Rh. II : Homecoming

You can find the first part of the Mini Series Here

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Robin got up shaking the sand off his pants.

“But who are you?”

“What name comes to your mind the first time you think of your father?” David asked him looking him in the eye.

“David.”

“well then call me David.” He said with a smile.

Before Robin could react, he started walking towards the sea.

Robin was completely confused. Why would anyone want to be called by the name of his father? Robin was still thinking when he suddenly saw the man disappear into the waves.

“HEY! WAIT!”

Any other day, Robin would have waited for someone else to go behind a suicidal man who wanted to be drowned in a sea, but this time he ran behind who wanted to be called by the name of ‘David’.

Robin went up to the waist height until he suddenly remembered he could not swim. He stopped dead on track. He could not see David anymore. Either he was getting shorter, or the tides seemed to be getting higher.He was still thinking whether he should go a bit deeper when suddenly a huge tide swept him off his feet. The tides had won the tug of war and Robin was swept off his feet. Robin could not find his feet but strangely, he felt as if he was flying in the water rather than drowning. The water seemed to just carry him from one wave to the other till he could see a small plateau at a distance. David was standing there with a brush in his hands and painting a canvas.

The waves dropped Robin there and died down.

Any other day, Robin would have fainted. But how can a guy who had drowned in a waterfall from an old cupboard die? He would have died already, wouldn’t he? All Robin could make make out of the sequence of events was that he was dead and that he standing in front of God who will soon make the decision to send him to either heaven, or hell.

“So, you think you are dead, eh?” David said without even looking at him. He took another cigarette from his pocket and lit it with his brush. Robin could see now that the brush was actually emitting flames. The flames changed colours as David stroked the canvas with it with a cigarette in his mouth. But  this was just what his eyes saw. His brain was on an overdrive.

“how the hell did you know that!!!” Robin didn’t even have to say it. His expression said it all.

“Well, how do you think?” David laughed.

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The Land Beyond Time

Robin stood there stoned. He tried to remember what he had had for breakfast that he was hallucinating waterfall from old cupboards and fire emitting brushes. but his mind returned a void. all he could think of right now was a man drenched to his core reading his mind.

“Who are you?”

David was busy painting his canvas. He didn’t seem to have the time to turn around and speak to Robin face to face. “you yourself christened me David. Remember?” He said with his hands busy on the canvas.

“No, I mean WHO are you? The real you. Not the name I gave you.”.

“Well, that is exactly the question I had asked you to ask. Who are YOU? the REAL you. Not a name someone had given you.” David said chewing his cigarette. Robin stood there speechless.  He had never really thought about this before.

Who WAS he?

There was a long pause as the waves came and went at the shore. Robin stood there like a stone while David continued painting with his brush. Robin’s eyes were studying the painting which David was painting. A portion of the painting was hidden from Robin because of David standing in the front. he seemed to be painting the landscape in front of him.

Robin did not say anything. he was still thinking about what David had said.

David turned to him as soon as his canvas was full. Robin could see the complete picture now. David had drawn the whole view around them along with him standing behind standing. The canvas seemed to have a strange three dimensional effect to it. It was as if the pictures were coming out of the canvas. But that was not strange about the whole situation. What was strange was David had not looked behind while painting the canvas. Not one bit.

Did he have eyes at the back of his head?

Davis was unconcerned about that. He obviously knew what Robin was thinking, but he did not show it this time. Maybe he did not want to freak him out completely. He just walked up to David with his Brush and stood in front of him, extending the brush to him.

“Go Ahead. Try it.” He said with smile.

Robin looked at David, and then at the brush. It seemed to be calling out to him. The flames of the brush changed colours every moment. It was so mesmerizing that Robin could not take his eyes off it. With slow, but steady hands, Robin took the brush. A surge of lightning went through him as soon as he touched it. David’s reassuring face made him pick it up. The brush seemed so heavy and full of power that he almost dropped it when David removed his hands from under the brush.

Robin walked up to the canvas. The flames from the brush grew bigger as he approached it. It was like a Magnet which was pulling robin towards the canvas. Robin came and stood in front of the canvas. The Painting had changed. Now Robin was standing in front of the canvas and David was standing behind smiling at him. It was as if the painting was a real life moving picture which showed what was going on around him. Robin touched the canvas with the brush. The Painting began to change.

Slowly, It changed to a room where there was a small boy sitting on the ground playing with logo bricks while a lady was cooking with the back towards him. Soon, it changed again. This time, a man appeared in the picture wearing an army suit and the lady was hugging him. The child remained in the same position. He seemed to have grown a bit though.

Robin kept looking as the objects in the room changed positions and so did the lighting. Days passed and nights went by in the painting as Robin saw the man come home and leave innumerable times. He could see the pain in the lady’s face. Soon, the child in the picture had vanished. Instead, the room in the background had a light glowing. The lady was now being accompanied with a different guy. As the pictures changed, she would always be accompanied with a different guy. Her expression changed from pain to a smile and slowly, ecstasy took over. This continued till one day, there was no lady in the house. Instead, there was the army man sitting with his head on his hands and a revolver at his side. There was a jeep standing outside with a bag. Two small eyes were looking from the crack of the door in the background.

Robin Dropped the brush. It was all too obvious to him. He knew the lady and the man. And the small boy.

There are things which the mind just wants to remember as a dream. Things which are worth forgetting, but cannot be forgotten. The brain pushes those things in the unconscious part of the brain and there it lies until brought forward in a moving painting  on an island with someone who could read people’s mind.

Robin sat on the sand for some time till he had the power to speak. He looked at David. He was smiling as he had been. He walked up to Robin and whispered in his ears:

“Who are you, Robin. Who ARE you?”

“What is this place?” Robin said in a completely exhausted voice. He was too emotional to say or do anything more.

David looked up to the sky and put his hands up.

“Welcome, to the Land Beyond Time”

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(Contd…)