The emotion inducing magic potion

A whirlwind of thoughts started buzzing in Charu’s mind. How much can a human mind process, she thought. As if finding a solution to send the aliens to planet Antrina wasn’t complicated enough, she now had to find which race had the ability to absorb emotions!

Her own personal life seemed to have no significance compared to the supernatural, extra-terrestrial responsibilities being thrust on her.

Her mind had become a sort of supercomputer in which all kinds of data & codes were fed by Sheryl, Goddess Athena, Zygotes and Mermitans to process. Poor Abhay & Yuvaan were like co-programmers trying their bit to help.

Nevertheless, she knew there was no way out of this, and the only way was to go forward and deal with it.

Now, coming to the task on hand; how was she to find out which race could absorb emotions. It wasn’t as if she had an Antrinian format question paper – EEEC (Entrance Exam for Emotional Capability)! Also, even if figured out which race to go with, how the hell was she to load them with emotions? It surely wouldn’t be as simple as filling gas in a vehicle.

Charu lit a cigarette and calmly decided that there was no point breaking her head over it; Based on the trend of recent events, she would get a message, or an indication of some sort and she had to take the lead and act on it. Little did she knew that she would get the message sooner than she expected!

  ~

It was a big moment in the Oomen household the next day. Granny had finally come out of her coma and was able to speak, although a bit feebly.

Charu hugged her, ‘Oh, Granny. I am so glad. You have no idea how much I waited for this moment. I was missing you so much.’

Mr. Oomen clutched his mum’s hands. The tears from his eyes were falling on the old lady’s weak hands. Granny gestured him to come closer and gently patted his head. She kissed Charu on the forehead. Her eyes were moist as well. No wonder, the relief; she had touched death’s door and come back before it opened.

‘All this is well; I understand the emotions. But please give her some time, I need to check her condition and run some tests, please,’ said the Doctor who had just stepped in.

There was a lot of discussion in the evening. Charu was doing most of the talking and Granny was gladly all ears.

After dinner, before leaving her granny to sleep, Charu smiled and said, ‘Oh Granny, by the way, you missed my birthday. I turned 25. You owe me my birthday gift.’

As soon as she uttered those words, she noticed a ghostly pale expression on her granny’s face. For a moment, Charu thought she’d slip back into Coma!

‘Granny, what’s the matter? Are you ok? What’s with the look on your face? Did I say something wrong?’

‘You… you… you turned 25? Did you? 25?’, blabbered Granny.

‘Yes, what’s with that? And what’s with that number? Why are you stressing on that? Granny… Please say something or else I might need a doctor.’

’25… Oh, yes. No wonder, I escaped from death. After all, I had to live to fulfil my promise,’ said granny slowly gaining her strength and confidence.

Suddenly, the significance of ‘25’ struck Charu like a thunderbolt; Her discussion with the mermitans, underwater came down like a flash. After all, the Zygotes and Mermitans had waited for her to turn 25 years old. And now it seemed like Granny’s turn to open her ‘Pandora’s box’.

Wow, some 25th birthday it is, thought Charu still zoned.

‘In my almirah, there is a hidden chest at the bottom. You’ll find an old cover, brown in colour. Please get it, Charu,’ said Granny.

Charu didn’t waste any time in questioning. She went to her granny’s room, opened the almirah, found the envelope and returned.

‘This is the most special gift that I can give you, right now. I think you must have realized a lot of things by now, but this should answer any remaining questions, darling. I am just the messenger, this is from the great Sheryl Varghese, herself,’ said Granny with so much pride in her voice.

‘Go to your room, my child and take your time to go through it. I am so glad I could keep my promise to her majesty.’

 Charu lost no time in rushing to her bedroom. With bated breath, she opened the huge cover. There were 3 envelopes in it, marked ‘1’,’2’ & ‘3’ and a piece of paper on which was written – “Open only ‘1’ first. Do not open the other envelopes without completely reading ‘1’.”

She opened the one marked ‘1’.

There was a key, an authorization letter, and a note.

‘My dear child, you are Me now. If you are reading this content, it means that you are ready and prepared to fulfil a divine prophecy. Follow the instructions in this envelope and you’ll complete the first part of the prophecy. After completing it, open the envelope marked ‘2’. 

Take the authorization letter and key to the ‘Martha’s Vineyard Bank’ in Edgartown, Massachusetts and ask for a safety deposit box in the name of Sheryl Varghese. In the box, you’ll find a bottle which has the magic potion to induce the emotions back to zygotes or mermitans. On a full moon night, you’ll have to gather them around their mound in the middle, open the bottle, and pour its contents on the mound. Once you are done with this act, you may proceed to open envelope, ‘2’. Under any circumstances do not open ‘2’ or ‘3’ until you have completed this operation.’

 ~

Charu was too dazed at the turn of events the previous day, but at least she got some direction to follow now, and she had to act quickly.

