Medona

Chapter 7-Meeting Seetamnari's Followers

"It's such a pleasure to have your presence here."
A warm welcome from a tall young man, side partitioned black silky hair, prominent face features and well built arm musculature that were peeking through his tight short sleeves of the violet shirt he was wearing, smiling heartedly at Mayi.
*he can't be evil... can he?!
What if?
I can't fight with him!
He's too strong for a dumb lamb like me!* I continued arguing with my ownself inside my head when he turned at me and said confused, "oh! Hi."
And then whispered to Mayi who was standing beside me, "is this the girl you were talking about?" Loud enough that I could hear each of his words clearly.
"Tarika, Anthony _ Anthony, Tarika" Mayi introduced both of us to each other by waving her hands through the air multiple times, putting his question aside for a moment.
Both of us passed a brisk smile to each other then Mayi answered the man's question, "yes this is the girl. Are you going to stand there forever? or welcome her in", and giggled herself.
I saw his pupils dilating as he looked at me startled and then blinked a couple of times distracting himself from the Dream world and welcomed me in softly.
I walked in before them as he signaled by his hand and I could hear Mayi whisper to him behind my back, "don't even dare to think boy. She is way too beautiful for you."
It was astonishing to be honest because I seldom got compliments.
I pretended like I didn't hear a single word and kept walking in.
I heard the ticks of someone turning on the switch buttons and soon the whole place was illuminated by lights.
Basically, they were hiding in the place, so till that time everything I saw reflected an abandoned, horrifying, criminals' headquarters. But the reality was different.
The place was just like a small cottage but in a building, well organized, peaceful, clean and safe. It contained everything a home would require.
A man followed by a lady came downstairs greeting me and Mayi. And the girl who turned on the lights arrived from a corner and welcomed us as well.
I wandered my vision in all directions observing how delightful there shelter was.
The girl offered me to sit in the sofa, placed in the centre of the hall, "come, sit here" with a low, soft and pitching voice which could barely be heard.
I nodded and sat there while Mayi sat next to me and Anthony sat on the chair facing me.
"Make yourself comfortable", Anthony said nervously and got blushed.
I hummed at him still confused what to do.
Silence wrapped up the place and the only audible thing was crows from outside.
I was struggling with choosing suitable words for a conversation starter but couldn't find any.
It took a while enough that the girl came back with a tray of teacups and presented them to everyone.
Mayi and Anthony were trying to dry out the awkwardness by lamely appreciating the weather, then the tea and then saying the crows were noisy, but all in vain.
Just when I was about to utter a word from my half dead mouth, Anthony spoke at the same time, "I think" by me and "So" by Anthony in a sync and we both halted together letting the other to speak first.
Till that time I was severely pissed at the embarrassment and awkwardness in the surrounding and I am pretty sure others were suffocated too.
Anthony politely offered me to speak, "go ahead, lady's first"
I looked into my teacup, pulled myself together and finally spoke,"I think I should have practiced how to start conversation before coming here."
Surroundings echoed with bits of laughters as if it were some great joke.
I felt a little light so,I took a sip from the tea and added further,"actually, I don't know what I'm doing. I don'teven know what I wanna do. I don't know if it's moral. I don't know if it matters. I don't know why am I doing this in the first place."
Anthony slightly leaned his posture towards me listening carefully to how much I didn't know.
"I am totally messed by confusions. I have unanswered questions that are not letting me at peace. And that's the reason of my subconscious_ probably dumb acts." I continued on mourning at my situation and everyone paid me proper attention.
I took a pause and then stated,"Mayi told me you could help me?"and gave a querying look to the man infront of me.
Anthony took a deep breathe as the air felt lighter by now and said,"yeah, Mayi had already mentioned that the last time she came here. But I will help you in one condition."
*ahh! Now the answers are requiring me conditions I don't know if I can fulfill* I got frustrated shortly and then asked, "what condition?"
He smiled in an obvious look saying,"if only I can. I am not an all-knowing person you know."
"I started to feel offensive" I sighed in reassurance while everyone else chuckled.
"So", "So", again we both said in sync and stopped, looking astonished at each other.
"Let her speak for God sake Anthony" the other man started to scold him, "in the first place, she speaks after taking a whole decade and then you interupt her" he said frustratingly that took me off guard.
I was watching them eyes wide open and lips parted in shock.
Anthony felt embarrassed infront of me and the man asked me to continue.
"I am sorry. I think I am bothering you" I said to the man in self disgust.
Both Anthony and the man shook their head in *absolutely not* and the woman beside him started to explain on his behalf, " no!! Not at all. Actually, we hardly get to meet someone new. We crave people's presence here. So, my husband wants to hear from you."
"If you guys are done discomforting each other, can we proceed on to the queries cuz I have to drop her back to her apartment" Mayi grabbed everyone's attention and commanded with frustration.
"It's okay we can do that some other ti..." before Anthony could complete I halted him by dropping my question infront of him not wanting to waste further time, "do you know what's Sanjid-e-Lordem?"abruptly.
Anthony took a pause and then said, "its a dead language. These words were used in the most famous story by Seetamnari. It means 'bow down to your lord' " in plain and stern voice.
*why would 2000 BC people tell me to bow down to my lord? Do they know we don't believe in lords anymore? And why me? How did Seetamnari knew about my hallucinations? * I got lost in my world of thoughts for a while.
"Tarika! Tarika!"
I heard Mayi calling me and I quickly came back to reality.
His explanation was enough for me to believe this was not just a waste of time.
He was looking at me puzzled and waiting for the next question because somehow my questions were going to answer his too.
I completed his sentence that I interrupted earlier, "its okay we can do this some other time" with a smile expressing *it was nice to meet you* and *we will meet again soon* and stood up.
I thanked him for giving me time and the girl for the tea.
We returned to my appartment.

I sat in a bench in the lawn, closed my eyes, letting the cool mesmerizing breeze touch my face.
Just as I opened my eyes, the sight of trees, birds, robots and the velvety grass; was blocked by a hand holding an apple right infront of my face.