"What are you lovebirds doing here?"
We broke the mesmerizing spell that we were caught in and looked back at the stairs in alarm. Hera stood there holding her saree in place, with a camera in the other hand in position. I took a step away from the growing tension of our eyes burning each other. His eyes were not finished with me. I can feel it.
"Lovebirds?"
"Oh, sorry. I was looking for-. Tara? What are you doing here? I thought you already left-"
After a good look at the two of us, she continued.
"Why do you two look like you got caught?"
"Doing what exactly?" I demanded.
"You both are flushed to the core."
Instantly, both my hands went up to cover my cheeks. I looked up to him and he's the dictionary antonym of flushed, he's pale, scared-pale.
"It's the moonlight."
Thanks for the save, Shaurya.
"Too red for the moon, don't you think? Well, I'm leaving that topic for later."
She said, her eyes critically analyzing me.
"Now that you're here. You took pictures of everyone but yourself. Tara, you should get a picture to send your family."
"Huh? I don't like-"
"Look, your parents are worried that you are overworking yourself, which you are. A post in Instagram in this outfit would be great. Maybe with a caption, 'enjoying the red hot moonlight'."
I roll my eyes at her. She does know that we have company, right?
"No, I don't want a pictu-"
She shoved me towards the wall which is lined with blue neon lights.
"Good background and lighting. Now, smile."
Before even getting a chance to adjust myself to the impact of the shove or the intensity of the bright blue neon light, a bright flash went off from her camera. She takes a look at the screen in her camera once, then aims the lens back at me for the next click without even giving a warning. All are purely candid.
"Hera." I whined.
"What?"
"You know that I'm not photogenic, right?"
"Yeah, I know that Chandler's spirit takes over you when you're conscious of being in the camera spotlight."
That's not what I meant Hera. But she continued anyways.
"That's why I had to take pictures at lightning speed, before your brain starts to work."
I give a small sigh. I am a candid girl. I hate faking happiness and smiles, just to remember a moment from past through screens. I believe in our high-storage-capacity brains, if the moment was worth remembering, the brain will do it for you. You wouldn't forget any bit of it, if it is important enough to be stored. Isn't it amazing how this organ works?
"Rest we can take from down, with Ryan and everyone else."
She stepped around towards the stairs.
"Oh wait." She said to herself turning back.
"What now, Hera?"
"You two need to take a pic together."
"Need? There's definitely no need for that-"
Again, she brutally forced him near me under the blue light. He seemed surprised at first but tried to keep his cool. A flash went off again. When has she ever listened to me?
"Come on, Hera. We are not ready."
She patiently waited as I perfected my hair.
"There's a stain on your dress."
Shaurya is pointing at my saree in general.
"Where? What stain-"
Dried melted chocolate stained a small part of the pink of my saree near my hip. It should've dripped while I was having my chocolate fiesta. This is why I never wear expensive beautiful stuff. I'm too focused on other simple things to care.
"Shit. I've ruined this too-"
"Does this happen a lot?"
"Almost always." I say smiling at him.
A flash appears again.
"Hera." I utter impatiently.
"Alright, miss. I'll wait."
"Is the stain visible in the picture?"
"You stained the silk AGAIN?" She said shocking, giving a whole lot of emphasis on the again.
"See. Again." I turned to Shaurya.
Another flash.
I shifted to face Hera angrily.
"I was just testing if the stain is visible. And it is. It looks bad." Isn't she making excuses?
"It is?"
She nodded disappointed. How to cover the stain now? My hair isn't lengthy enough for that. I tried my hands in different positions trying to cover it, but it is awkwardly funny. Better not take the photo at all, right?
"Then let's not take the pic-"
"How about this?"
Shaurya's hand travelled from my back, pulling me closer to him and rested on the side of my hip covering the stain perfectly. I fit perfectly in his hands. His touch is creating wild senses on my skin below the fine layer of silk. Ticklish, burning hot, melting, goosebumps and volts of electricity enough to light the whole city for a day. The closeness is very intimidating and if I take even a small peek at him now, I'm a goner. Avoid him at all cost. But my senses are reacting positively towards the cause of these impulses. My eyes travelled way up his black blazer, to the small portion of his neck to his brown fired up eyes. A white flash went off again blinding us from each other. We turned around to look at Hera, who is looking back at us with puppy eyes.
