Spellbound #2
Spellbound #3
Spellbound #4Spellbound #5
Cold water was poured on me. That was a really brutal method to wake one from his sleep! I woke up groggily and saw that my cousin sisters were laughing like someone was tickling them.I opened my mouth to shout at them but then realised that they were not supposed to be here. My anger dissolved and changed into an expression of bewilderment. They smiled goofily at my expression and said, “ Get up you bozo. We came here this morning to meet you. You are our favorite cousin. Get up. We have a lot to do. Only 4 days are left with us. Why are we here? We read that letter. Get up. Life has not ended. Come on!”
Oh. They knew. They know about what happened. I got up and pondered on whether they knew about the letter I had to write to Ananya? Whether they knew if I had sent a love letter? I rinsed my mouth and stepped into the shower. Cold water hit me hard. All my thoughts and troubles vaporisedinstantly. I enjoyed the bliss beneath the shower.
I wiped myself with a towel and dressed into my clothes. I went into my room and hugged my sisters. It was great to have them here. They were the only ones who understood me in my whole family. They were twins, around 19 years old. They looked identical with long black hair, fair skin and lean frame. The only difference, Shreya had blue eyes while Sushmita, aka, Sush had green eyes. That’s how we told them apart. It was a surprise for everyone to see children of Indian heritage with such eyes when they were born.
They were full of jovial nature and I could spend my time with them easily. I told them about Ravi and what had happened because I knew they would get out everything with my favour or without it. They could tickle me the whole day if I didn’t reveal everything.
I trusted them. It all began like some threads running down from each of our arms which began to tighten like a cast and then transformed into something beautiful with glowing threads of love, friendship and belief.
That was how my relationship was with Shreya and Sush. We were bonded for life together.I told them what all had happened and showed them the hidden message too. They were surprised as I had told them about my feelings for Ananya. They didn’t believe it. They thought that I was a boy devoid of any feelings for girls. They were shocked about what I wrote in my letter and wiped away my tears when they began streaming down my face.
They then began to speak, as if they both were a single entity, Shreya began, “You know what Anant? Life is harsh, life is rude, life is unfair. We are born with something in us, otherwise, why would we be born at all..”
Sush continued,
“.. And as we are born, we are destined to fall in love with our friends, the nature and one partner. You have gone through those stages too. We have been through it too. Love, Anant, is one of the purest things on Earth. Ever seen how pure the white snow looks when it is freshly fallen? That’s how we arrive on Earth..”
“.. And noticed how it looks when we walk on it and how it becomes a slush when the dirt is mixed from it? That’s the brutality of life. Anant, we have told you our story, you might not remember it so we will write it in a letter for you again, because speaking it again will be difficult. And Sush agrees on that with me..”
“.. Plus, Anant, Life is tainted by humanity! I know! The irony is apparent, but if you notice that we all have lost faith in humanity. Never lose faith Anant. Never. Protect your innocence with your will and help everyone even if they deceive you. Never give up hope.”“.. Okay, enough of that Sush, Anant what we are trying to say is that, you have done a marvelous work in sending that letter to Ananya and we are proud you did it. If you would not have been my brother, I would have proposed to you! Such care from you kiddo is amazing. You have done it. You have made me believe that only in darkness can one see the light. You are that light. Get up now!”
I was smiling. They understood me so well and gave so much hope to me. They knew how to get me back. Through the clear water which was flowing down my cheeks, I answered, “I love you both.”
They smiled back and said, “Why are you crying?”
I replied, “They are not tears! They are my eyes giving out their excreta!”
They giggled and said, “That’s what we call tears kiddo!”
I love you.
I laughed out loud. Crying and laughing at the same time. That’s how they did it. That’s how they made the scars fade a bit. They never knew that these scars turned into cracks when they removed it. It made me feel pain more than I had imagined.I was still broken. I was walking in the park when I met Sarthak. He looked glum. He looked at me and smiled sadly. The experience we all had faced over a past few days had rocked us both to the core.
We both sat together on a bench and were looking straight ahead. I knew that none of us was glancing at the scenery and looking straight ahead while thinking of the gloom which had descended over both of us. Sarthak had understood Ravi well. He was the only one they each had during the last few years.
We both were sitting together thinking on what to do. I opened my mouth to say something, but he cut me off and said, “Please, don’t speak anything. I take comfort from you beside me. We both have faced a lot. He was our best friend. Ananya is going through the same phase. We all are facing the loss of Ravi. After this, I want you to come to my home. We can do something about this.”
I agreed. I wanted to talk with someone since long. My sisters helped me a lot in this, but I needed to hear what others who cared for Ravi said. After 15 minutes of staring into eternity on thinking about Ravi, we both walked away. I went to my home and found a letter. It as from Ravi
I quickly picked it up and began to read,
“Hello Anant,
I see that you have completed your task. I have told you how this letter got to you in the previous letter so don’t even dare to think that I am alive. Anant, I am glad that you completed the task even though I don’t know what you wrote in it. So, I take it that you took my advice and wrote down a love letter. I am happy and smile in heaven as you wrote it.
Now, Anant, I think I can put vague guess that you didn’t write your name on the letter. I think you were scared and somehow did that. If you wrote your name, then go on to task 2.If you didn’t, then complete this task with your name on it! (YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH EFFORT IT TAKES TO BOLD SOME LETTERS ON PAPER!)
Task 2:
Go to her house. Befriend Sarthak. Play some of her favorite tunes. You have to guess them. I might leave you a hint.(I’ll be blunt) the hint: Cold music when plays makes her feel alive, while eating or drinking ginger ale/ ginger.
