Part 17- Working hard & hardly working

" What nonsense," scoffed Tashvin at his friend on the phone.

" No, seriously I am not lying to you. One of my cousins is in the team working on the project. And she told me that they might be close to finding the theory to be true." Shekhar was trying to convince him. " There is a possibility that time may not be linear but branching."

"The nonlinear time is a possibility only on the quantum level, at a macro level it's not possible," Tashvin argued.

" What they are trying to theorise is that and mind you I am only quoting my cousin ' that every choice that we make in our timeline will have different consequences ' thus branching it. And I think that there may be a possibility of branching of time." He said.

" Hmm... Interesting. But there is no base to compare it to. Unless we discover a way to travel through space-time." Tashvin walked into the driveway." hey man, I reached home. I will call you later. But keep me in the loop with this one, okay? If you get any new information from your cousin, let me know." He had come by bus and then walked home from the bus stand.

"Okay bye." The friend cut the call.

Out of habit, Tashvin started towards the pipe to climb the roof of the garage. Then remembered that he was on regular school timings and didn't need to sneak inside the house. He shook his head and turned to walk towards the front door. He rang the bell and his father opened the door. He was wearing an apron and was holding a spatula in his hand.

" So, you are making dinner today," Tashvin asked as he took off his shoes and wore slippers.

" Oh yes, it's pasta..." He was grinning wide.

Tash's eyes widened," is it ravioli, oh please let it be Spinach ravioli," he said and Navil shook his head.

" You are the greatest," he said and followed him to the kitchen. " Where is mom?" he asked.

" Because I decided to make pasta, she is gone to get zucchini. For some reason, she wants to make fritters and fresh dip to go along with the pasta." He said shrugging.

" Oh yeah, they do taste amazing together. Dinner is going to be awesome today..." Tashvin said, giving a blissful smile.

" Okay go now change and freshen up. We can have curd rice now." Navil said.

" I am not that hungry right now. I will eat in some time. I will be working for a couple of hours in my room. I will come down to eat when I feel a little bit more hungry." He said.

" Okay then, catch." Navil threw an apple at him.

Tashvin couldn't catch it, it fell right on the floor. He looked disappointed at him.

" You already know, I have poor hand-eye coordination..." Tashvin said waving his hands in the air.

" Yeah, yeah, go freshen up." Navil dismissed him.

As soon as he reached his room he took a warm bath and washed the apple twice before eating, he couldn't help himself. Germaphobe.

He began working on the resonance machine again. He worked on it for an hour making a few tweaks to the designs as he had been testing it from time to time. He wished he had got a chance to take a good look at any of the artefacts that they had collected during their training. If he could have, he would make a better design with it maybe even make a better version of it. Then he decided to test it out. He grabbed Ava's cage and went to the terrace along with it. He opened the cage and sent a signal to Ava to fly to the nearest tree and come back. It did as it was told then he instructed it to carry a tiny receiver in its beak to the tree and place it there. After it was done. He activated the resonance machine, sent a frequency into it and waited for it to respond. It did. Then he directed the machine to the receiver.

On the first try, it reached only halfway. He turned it up a little recorded the frequency in his notebook and repeated the process, it almost reached the receiver. He set it higher, recorded the frequency again and sent it. It reached the receiver but then nothing happened.

He set it even higher and sent a wave. This time the top lid of the machine was ejected, it bounced and flew up in the air.

" Oh no..." The lid somersaulted a few times. Tashvin saw it descend like a missile on the car which was parked below. " Shit..." He ran towards the edge. To his relief, it had not dented the roof of the car. He had to get that part back before anyone found it. So he hurried to the stairs and climbed down and reached the ground floor. He went outside and found the part fallen on the driveway. It must have bounced off the roof of the car.

When he reached back to the stairs, " I think you should let Vysna know. She has the right to know." He heard his father say.

" Of course, she has to know but now is not the right time. I will tell her when the time is right." His mother said.

" But what if she finds out? What if they tell her? What if they do something to her?" Navil sounded desperate.

" No one knows except for us and there is no chance for her to find it out by herself." Leysa was trying to convince him. " The test should have been only among Tashvin and Aaden. She was not supposed to be a part of it. We just got lucky that she is a water affiliate. It has given us some sort of leverage. Having two of our kids taken is something I cannot even imagine... There is still time for her. She doesn't have to know now. I promise you that I will tell her but not now. Trust me," she said.

" Does your mother know?" Navil asked.

" No, she doesn't know and she doesn't have to know. I am never going to tell her and tell Vysna not to tell her either... She is narcissistic. Sometimes I wonder whether I am her daughter..." She sounded disappointed.

Tashvin's heart was racing. He wanted to listen further but he heard footsteps coming his way. He quickly and soundlessly climbed the stairs and went into his room.

What was so secretive about Vysna? What were they hiding? His anxiety had taken over. He picked up his phone and dialled Vysna's number.

