Important discovery
Mary was surprised to see them early for dinner... Francis
and Philomena both were not there as they had been asked
for some opening ceremony and expected only the next day
.
They had their dinner unusually quietly and Mary thought
they were upset about something and she maintained her
distance...When they had their dinner immediately they
went back to their respective rooms as if to prove her point.
Redim set the alarm for 11.40pm and slept... Richard was
too keyed up to sleep. He was thinking of his dull life and
how all these excitements came suddenly... how it gave two
genuine friends and of course the lovely little talking
animals.. He couldn’t think of them as aliens...as he had
heard them since his childhood... His thoughts about the old
man were one of regret. He never believed him but liked to
listen to his tall stories. Now he wished he had believed
him…when it was thirty minutes to midnight, he got ready.
He remembered that they have to crawl, so he padded his
knees with one of his vest and wore a loose fitting jeans
and a tee .He took his cell phone and secured it in his belt
and took the torch.
He went to Frank’s suite and knocked at the door, the door
was kept open so he entered his room. He saw Frank
waiting fully dressed.
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Richard asked if he had padded his knees and Frank smiled
and said, ‘Richard, I did not forget my experience... so
padded them with my thickest old shirts ...
Redim said, ‘me too! I had stuffed some tops into my
stockings’
‘Then what are we waiting... come let us go....’ Frank
started moving. Richard switched of the lights and followed
them...
When they came down, Richard cautioned them about the
security and Frank said, ‘mostly he will be sleeping but it is
better we go through the back door....’
So they moved through the back door and walked on the
walkway that connected the walkway that ran parallel to
the ravine… Frank wished he had been taken through this
route instead of the one Re took him...
Re and few more of their people appeared around them...
now they were all had taken the dwarf form Redim and
Richard both became their instant fans... The exquisite
beauty could be seen starkly in the torch light...
Re said, ‘it was easier to go through the tunnel walking
rather than flying... So we always take this form when we
use the tunnel... There is no need to caution you about the
secrecy as our survival depends on us being undetectable ‘
Richard said, ‘don’t be afraid... we will never betray our
friends and you have helped us few times and you have
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earned our allegiance ... You see it is kind of a human
thing....’
Frank, ‘Human thing! Yes it sounds correct ...’
They came near the ravine and the flash flood was still
gushing down in a loud clatter...Frank thought it was much
better than the first day but Redim was really scared to
think of going down and moving underwater to reach the
other side !
She asked him if it was really safe but then Re’s people
disappeared down.
Re told them, ‘sit here and find the rungs below, when you
find the rungs, you have to flip over to climb down...just
two rungs and then the tunnel would be seen .. You crawl
through....’
Redim sat and tried to find the rungs in the wall of the
ravine...She could feel it...she kept the legs on the rung and
flipped over holding the edge... slowly she felt around until
she found the next one and she could see the tunnel … she
crawled into it without difficulty.. Frank waited until she
was out of sight and then asked Richard to go... Richard
climbed down so effortlessly and then Frank went down...
They crawled through the tunnel noiselessly and when
Redim came to the junction, she stopped and Re appeared
beside her to give the direction...
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Finally Redim came out and she gasped in surprise... she
would never forget the sight as long as she lived... The
paradise must have been like this she thought...
Re and his people, as a welcome sign placed so many
floating lights all around the cavern’s interior.. The banana
plants and the corn fields were lighted with some yellowish
lights and the rest were bluish lights … it gave an
appearance of a mini globe... or an indoor stadium... the
lights were moving here and there making the place so
unreal..
The rocky columns were all lit so brightly with white lights
and it looked like lit adorned Christmas trees and standing
at the centre ,gleaming in the light was the spacecraft the
shark as Frank called it.. Redim never expected to see such
beauty and she was too stunned to move... Richard bumped
into her and whistled to show his appreciation and even
Frank did not expect it to be this beautiful because
previously only few lights were there...