She knew she couldn’t go to Massachusetts alone without arousing suspicion among the aliens. So, she called for an emergency meeting with King Zygote and King Mermitan using their telepathic mode of communication.

Charu heard her dad knocking on her door and opened it.

‘Child, there are two guys asking for you downstairs. They seem to be identical twins. I haven’t seen anyone so identical in my entire life. Shall I send them up?’ asked Mr. Oomen.

Charu seemed bewildered but somehow controlled her expressions and asked them to be shown upstairs.

When they arrived in her bedroom, she burst out laughing, ‘Oh my… What’s with you folks? The so-called Kings and this is the best you come up with?’

Both King Zygote and King Mermitan had arrived in the Charu-preferred-Museum executive’s human form! No wonder they looked damn identical.

‘I don’t know about Abhay or Yuvaan, but I might fall in love with this guy,’ said Charu still laughing out loud.

‘Well, we both preferred your preferred choice and landed up upon your call instantaneously and before we met each other, your father had seen us together and we stuck to it,’ said King Zygote.

‘So, what’s the reason for this urgent meeting?’ asked King Mermitan.

‘I think we are onto something and I need to visit this bank in Edgartown, Massachusetts to bring something important present in a safety box in the name of Sheryl Varghese,’ said Charu coming straight to the point.

‘Excellent, let’s get on with it then,’ said King Zygote.

‘Good, then let me check the available flights and make a reservation,’ said Charu.

Now it was King Zygote and King Mermitan’s turn to burst out laughing. It was a weird sight for Charu to watch both the identical twins laughing identically in sync.

King Zygote looked at King Mermitan and said, ‘You be the chartered flight, I’ll be the Pilot. I’ll get some of my fellows to be the co-pilot and staff.’

Charu looked at them both, stunned and said, ‘Suits me fine, that’ll save me some bucks.’

‘Be prepared, tomorrow. Let’s go and get it,’ said King Zygote and they both left.

Charu informed Abhay and Yuvaan of the latest developments and somehow convinced them that she’d be fine, and she’ll call them once she came back. She promised to be in touch on the phone and keep them posted.     

 ~

Martha’s Vineyard Bank, Edgartown, Massachusetts

With King Zygote and King Mermitan accompanying her as her bodyguards, Charu showed the authorization letter which enabled the bearer to open the safety deposit box. An executive accompanied Charu inside the secured chamber and he inserted a key to the vault and asked Charu to do the same with her key. Once the box was open, he left her to wait outside. There was a wooden casket in the box; Charu took it out and locked the vault.

(Now, dear reader, you might be wondering if Charu totally forgot about the part where she had to take a decision on which race to induce the emotions with, because she had looped in both on this mission. No way, Charu’s too smart for that. She had already prepared a litmus test in her mind which she planned to present at the right time.)

‘So, what’s in the box and what’s next?’ asked King Zygote.

‘Please trust me on this, just gather all your folks two days from now as it’ll be a full moon night. We’ll meet at the lake shore outside the cave. You come with your mounds. I have something important to declare and act then,’ said Charu in such a dominating and assuring tone that it reminded King Zygote and King Mermitan of Sheryl Varghese in all her majesty and godliness.

 Full moon night at the lake shore outside the cave

All the zygotes gathered on the lake shore and all the mermitans on the surface of the lake. King Zygote and King Mermitan were holding their respective mounds. Abhay and Yuvaan too were present, and they were clueless of what Charu’s litmus test was going to be to decide which mound to pour the contents on. They were worried about any repercussions in case things went wrong. Even Abhay with all his authority wouldn’t be able to do anything. (Is it legal to arrest aliens? Any extradition treaty to planet Antrina?)

Charu opened the wooden casket and there was this bottle in all its resplendent glory containing a bluish liquid on the outside and an orange liquid inside, that looked divine and heavenly in nature!

But wait! How was it supposed to be opened? It didn’t have an opening. King Zygote, King Mermitan, Abhay & Yuvaan examined it taking turns and finally King Mermitan figured it out. It was a kind of ancient, encrypted bottle which had another bottle inside it. The bottle was designed in such a way that the correct code had to be set at the counter to gain access to the inside bottle without harming the contents. If an incorrect code was entered, the contents in the external bottle would break into the internal bottle thereby mixing that potion and rendering it useless for its purpose.

Charu was stupefied. There wasn’t any mention of this in the envelope. Was all this for nothing? She suddenly felt like a fool amongst all of them.

Then, suddenly like an unexpected flash of lightning, the Sherylness inside her rose to the occasion and she set the code at the counter and the outer bottle burst open throwing out the bluish liquid with the internal bottle containing the orange liquid intact.

Of course, the code had to be, ‘MV02FK09’. How could she miss it? No wonder Sheryl knew that Charu would figure it out.

Charu proudly held out the bottle like the statue of liberty.

Abhay and Yuvaan looked at each other and seemed to say, ‘Now it’s time for the litmus test!’