"Hera. I told you not to-"
She continued clicking the shutter release without giving it a rest, recording each and every movement of us. Realization crept me back to what was happening. I broke away from his grasp, marching towards Hera.
"Hey. Stop clicking-" I warned her.
She turned around protecting her camera from my reach. She knows what I'll be doing after I get a hold of it. Delete.
"Give it to me, Hera. I told you I wasn't ready-"
"I got some nice shots. I'll mail it to you. And your parents-"
"No, not parents-"
"And Daksh-"
I'm trying to reach the camera in between our talk but she's dodging each one with her Kung Fu reflexes.
"No. Don't. Don't send it to Daksh-"
She's running now with the camera and her pleats clutched within the same hand. I follow her.
"Let them know you are having a nice time..."
"Hera, shut up-"
I followed her down the stairs running. Not to delete the photos. That I'll never be able to do when the object of mainour is within her authority. I run behind her hoping to avoid another encounter with him. How will I look at him again. Nope, it's too embarrassing and it's going to show on my face.
______________________________________________________________
I made Hera delete every last one of my picture with him, keeping a copy just for myself. She says she didn't send it to anyone, especially not to him, but I don't believe it. He wouldn't even need it but still.
It's almost a week after the fundraiser's but I couldn't quite get myself out of that day. I lie everyday playing that day in rewind on my ceiling using the mind projector. And every time my thoughts wander around that day, I look red.
The pictures did reach Daksh. Damn you, Hera. Daksh was so happy to see it that he commented on every last detail in it, including my ruby blood rushed face. He never fails to mention it in every call of ours, this will go on till he gets another one of my embarrassment to replace it with. I'm used to it by now.
I'm at my room now, looking at Bet. It's almost ten at night and I rushed in from my lab to take care of routine today. I watered her, cleaned her drainage system, recited the ten nice things, sang a song for her through my faking-concert scenarios. She's doing great with the tiniest plumule ever.
"When can I see your leaf, Bet?"
I take a picture of it and forward it to the contact named Professor Whit Shirt. He's online. Soon a picture of his Bet comes along. Nothing is included in the frame other than the pot and the slightly extra grown orchid plumule.
I send him a text.
How's your plumule extra lengthy. Are you cheating?
My phone pings with a reply from him.
I think my nice things are nicer than yours. *smirk emoji.
Nicer nice things? What's so special going on in his life? I turn my attention back to Bet.
"We've got competition, Bet. Don't you want to see him fail? What could be more nicer, huh?"
On my way back to the lab, in the corridors of the main building, I find Czes running towards me in a hurry.
"There you are."
"What happened?"
"There's a problem."
I waited for him to finish reciting the problem. The problem is for me. I'm in trouble. There's a whole section remaining to be revised of Professor Gerard's. I totally didn't know there was a whole different area he researched, the reports and books of which have been kept locked away in the lab of his co worker. I am allowed to avoid it all costs, but the cost is that it covers most of the important prospects which I'll be concentrating on afterwards.
"What are you going to do? It's almost two months-"
"Yeah, my other pending works will be done within a couple of days. Will I be allowed an extra month or so?"
"Yeah, I'll arrange it for you."
As he said so, I am given an extra month for it. But looking at all the reports and files covering the topics I missed, a month isn't going to be enough.
______________________________________________________
For the rest of the month, I avoid all kinds of entertainment and dedicate myself solely to the purpose of finishing it before the deadline. Still seems impossible. Ryan and Hera is spending more time with Shaurya and the others than me, I don't blame them, it's all me. I've been the caffeine addicted, sleeplessly working, zombie walking person. In between all these, I do manage to call my parents everyday, text Daksh when I don't have time to call him, take care of Bet, complete the weekly reports, listen to songs, eat, and not die.
