Broken promise
When Frank reached home , Everything looked so normal
he thought it was an anticlimax. But the chain he had in his
hand gave him the evidence that he needed .He looked at it
in the portico light and found a small fastener so he tried it
then placed in his neck and fastened it was so light seemed
to be very strong when he pulled it. He left it hanging in his
neck ,the pendent reaching just below his neckline .
.
There was a combination lock in the main door , luckily
he remembered it , went in and climbed the steps as if in a
trance and fell down on his bed The clock showed 05.23
and he thought nearly 5 to 6 hours he had been with the
little ones as he thought of them . He recalled how they
were looking at him with such admiration and trust . The
last thought was Ro kissing his hand.
It was 10 past in the morning when he woke up ! He could
hear the house keeping staff . The cold metal in his neck
reminded him about the action packed previous night, he
corrected himself , earlier in the morning .
He would have thought everything was a dream if not for
the chain and the pendant. He looked at it sometime and
thought of testing it . He concentrated deeply about Re and
his beautiful face repeated to himself like a chant that talk
to me Re talk to me Re.
3
5
Suddenly the pendant started glowing and he could feel a
slight vibration .He closed his eyes and he could almost
hear Re’s voice that he opened his eyes to see if Re was
indeed near him. Then he realised .he could hear him only
in his mind and he was asking if he reached home safely
and slept .Frank said yes loudly then he asked him if the
water drained away and all were safe. He got a reply
immediately that everything was perfectly alright ... Then
he was so thrilled that he jumped and the glow went out of
the link pendant ….
Frank was excited about his success in communication . It
was too good to be true that he could communicate with an
alien ? He stopped short... yes there was no other
explanation. They were some stranded travellers who had
come by mistake perhaps!
His cell phone beeped ,and it was his friend and college
mate Stanley . He swiped to talk to him.
Stanley wanted to know if he had started the project and
they both discussed for sometime about the project ,Then
he asked how he was spending his time in the rural area and
in reflex Frank said that he had a weird experience ...then
immediately caution kicked him and he said before Stanley
could react ,the cyclone was terrible and it flattened most of
the things that stood on its path .
He knew he had a narrow escape or it would have been the
talk of the town if not the world. They spoke some more
time about the cyclone and signed off .
3
6
He had another call from his dad telling him they might
come down the next day as his mother was worried about
the effect of cyclone . Frank thought of his quiet and
blissful solitary enjoyment and now it was over …he would
be fed 10 times more. .. He smiled with the thought of
sitting with his family .
The next two days went off in whirlwind of activities. The
cyclone has uprooted so many trees in Tim’s land and
many houses in the village were broken. The cyclone’s path
of destruction was too much to be cleared in a few days’
time. So all the staff in Tim’s land worked day and night.
Frank had hardly any time to think about Re and his people
and the next day his parents arrived and as usual many key
personnel in his father’s establishments also accompanied
him
Frank kept himself busy and the night he sat with his
parents to have dinner. His father was asking about the
project and what he was doing and so on .
When his mother asked him what was his plan for his
future... If he wanted to follow his father’s business and the
inevitable question about his wedding plan. He did not
want to talk about his future as he has not arrived at any
conclusion till now...
Frank found a way to escape and he started telling about
Redimita, his long standing girl friend. His mother knew
little bit about her but to his father it was news… so his
3
7
father asked all kind of questions about her background
and when he told that she was a doctor doing her double
post graduation in UK , he was impressed . Mother asked
him to bring her home and he said she would be coming
shortly and she has been expected for the Christmas
holidays. Father asked if he liked staying in Tim’s land
He was a very curious to know why he asked and looked at
him in a puzzled manner.
Mother answered for him ,’Frank I would like to settle in
the city , I miss my family and all the rest as I am getting
old’
Both father and son laughed at it and ‘inviting
complement’ Frank laughed again . Suddenly he
remembered Re and said
‘Father I had very strange experience two days back during
the cyclone .. I think I met up with aliens’
The minute he spoke those words, he knew he had done an
unforgiveable act , he has broken a promise .
Father was all ears now and asked him what!!...did you say
aliens... son do you know you are sitting on a gold mine !
tell me what happened ?
Frank jerked as if he was slapped... he got up excused
himself ... again his father asked ..’you said something
about aliens’
3
8
Frank gave a mocking laugh and said ‘ how easily you fell
for it dad ‘ He got up and went up to the second floor
taking two steps at a time ..Father looked at him until he
disappeared into his room... and said ‘very strange. .. son is
lying to me about something….’
Mother laughed and said ‘you had never found him out
when he was young boy and you don’t try now…’
Back in his room Frank was furious with himself... how
could he be that careless...if father thought something was
there he would make it a very big issue and call all the
media in the world ... of course he would end up with a
huge profit. ..
Frank touched Re’s pendant and made up his mind to be
more cautious when he spoke to his dad next time …
*
*******
3
9
6
Francis Timothy
Francis Timothy was born rich and built his business
with his intelligence and aggressive attitude. He was
disappointed when Frank wanted to study Aerospace
Engineering and he told him that it has no future ,he
could never build an empire like him or even to earn for
his living .
Francis had studied Business and from his young age he
knew one day he would take over his great grand
parents’ business as his father did.
But he was not satisfied with just export and import,
extended it into real estate , Transport, entertaining,
hospitality industries, Rare earth mining, alternate
power production, media and anything that caught his
fancy . All these various sections were
compartmentalised and run by highly capable
executives so that his wanderlust was satisfied…
Francis wanted something different to retain his name
there in the top position not for earning more but his
thirst for publicity drove him to do diverse things so
that his name would be always in the news. Either he
would purchase something or donate or merge...just to
be in the news .
4
0
When attended the wedding ,he made sure that all the
media covered him and deliberately he left early and
sensationalised the small issue of his wife’s head ache
into a mega drama. Philomena, his wife, was
embarrassed but kept quiet as it was her habit.
Francis recalled the conversation with his son.. Even
though ,Frank refused to elaborate on the topic of alien ,
He sensed that his son was hiding something . He
thought of all the media frenzy in case if it was true.
Even if it was not true, perhaps his son was doing some
research on aliens and he became excited .
He knew his son well... He had never succeeded in
extracting information from Frank in fact, he thought
that his son was one of the most stubborn people that he
had ever encountered in his life . As he thought he was
sure that his son was doing some research about outer
space and he discovered something but hesitating o
reveal it.
Francis imagined if he leaked the news about his son
and media put some pressure on him ,his son would
become famous even if he refused as he knew he would
He was now in fully activated mode and promised
himself that he would create such a big hype round his
son that his son would become a celebrity overnight.
4
1
Even his dreams were of Frank where Frank was
surrounded by media personnel and he was giving
speech…Finally he slept ...
*
*****
4
2