Redim turned to look at Frank and said, ‘thank you Frank...
I will cherish this memory till my last breath’
Re told her, ‘Redim, you must thank us not Frank’
They all laughed... All Re’s people were there all around
them…Richard picked one female to look closely and she
said, ‘hello Richard ...Remember me ... I used to sit on
your window .the green parrot ...’
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Richard remembered... The parrot was a regular visitor
when he was young... When his parents died, one of the
reasons that he had not wanted to go and live anywhere
because of the parrot!
The female continued, ‘I am Gee and I had seen you crying
alone most of the nights’
There was an absolute silence... Richard was so
embarrassed and he gently kept Ge on the ground...Frank
could see he was emotionally moved so he went near him
and gave him a hug... Redim gave him a slap and said
‘lucky guy’ and laughed. Richard pulled himself with
difficulty and laughed with them.
He said, ‘I was lonely child but got over it long time ago.
Ge agreed, ‘I stopped coming to see you’
Richard looked at Ge for sometime as he recalled the
parrot..There, Re called them over to show the spacecraft
and everything went out of their mind .
The first thing that struck Redim was, it’s size and the
colour. It was really small and she had never seen that
peculiar shining pinkish colour... Richard was so attracted
to it... he went around it touching it here and there. It was
very hard to touch unlike any metal he had seen... Frank
peeped inside the spacecraft...everything was as he had
seen it... Redim wanted to see the interior properly and she
asked Re and crawled in... She could see so many
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equipments all along the ceiling and in the nose area...To
her amazement, all of them were ticking away and the
monitor showed some weird markings...she slowly crawled
between the aisles to see how the seats were arranged …. It
was all so neat and compact... Frank called her out and
slowly she came out.
Richard went in and took a long time coming out... He
looked dazed...and asked Re ‘all the monitors are working
and you said you have some problems!’
Ro came forward and said, ‘we lost the starter key,
superluminal particles emitter and the location fixer... either
we have lost it or misplaced ... we have been searching for
it’
Richard was very pensive, he thought he had seen the
peculiar shade of The LED light somewhere .He asked
Frank, ‘we have seen this kind of a display somewhere in a
cell phone’
Frank thought for a while and remembered what he brought
from the old man’s house.., ‘Richard you remember, and
you brought a square cell phone from the old man’s house!
Do you think it could be the one?’
Redim said, remember I too showed you something like
this which I found in the cave ‘
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Frank squatted beside Re, ‘Re the gadgets you lost... what
is the size of them... is it small like this’ he showed his cell
.
..the whole group became silent ...
Re said ‘yes but not rectangle but a perfect square! But why
Frank... don’t tell me you found them’
‘Not I, Richard found it in the old man’s house and the rest
Redim found them in the cave’
No one spoke for sometime... Ro said, ‘impossible, we
have checked everyplace in your house ‘
Frank said, ‘I will tell you where it is ...go and fetch
them... I want know if all the gadgets that you need are
there or not’
He told Ro where he keeps the key to the bed drawer and
asked him to open the drawer in the right side below the
mattress. Take one more person with you ‘
Ro was so ashamed that he didn’t check his bed, he
apologised profusely to Re but Re was in euphoria... he
wanted him to go and get it…
Ro and few more disappeared … few brought the some
kind of baked corns and gave it to them but they were too
excited to taste... they all waited... Only Richard was going
around the spacecraft and observing it keenly and many
little ones were following him.
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Richard was familiar to them as they had been seeing him
since his childhood. So they wanted to be with
him...looking at him and talking among themselves
They have to wait only few minutes before Ro and group
appeared. All of them came running and surrounded them...
A cheer went off... they found all the essential gadgets they
needed!
Redim said,’ we have to find you an Exoplanet as your
destination... Be cheerful...we will find you that
too…’Frank said that they were leaving and a visibly happy
Re accompanied them...
*
*******
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