A few times, when I cared enough to show up at the apartment, I would see Shaurya sitting at the couch having a nice time with them. Not envious at all. I would give them a Hey and a smile, complete whatever I was here for and go back to my lab without wasting any more time. Why would things like this happen to me? I'm a cursed child. I hate deadlines. I'll be dead way before that.
After a whole month, when I was so sure I wouldn't even be able to do it before the time limit, I stopped focusing on stress-completing the experiments and started enjoying it. I read the worst handwriting but beautifully explained notes of the late scientist at late nights, imagining how this same lab would have looked when he did all the same experiments he was doing then. After completing the written notes, I moved on to the cassette playbacks which I accidently found in one of the suitcases tagged as Personal which I illegally opened. It does looks a little old fashioned to record these in cassettes when there are a lot more digitalized way to do it even back then, but I like him even more for choosing this way. The voice records are more entertaining, there's no images but the sounds alone have the ability to make you picturize the whole scene. Late nights, I lie down at the terrace of the building of my lab, eyes closed, with the tape on, recreating their days in my mind, listening to Professor Gerard and his co workers. Tape after tape, I started recognizing each voice and their personalities. It's weird how I enjoy it this much by not even knowing the people who the voices belong to.
It's the fourth month after taking up the big project of carrying on Professor Gerard's work. After a hectic day at the lab, I found the rest of the energy to climb upstairs and lie down at the terrace. My life has been so crazy lately, that I picked up a new hobby of star gazing to calm myself. I might end up discovering a new constellation or something. You never know.
I picked up the next cassette in the series of the year 2014.
"Day 259. It's a Friday night-"
"It's Saturday, Stephan." The female voice belonged to Professor Grace. From what I've been hearing, she has a beautiful British accent, is funny and smart. She is the one who notices all the major observations first. I like her the most.
"It's Saturday already? Another weekend in mud." This is Professor Stephan, a carefree American town boy, the youngest of them all, who gets yelled at pretty often in these records. He whines about almost everything but loves his work more than anything else.
"The tape's running, you guys. Keep it low." Professor Zach, the only responsible one in the team other than Professor Gerard. Professor Gerard is the oldest, and he takes care of his funny squad more than his work.
"Test run number 21." Professor Gerard's bold voice echoed in the lonely terrace. Ten minutes passed as they bickered among themselves on who will be writing the live report. Nobody wants to do it, finally Professor Gerard himself agreeing to it. A smile appears on my face.
"Hey, hey. I can sense the impulse in the micrograph."
Professor Grace was the first one to point this out too. The thuds of all the others running towards the graph made my heart beat faster. My shut-eyes opened in enthusiasm. They spotted a progress, after all this time.
"It's working on the brain neuron sample too."
Professor Stephan said with excitement.
"Really?"
More awes and wows. I can picture how all of their eyes will be shimmering with light, all while Professor Gerard is trying really hard to write down the notes in between. They then discussed how their specimen looks, the movements of the dendrites and all other scientific things that should be important for me to pay attention.
In between all the silent chatter of scientist, a loud thud silenced their atmosphere.
"Who's there?"
Professor Zach stood up from his bar stool, I can hear the creaks and screeches of the stool material since the tape's been kept close to where he's sitting.
"I-. Sorry, sir. The books fell down. Sorry to disturb-."
A new character with a strong Indian accent? Is it who I think it is? After a few minutes of book arranging, the tape spoke.
"Professor Les wanted me to deliver this package-"
Oh my god. It's him. His voice is more softer and younger coming from the record.
"Who's it?" I hear Professor Grace whispering to her neighbor.
"It's a student." The neighbor is Professor Stephen.
"Who's it for, lad?"
"It's for-"
"It's mine."
I hear Professor Stephen make a noise while getting up and snatching the package, soon without waiting for anything, tearing the cover open.
"Thank you, sir. Sorry again. I'll get going."
The Indian accent faded in the background.
Right. He studied here. It must be him. Or any other Indian student.
"Why's the package coming here, Stephen?"
"This is the last time, Professor Gerard."
This had happened many times in a few tapes, where some student comes in to deliver Professor Stephen's package. He orders them to the university since he's never home at the usual deliver hours. So as to what he's ordering, I don't know. I'm curious.
