Ahmedabad, India

Saturday, March 5, 2016

10:54A.M.

1.

The late-morning sun was burning in the sky. The little boy, his vision occasionally getting blurred by the zooming traffic, looked across the two-way street at the school front gate that was slowly being filled by the adults. He wanted to cross the road, but there was not a single traffic-policeman in sight. A man went past him, indifferent to the little boy's troubles, and cut across the road. More people crossed the road. Men, women, teens, and old-dudes. The boy wanted to ask their help. But he felt afraid, for today hadn't been an exactly good day for him.

The traffic on the road abruptly disappeared. The boy took the bait and stepped on the tarmac. And out of nowhere, a truck rumbled past him. Thunderstruck, the boy hurried back and stood on the sidewalk, panting.

A hand clad in flannelled shirt dropped on the boy's shoulder. "Let me help you."

The boy looked up and smiled. Then, the hand clad in flannelled shirt moved down and swallowed up the boy's hand. They started crossing the road.

"Why are you so early? And where are your parents?"

"My mom was taken ill," the boy said, "pa had to take her to the hospital. I had an exam today. So, I had to leave early."

They cut across the dividers. A blue car, its chrome twinkling under sunlight, zoomed past them.

"Is she okay? What happened to her?"

"I don't know," the boy said, shrugging. "Her tummy was hurting, and it had grown huge like a balloon."

And soon, they were on the other side of the road.

"Thank you, mister," the boy said, looking up, eyes twinkling.

The hand clad in flannelled shirt patted the boy's head. "Your mom is not ill—she'll be fine—uh, take care of her, okay?"

"Okay." The boy smiled and bolted away.

2.

Then the hand clad in flannelled shirt disappeared inside a grey pants pocket. And the owner of those hands started to whistle. A few minutes later, the school bell rang and the kids started to spill out of the gate.

"Karthik uncle!"

Karthik, his honey-skin and black hair gleaming in the sun, stopped whistling. And pulling out his hands from his pocket, he looked around the crowded yard. His eyes began to jump from one place to another.

He heard a giggle and smiled. "How many times did I tell you, that you are not to hide BEHIND ME!" He zoomed around and grabbed his niece by her shoulders and lifted her up.

The little girl giggled, showing-off a small window in the house of her near perfect smile. Karthik was completely touched by its imperfection, was touched its glee. Kids, they never worry about their missing tooth, their funny dress or shoes or whatever they are carrying. That's because, Karthik told himself, the witch named insecurity hasn't accosted their door yet. But it will do it, like the way it did to you. All in good time.

"My god," Karthik said, keep his niece back on the pavement, "you have gotten pretty heavy lately."

"It's just my school bag," the girl said and laughed.

Karthik gave her a huge cat-like grin and took her Pikachu-doll-backpack. They crossed the road and then started toward a silver sedan.

"So," Karthik said, buckling her seatbelt. "How was your day today?" He went around the car, got into driver side and started the car.

"It was good." The girl gave a mischievous smile and reached out toward the radio.

"No," Karthik said, pulling the car into the traffic. "Don't do that."

The girl grumbled but soon started looking out the window at the blur of buildings and other vehicles.

She turned back to Karthik. "I heard you are going back tomorrow."

Karthik's heart was squeezed into nothingness by the pain he heard in her voice. "Yeah, sweaty. I'm flying back to Australia." He still had his firm there. And then there was Piper, too.

"Can't you stay?"

"No, it can't. Today you had a drawing activity, right?"

The girl nodded solemnly. "Yes. Teacher asked us to draw our parents from looking at their old photographs. Uncle, why am I not there in my parents' old photos?"

"Because you weren't there then." Karthik blurted.

The little girl gasped. "If I wasn't there, then where was I!?"

"Uh," Karthik said, taking over a bike, "I don't know. You probably didn't exist."

"What?" Now her face was getting red. She was on a verge of crying.

Shit, Karthik thought. "Look I mean you weren't on earth. You were there. But you weren't on earth."

"Where was I then?"

"I don't know."

"You are lying." She screamed and started crying.

Oh my god. "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you the truth!"

The girl stopped sobbing and looked up at her uncle. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Say it." She sniffled.

Karthik told her the truth, and on their journey back home, the girl, dumbfounded, simply sat on the shotgun seat, looking up at him with her wide eyes.

3.

He rang the bell. The little girl was still looking at him, her jaws hanging open. Karthik heard footsteps from the other side of the door. His mother opened the door. She was in her sixties, short in stature and always wore sari no matter what the occasion was.

She moved aside, allowing them through. The living-room was reasonably big and was full of things. Karthik started for the couch, but the little girl veered away from him and hurried toward a narrow hallway, shouting: "mommy."

Karthik looked at her amusingly as he sat down on the couch.

"You want water?" his mother asked.

"Yes, please."

His mother disappeared into the kitchen. Karthik looked at the Kindle that was resting on the couch. He had been reading an amazon-ebook by some loony guy named Aditya Mewati. The title of the story was Afterlight, which is not an English word. Karthik had enjoyed the story and thought it was considerably well woven, though the author had made the life of his character hellish.

"Well," Karthik muttered, "I'm glad that I'm not a fictional character but a real person." He was smirking at himself when a woman, Karthik's younger sister, came stomping into the living room.

"We need to talk!"

Karthik looked at her and was quickly alarmed by her furious eyes.

Although they weren't twins, his sister looked exactly like him. "You told her that Ravi and I made her with our own flesh!" Ravi was her husband.

"Yeah," Karthik said, in a placating voice. "She was getting upset. She wanted to know the truth. So, I just told her the truth. Well, the part of it."

"You are a jerk." His sister said and as she stomped away, Karthik's mother returned into the living-room with a glass of water.

"What did you do?" she said, handing the glass of water to Karthik. "I heard Rohini shout."

"Nothing," Karthik said, gulping down the cold liquid.

Karthik sat there for a minute or two and then got up and started toward the guest room which was presently his room. His cell-phone started to buzz.

He pulled it out. The number was new and unusual. "Hello."

"Hello, am I speaking to Karthik Peri?" The voice was of a woman.

"Uh-huh."

"My name is Nancy Rutherford. I'm the personal secretary of Misses Lina Johar, the CEO, and owner of Thunder-Tech industries."

"Thunder-Tech?" Karthik frowned. "Aren't you the guys who make military weapons?"

"Military technologies," the woman said, and Karthik, from the change in her tone, could tell that she had rolled her eyes.

"Uh-huh," Karthik said and sat back on the couch. "What do you want from me?"

"My boss, Misses Lina Johar, has invited you to Great Gujrat summit, 2016. She—"

"What? Why did she invite me?"

"She wants to meet you." Again, he felt that she was rolling her eyes. "We have sent you the invitation. The event is on tomorrow morning. Be there on time."

"But what if I said no, that I can't come?"

"It's on you," the woman said. "Just don't curse your luck in the future for missing out. My boss is a very important woman. Nice to talk to you, sir. Have a good day." There was a click.

"Hello? Anyone home?" The line was dead. Karthik sighed and pocketed his phone. He didn't know why but this call was giving him the same aura he had felt when his client Mr. Ford had called him a year ago. That call had completely changed his life.

"You are being stupid," Karthik muttered. He got up, started toward his room and stopped. He turned around and looked at the huge photograph that had been recently put up on the wall. The photograph of his dad. The man who was the reason why Karthik had flown in from Australia to India.