7.3

 03 november, day 3

“Tea? Coffee?”

Our pantry help Deepu broke the spell with his question to our visitor, while setting my usual black coffee in front of me. “Nothing, thank you” she smiled.

As soon as he left the room, she turned to me again with barely controlled agitation. “You drink coffee now? How? Isn’t the caffoxin affecting you any longer? I need you alert and active, not lethargic and lazy.”

I must have used the word “mindfuck” hundreds of times before. It was only then that I fully appreciated the meaning and heft of the word. No other word could have described what I was feeling at that moment.

What the hell was caffoxin? And why would coffee make me lethargic?

I forced myself to take a deep breath. “Look lady, I don’t know who you are or why you are here or what caffoxin is. Either you explain yourself really fast, or I am leaving the room and Security can escort you out. Your choice.”

She walked to the window, giving me a view of that saree clad back again. After a moment, I could see her shoulders drop as she sighed.  

“Well?” I asked, “What’s it going to be?”

She walked over to my side of the table and sat next to me. She looked smaller now, almost as if she was deflated.

“I didn’t think it was possible Jai. The Grenog warned us this might happen, but you know me, I thought you… I thought we were stronger than that.”

I waited for her to clarify.

She continued “You volunteered for this mission to Lapis… I mean Earth. Fulgere, your home, your home planet, is on the brink of destruction. You are Liber, son of Atticus. You are one of the nine warriors who can time travel, so am I. You are here to search and bring back Spumen, at least 28 mingels of it, so we can build a shield and save Fulgere. You have been gone for too long, so they sent me to bring you back. I am Lilium, your dearest friend and partner. Is that clear now?”

Of all the words I could think of, “clear” did not make the list.

“No” I said. “I am Jaiveer Joshi, I have lived all my life in Mumbai. I travel from Bandra to Churchgate, not from one era to another.  I have no idea what’s a spumen and what’s a mingel. My partner, no, my ex-partner is Maansi and she’s left me to travel and find herself. My closest friend is Roshan. My father is not Atticus…. that’s the lawyer guy in that novel. My father is…” And I stopped abruptly.

I drew a blank.

My father? What was his name? Why couldn’t I picture his face?

She smiled at me. “That’s the glitch the Grenog couldn’t fix, remember?”

(c) Shilpa Chitre