"All the disturbances happen when the tape's running." Professor Zach complained.
"Who's going to listen to this? Even if someone does start listening, it's highly unlikely that they'll reach day 259, a random Saturday which is mistaken to be a Friday."
I'm listening, Professor Grace. You should be proud. Maybe, it's because their records are so much contaminated with their personal entertaining stuff that they never made it available for anyone.
Suddenly, the ground below me started to vibrate and rumble. I heard loud footsteps approaching me. My very first reflex is to sit up and hide the tapes and the player which I bought from an antique shop, back into my backpack, which I successfully achieve before the intruder reaches me. It's Shaurya.
"Why are you here, Shaurya?"
"Do I need a reason to?" His voice is pitch clear, even while listening it from ground level. It's a shame he's not a singer. Why am I bringing this up to myself again?
"Yes. No. I mean, I've never seen you here so."
"What do the commoners do here?"
I can't tell him I am listening to tapes which I've no right to. Those will be taken away from me if I do.
"Stargaze." which is like partly true.
"Can I join?"
Can I say no? Will he go away so that I could go back to listening to my new virtual buddies?
"Yeah, sure." I say half heartedly. I still haven't looked at him properly. I can't.
He sits a few inches away from me with his hands holding his knees together.
"You like astronomy?"
"Not more than the neurons."
He gives an understanding nod, going back to his part of gazing the night sky. I look at him when he's looking at me. That's more comfortable.
"Can you identify any constellations?"
"Actually, yes. But only one, the Orion."
The story when I realized that it's actually a real constellation is funny. It goes w ay back into my childhood.
"The discovery was an accident, though."
"Discovery?" He turned to face me interested.
"Not a discovery, but you know when I knew that it's a constellation."
He nodded with a smile.
"How did it happen?"
"Don't you have to go back-"
"I have got time for you."
Woah. For me? That should have been a slip of tongue. Anyways, I look at the stars again and start spilling my little experience.
"Well, I used to stargaze at night from when I was very young but I never cared to want to know the constellations or patterns. I was only curious about each one of the stars individually, like I used to track their shift in position and things like that. Of course, my observations were invalid since tracking a single star is nearly impossible unless it has some different characteristic features or so. Well, after spending so much of my time and cute little brains on it, I realized that three of the stars always align in a vertical line no matter when and where I'm looking them from. I even used to draw it in my books back then, I named them Harry, Ron and Hermione, the golden trio..."
I can still see them together in the vertical line now. I laugh at myself. Why am I telling him all this now? Because he asked? Or because he said he has time for me?
"I was very excited that I came up with something new, later only to get disappointed that it has already been found out by someone else and also was named Orion. That my Harry, Ron and Hermione were called the Orion's belt. I hated that name. That was my first spark at being a scientist, when I had this hunger to find out something no one has ever before, something that's mine and no one else's."
"So where's Orion here in this sky?"
"Look for the vertical line. The rest should be easy, it'll represent a hunter. Try it."
He searched the sky for the golden trio. There you go. I connect the rest of the stars for him.
"There's Bellatrix.. Oh and that, those six stars in pairs- That's the Hunter's arrow."
I look back at him, just with my eyes, without turning my head to his side. He's not paying attention.
"Don't stare at me. It's stargazing that we're doing, not Tara-gazing-"
Oh, wow. I just made a pun, or whatever literary device it is.
"Isn't that the same?" He asked laughing through his eyes. Dimple, dimple, little smiles. How I wonder where you are? I cringe at myself for making that up.
"I know" I say completing his non materialized laugh "Tara does means star."
My phone beeped in the middle of our star tour. That marks the end of my recreation today, however I'm a little sad that I couldn't complete the tape. I don't know how fast the time flies. We were only talking about stars and boom, it's already time to work.
"I've to go. My break time's over."
I stood up, dusted my pants and took my bag.
"You make a great listener. If I start saying something like this to Daksh, he ends up asking too many questions in between. Anyway see you."
I say walking towards the staircase.
"You ever planning to return those tapes?"
"Yeah, after I complete-"
Today went well until now.