Robin sat at the shores looking into the sea. David sat beside him smoking his cigarette.
“So you say I cannot go back now?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“yes you did,”
“I just said you cannot go back to your world.”
“So that means I am dead, right?”
“No. that means you are just taking a break from everything that once surrounded you and when you go back to your world, it would have changed. YOU would have changed.”
“Huh?”
Robin could not say anything to that. He had been in that place for quite some time. The sun had just been circling the island instead of setting. it was big red in colour so you could look at it all the time and your eyes would not hurt. It was like a big red bulb without hinges. Or was it like an eye looking at them all the time. He had no clue.
“So how long is it now?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Robin did not have a watch. He never had a watch. He would wake up when the sun rose and sleep when the Diana’s side of the wall stopped making noises.
At this place, he could not sleep. rather, he did not sleep. because strangely, he was never tired.
"how do you know what time it is here?”
"I already told you this was a place beyond time. Why do you think it has a name like that?”
”Ok, tell me why is it called a land beyond time? And who the hell named this place that?!”
David just smiled and lit another cigarette. Robin noticed his cigarette did not have a butt. David would smoke the whole thing up. Also, the cigarette never left ashes. It was as if he was smoking air and smoking it away.
Into thin air.
“I named it the Land beyond time. Just like you named me David.”
“What?”
“If you were given the chance to name the place, what would you call this place?”
“I would call it a strange place. Thats it”
“ok.”
David went back to his cigarette sitting unassumingly at looking at the sea. He did not stare at the sun. In fact, he was sitting facing his back to the sun. He stared the side which had blue sea and a blue sky with nothing on it. It was like a blank blue canvas ready to be filled up.
“What do you mean by ok?”
“We will call it a strange place from now on.”
Robin could not make head or tale out of it.
“Ok. So when do I go back?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean by I don’t know?”
“When do you want to go?”
“Right now.”
“Ok. Leave then.”
David got up and started walking back to the canvas.
Robin looked at all his sides. There was water everywhere. It was like a hemisphere with the island at its centre. Only the sun gave any sense of direction.
“How?” Robin looked at David. David had already reached the canvas. The painting in the canvas vanished with a touch of the brush. It had turned completely blue.
“How?”
“I don’t know. I am not the one who wants to leave.”
Robin looked around. His mind was racing. He looked at the water. He had come up from the water. So that must be the only way out of here. He kept his foot on the water. He realized his foot would not go into the water. It felt like a rubbery soft surface. He put his other foot on it.
Robin could walk on water.
He had no clue what was happening, but this was not some dream. he was completely awake. He tried to remember what he had had for breakfast and then remembered he had not had any. Maybe that was it. he had not eaten for three days, and he had just collapsed and now he was in some sort of Coma. It was all an illusion. A hallucination.
“Sure. If that makes you happy.”, Quirked David with his cigarette on his lips.
Robin looked at him. He was not angry at David anymore. It was a long time since he had painted the canvas. The painting of his life. He had sat there on the sand and had cried for a long time. His tears had stopped after some time. He kept staring at the painting for a long time. David had just sat there unassumingly staring at the sea. Soon, the faces in the canvas had changed characters. The faces he knew started seeming like someone else. And after some more time, It was just a picture. A canvas with paint on it.
“You know, you have a very strange sense of humor.”
David looked at him and smiled. He had painted Robin standing in the water with the exact same expression as he was having then.
“Who ARE you.”
__________________________________
“I switch through lives. I switch through times. I switch through worlds. I switch through time.
Call me anything you want to.
I am not who you think I am. I am what you imagine I am.”
This time, It made perfect sense to Robin.
He felt himself drowning and falling into a deep sleep.
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