I will hear about this somehow and get you the third letter. That won’t contain a task. You have something at hand. Complete it.
P.S. I hope you are well. Alive and well actually. Mainly, I care for you even after I have gone. Apparently, you will complete this task. Live long my friend. I missed you and will miss you. Vouching for you all to survive, please do! Eternity; that will be the word which lives through us.”
I quickly read the letter again and concentrated on the hint. I ran up to my room and powered up my laptop. I wrote the hint on Google and saw that no results arose. I just wrote upto plays then. Coldplay, popped up. Yes, this will be what Ravi was mentioning.
The ginger ale part confused me. I am still thinking on it while the songs by Coldplay were playing on my laptop. I tried every method to get the answer. I was bamboozled. To a random person, it might look that I am lollygagging.
I got an idea and wrote the questions I had. I then created the search term, ‘ginger; music; photograph; thinking’
Suddenly Ed Sheeran popped up in the list. Yes, it had to be him. Definitely. I began to listen to some songs by both of them. I had heard them before. I liked their music. I quickly made a list of which songs I liked and thought that those might be the favourites of Ananya.
Then I sat back and began to think what the next letter might contain.This was getting interesting, Ravi was not meant to leave clues for me like that.Suddenly I heard a ping in my email and looked to find an email from Ravi. I quickly opened it.
The subject said: ‘Hi’
I was intrigued. I opened the email and saw that it only had an attachment with the name ‘xyz.’ I downloaded it and opened it. It asked for the password. I began trying options like, “Ed, Coldplay, Music, Ananya, Anant, Password.”
None worked. I closed it as I was tired from all this mind wracking business. I lay down on the bed for some time. Before I knew, I had dozed.
I heard my name being called out. Sunlight streamed through the window. I rubbed my eyes so that I could see clearly. There was a stale taste in my mouth, I ran into the washroom and rinsed my mouth. I got ready and went to Ananya’s house. It was time to meet them and reveal everything I knew.
I closed the door of my house and began jogging down the street while the sky was gray and some droplets were beginning to fall. The sun which was there some 20 minutes back had disappeared. I was nearly around the corner when the torrent was just beginning. I began to sprint and reached their house in 2 minutes. This was the fastest sprint I had made in my life! The plants were looking deep green with the rain falling hard now.
I reached up to the bell on the doorstep and waited for them to open the door. The wait was excruciating. When I was about to get bored with boredom while standing on the doorstep, the gate was opened as if it was the gate which had to be opened only during a calamity. I was ushered inside the house and quickly inside the room of the siblings. Ananya looked distraught while Sarthak was brooding on the table.
I sat on the bed with Ananya and held her hand.
She smiled briefly and I glanced at her eyes. How they entranced me. I saw a stereo in one end of the room. I got up and walked up to it. I remembered the hint Ravi had left. I played the song 'photograph' on it. I could see Ananya's eyes light up. I also saw that tears were welling up in her eyes as well as Sarthak's. They both got up and hugged me. They both said the word which would turn out to be our motto till the end, "Forever."
I smiled and then told them about the letter Ravi had left me. Ananya and Sarthak told me about what he had written to them. They surprise me by saying that they both had received a letter themselves. I took out the letter from my pocket and shared it with them. They shared theirs. It was nearly the same! I was bamboozled. Then Ananya took out a love letter and shared it with us. I could see the love in her eyes!I showed her the task then and saw the surprise in her eyes. She bent forward and kissed me on the lips while in the background everything faded and all that mattered was her soft skin and luscious lips. I was savouring her lips when Sarthak coughed politely to remind us that he was sitting there.
I came back and sat there blushing. Then showed them the second letter and told them about the email and how it was password protected. I told them my idea on how the password must be in the letters.
Sarthak agreed with me. I was sitting in front of the laptop while Ananya was scrambling her brain over the first letter and her letter while Sarthak was with the second letter and his letter.We were racking our brains when Sarthak took my laptop and typed something and gave me back the revealed and open document. I looked up at him surprise. He grins at me and shows the logic, “Anant, Ravi loved codes and ciphers. I just read the letter he wrote to you. And the answer was in the Post script. See here”. He highlighted the first letter of every sentence. And thus:
P.S. I hope you are well. Alive and well actually. Mainly, I care for you even after I have gone. Apparently, you will complete this task. Live long my friend. I missed you and will miss you. Vouching for you all to survive, please do! Eternity; that will be the word which lives through us.
“This is how he did it. This reads: I am alive. He has an idea for irony. To send this after he died. He loved irony. Now let’s read what his email attachment has to say.”“That might seem like an irony friends. First, I am glad that you cracked it. Second, I think this means that Anant and Ananya are getting close. And I can also guess that Sarthak cracked the code as it was meant for him. Now, I need to tell you the truth. Sorry for lying guys. I don’t have a major hole. Well, I had it. But before I was going to jump, my father came and dragged me to the hospital where they gave a last effort for the heart transplant. They got me fixed and the heart accepted me. I am whole now.So, I had sent the letter before (the first ones) and then planned with the second and hoped that you would find the third. I ran away from the hospital when they were done. I couldn’t face the ones who knew what I was doing. I am away and won’t be coming back. Maybe I will. One day. Till then Adios my friends. Take hope that I am alive.Oh okay. You might hate me, but remember, in real hate is when you find love.And, enough jokes. I am coming back from the hospital on Monday. See you soon. And Love birds, continue to stay in love. Yours truly,Ravi.”
We all were smiling and crying over the attachment. It was the end. Ravi was alive. I looked at Ananya. She was looking at me. The love was apparent between us. 4 days of togetherness had got us together. I loved her. She loved me. And her brother approved.So yes, I was spellbound.
