TO CUT A TURNING TAIL

53). BIRTHWASH

Adorned in a white gleaming dress and a black blazer are a man and woman, swearing oath of love to each other on a speed boat. Their hair and dress waving and rustling in the air. The woman's dress is a thick fabric jumpsuit with an embroidery of a moon and a blue ribbon wrapping it around. Finally, they take a seat next to their daughter, or, the man's daughter. A six-year-old Connell. She is happily clapping; however, the smiles transform into a frown and she says, "I miss mother". Anyhow, she is none to intrude in their happiness and is having a joyous occasion.

Soon, these embroider dresses turn into black and white camo dresses and Connell's father's wedding dress is the only one that stays in the beautiful multi-dimensional wardrobe. All his other clothes are being churned down in a machine to extract fiber and dust for some..recycling.

He is dead, all his clothes are being used for public work now that they're no longer needed. Clothes are made of fabric graphics or solid holograms, either way, they gather more energy as they are being worn. The reason is that when they are rubbed by dust outside, it attains more energy as dust in itself is a conductor of energy.

"Elena......", holding a box of blue raisins and apples, a flan (it's a Mexican dessert and not a cake!), and a pot with a few blue grooming flowers, ".... I'm sorry" in a brown old-fashioned check suit with chicos and dusty brown-white hair is the resembling face of Mr. Dicker. His thick hard-working hands, handing over the articles to Elena's slender fingers, a beautiful black ring in one of the fingers. He bows and hugs Elena and gives a consoling pat to Connell.

"Unfortunately, he could never bring his diminishable pouches to life, but he went with a smile as if his dream turned into reality" sighs Dicker Jr. He brings out a bar of chocolate covered in a little frozen box, these boxes are called frozen boxes because they are used to carry ice-creams and chocolates and all the meltable eateries from one place to other or to keep them on the table and eat the stuff whenever you want. These boxes have blue translucent stripes like a tiger's, the funny thing is that even though made of glass, no fog covers them.

"They are your father's favourite chocolates, he used to eat them all day in between his experiments. And, he used to tell me that these chocolates would carry his inheritance" he makes clumsy-consoling-gentle faces whilst conversing, ultimately he breaks out and goofily says, "I.... I...I seriously have no idea what he meant but I thought....let me just bring one to you!", he shrugs with a tear-filled face. He bows to them once again and finally bids adieu.

****

Connell brings out the pieces of chocolate from the box. It seems to be a KitKat, but no brand name has been endorsed on it. Though the box had two brands endorsed on it. One is for the company who transferred the boxes and the other is the chocolate company.

Elena is crouching beside Connell, her hands consolingly placed on Connell's shoulders. Connell places the chocolate sticks over the funneled sink and takes a deep exasperating breath. She runs to her room, a big bookshelf in front of her. The bottom slot of the bookshelf which is at Connell's height is covered in five colours which indicate vertical slots.

She taps on the purple highlights. Inside it, there are two books, both with shinning purple highlights. One of them looks like an ancient manuscript that managed to survive in such a modern time and the other book has bluish-white pages, it is covered in blank pages. She turns through the pages and the words inside it resemble the ancient writing style as well. She starts reading one of the words but stops right at the first syllable. She sighs and shakes her head; she continues reading the words in her mind. Her stepmother Elena happily watches her from the threshold.

The blank pages turn into a graphic memory. On the very first page is a note from her father. the soft-spoken man has written- "Connell, I have taught you about Mr. Anbu. He left the world at the start of the beginning. But that's not what matters. What matters is what he left. His pals, Larcs and Buzz were given the responsibility to prevent any mishap from happening in the world. He had a group of friends. Imagine those friends as the leader of an organization with a near thousand people enrolled. Now this organization has grown up to be one million in number. The main motto of the organization was/ is to create a beautiful and calm world. Better than what the past was.