Two rings, three rings she didn't pick up. He cut the call and dialled again, she dismissed it.

Cannot take a call

at work.

She messaged.

It's urgent

please

Need only 2 mins

He replied.

Wait

She replied

She called him after ten minutes.

" What?"

" Mom and Dad are hiding something from you, something about you," he said.

" I don't understand, what do you mean? Can you be a bit more specific," she seemed impatient.

" I had come home on time to work on the machine."

"Oooo, surprise on time..." She mocked.

"Shut up, Vy. So, I was in my room working on it. Then I went on the terrace to test it. Then a part of it-"

" Will you come to the point quickly, I am not supposed to be talking to you." She interrupted.

"Okay, okay. So, I overheard Mom and Dad discussing something about you. I heard Dad trying to convince Mom to tell you some truth about you. And that you should know it and that it is very necessary. And then mom said that it was not the right time and she will tell you when she thinks is the right time and-"

" What truth, did you find out?" Vysna asked sounding very curious.

" That...I couldn't find out but I thought that you should know." He said finally feeling satisfied after blurting out what he had heard.

" Tash, you just wasted ten minutes to tell me that you didn't hear what the actual secret was. Why are you like this? Why do you have to be sneaking around and eavesdrop on others' conversations? Last time when the council meeting ended badly, you were the first one to call me."

" I was not sneaking around, I was just at the right place at the right time. I just have good timing that's all." He felt proud of himself.

He could hear her annoyed scoff.

" We will talk about it when I am home. Until then don't tell anyone about it. I am pretty sure the secret must be something very petty that I already know. Okay bye, see you later." She cut the call.

" Bye..." He was relieved that he had got a chance to tell her then and there. And didn't have to wait for her till she got home.

Vysna took a long breath. It was her third day at Shanka Bali's office. Her office was a makeshift desk at the farthest end of the ground floor. From there she could see the entire office floor. He had placed her in Reeba Shesha's team, which was supposed to be a team that works on-site. But for some reason, Reeba had insisted that she should work at the desk and get acquainted with the office staff before she got an on-site experience. According to Reeba, Vysna was not yet ready to handle the site assignments, which required a lot of patience and gumption.

But the work was boring. For a week she will have to make only entries. A dozen register books were given to her, each register had the details of the ongoing site work and this had to be kept up to date. Vysna had to sit from 2 pm to 6 pm and fill in all the details from the registers to the computer. By day two she had found out that Mr. Bali's company managed the maintenance and restoration of various archaeological and ancient temple sites.

These were in hundreds, all across the country. Some of these sites were sanctioned by the government and some were private. And by private it meant that these were Partham sites. The Partham sites were mostly remote and the number of people working on these sites worked directly under the company. Which meant that they were all Parthams and not outsiders.

Reeba was the team leader of one of those on-site teams and after a week Vysna was going to be one of her team members.

Tashvin had called her in the middle of one such entry and she had lost track of where and which one she had reached. She had to go through the entire page once again.

Tashvin had a problem with secrets, he couldn't keep any. Every time he was told or heard something secretive he felt uneasy. If he didn't tell someone the secret or the gossip within fifteen minutes of hearing it, he would get nauseous and in extreme cases puke.

So, Vysna had to call him within that time. After searching the page she had marked the entry and had left her desk to make the call. Now she had returned and was going through the list.

" So, Vysna how are you coping?" asked Shanka Bali as he approached her desk.

" It's fine sir. I am trying my best," she said.

" And what about-" before he could continue.

" Ms. Bhaskara," Reeba interrupted,

" Oh sorry sir, I didn't expect you here."

" No worries, I was only checking up on her. As she is new I wanted to make sure that she is comfortable and is adjusting well," he replied.

Reeba nodded.

" Well, you keep up your good work. Tell me if you have a problem with anything," he said and walked away.

" Looks like you will be getting special attention here from now on." Reeba said.

" Attention, what do you mean by that?" Vysna was perplexed.

" Oh that, you will find out in due time." She brushed off the topic.

" I have decided to take you to the site in the next three days. We are falling short of people there. But for that, you need to be thorough with the premise of the project. Here..." She placed two files in front of her." Go through these and if possible study the designs and history. I don't want you to be a blank dud when you are working there." She leaned down on the desk. " You have three days. And plaster this clear on your brain, that is if you have any... I don't tolerate boot licking, shirking, excuses and lagging. Am I clear?" She stared down at her.

Vysna drew a long breath. " Yes, understood."

" Good," she said and stood straight, turned and left.

What on earth was her problem? It was not arrogance but she had an air of self-assurance, a sense of confidence which made her seem very intimidating. She was good-looking but every time she was around, the room turned. A drastic change as if something bright and powerful was radiating energy.

Vysna glossed through the files. Now she had a daunting task of not only studying the files but also not screwing up at the upcoming work.

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