory of his, he had asked me to keep it a secret.”
Raghav asks to keep the secret in [Tale #17 Our Little Secret].
Listening to that, a smile prevailed on Shreyansh’s face. If anyone would have listened closely, they would have heard him making a short whistle too. But before the two drifted from the urgent matter at the hand, Ramu spoke, “Okay, enough talks for now. Shall we take a life and save another?”
Both, Saafiya and Shreyansh, were astonished by the words that Ramu chose to use. Ignoring that, they both said in unison, “YES!”
Ramu explained how the candles worked, “Okay, listen. Candles were made to be used by people with a really strong purpose. Yours is definitely a strong one. This was done so that they couldn’t be misused by random people. But because your grandfather had to send the rich people of Kibber to their desired time at their command, in this particular candle, there’s a secret button that would turn it on. Once on, it will begin to glow. It is an ironic design but when the candle glows outside, there’s a blinding darkness inside. Whoever touches the glowing part will be taken inside the candle where one can travel through time.
“Navigating through the time is simple. Just think of the time and place you want to go and you’ll be taken. Inside the candle, your mind is your only tool. Now remember what I am about to tell you. This is important.
“From inside of the candle, you can interact with the outside world too. Only a little bit. But you can. You can talk to people. You can touch things. Just like Leah contacted me years ago. Spark the candlelight from inside and do anything. You’ll understand better when you’ll try it. But if you decide to come out of the candle, you cannot go back inside without using another candle.
“Saafiya, this is your first time, we will only try first. Just go inside and then come out here only, in this time itself. We have a candle here to put you back inside again. We are just trying first. Okay?”
She nodded. Shreyansh asked her to make him a promise. She did. “I promise, Shrey. I will come back immediately and then we’ll both go to find Wes.”
Shreyansh was assured. Ramu extended his hand requesting the candle, “Give it to me. I will switch it on.”
She handed it to him. He took it and turned it upside down to locate the switch. His hands moved so swiftly as if he had done it several times before. But his face was telling a different story. He opened his mouth, “I am unable to find the switch. It was here, beneath the candle. It had always been here.”
“What do you mean, kaka?” Saafiya looked worried.
“The switch. The switch is missing”, Ramu began to panic. “This isn’t the candle that your grandfather fixed. This is fake. This is fake. THIS IS FAKE.”
Shreyansh pressed his foot on the brakes with all his might. The car stopped with great inertia. Saafiya surprisingly wasn’t panicking; she was thinking — connecting the dots.
“Turn around, Shrey. TURN AROUND. TO THE SPOT WHERE WE DROPPED OFF ANANYA.”
Without asking a question, he turned around the car. The tyres screeched. Saafiya explained, “We all are going to Delhi, right? Why did she get off the car on an unknown road? Was she so afraid of the candle? Or because she didn’t want to go back to Delhi at all. I believe, it is the latter.”
Everyone stayed shut on the way. Within minutes they reached the spot where they dropped off Ananya. Everyone got out of the car and walked towards a small barren patch of land. They saw Candlelight at a short distance. Saafiya ran towards it. Shreyansh and Ramu followed her. She stopped a few feet away from it. What she saw, shook her.
Inside the Candlelight, Ryu was down on one knee, holding a ring and making the marriage proposal to Anaya. Exactly like how she saw in Raghav’s memory.
She heard Ryu’s faint murmur of voice, “Thank you, Ananya. You did your part. I am doing mine. Thank you for bringing the candle to me. And I shall be yours — in this time and all the others.”
Ananya was smiling. She replied, “I also heard what her grandmother told her to do. She is on her way to kill your father.”
Saafiya interrupted and shouted, “ANANYA!”
Ryu and Ananya were interrupted in their moment and they both turned their heads towards Saafiya. Ryu smiled. Ananya smiled. With one hand, Ryu held Ananya’s hand, with another the candle and went inside the candle.
The Candlelight vanished and the candle laid orphan. In Saafiya’s ears, the voice of her grandmother echoed, “Kill Wes. Trust no one.”
Her phone rang. The phone’s screen showed it was her father calling.
The story continues:
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