Chapter 2 ( Part 5 )

Anita brushed her tears. Her tone was soft but firm. 'Nikki, it's a son's duty to open the path for the parent. Even if it is tough for you, you must accept your duty and perform it fully.'

'No wonder, they call us warkeepers Anita. How very disciplined of you.' There was a sound of drugs being inhaled. 'Isn't it funny how great conflict is always accompanied by great discipline? Like yin and yang. Like salt and water. Husband and wife. The military is great. I am proud to be born a son of a gun.'

Anita big canoe eyes sought refuge in Nate's composed ones. He sat down and let her rest on his shoulder.

'Don't worry Nikki. I'll send mother-in-law on her way in your place,' he said, 'But what about the Russian doll?'

A person on a high is very confident. Their train of thought is streamlined and very stable, according to them. But Nate keeps saying things that shakes the train off the railings. Aniket could only clutch hard at whatever is available to remain 'sober', relatively speaking.

'A Russian doll is a Russian doll…well…what of it?'

'Didn't you say the Russian doll is a timekeeper?'

'That's not what I said. What I said is…then…what it is I mean…'

A certain addict actually cannot stand not being sober. Because to him, intoxication was a state of being. A way of life. A fight for sobriety on body full of chemicals. And like in any war, he knew when he must retreat.

So after a brief pause, he said, 'Book my travels. I'll go directly to pod Dharma.'

'Good,' said Nate and hung up the phone.

It was in pod Dharma, his mothers' pod that Aniket told them what a Russian doll was.

He seemed awfully chipper about it. Only Niti was crying because he was high again. He was high in his mother's funeral.

Aniket didn't care about that and went inside the store room. He brought out a big Russian doll. It was a set with lot of dolls nested inside. He threw many of them out until only three sets were left. This left a lot of room inside the big doll and the sets inside moved a lot.

This was when Aniket removed the tops of the dolls. He began to fill the bottoms with ashes from his three mothers.

Anita was shocked and wanted to stop him from blaspheming himself. But Nate held her back tightly. 'Everybody goes through mourning differently. Don't be alarmed,' he whispered in her ear.

Aniket finished what he was doing. He showed his trophy proudly, 'See. An urn, inside an urn, inside an urn.' And the he kicked his legs, causing the three stacked heads to fly up and separate. Aniket flicked the middle one out and caught the other two. The small head of the third doll fell limply inside the big head. In the same moment, Aniket reversed the stack of urns in front of Anita's shocked eyes.

'Nikki, you can't mix the ashes!' she shouted loudly, horrified.

She closed her mouth quickly, but the mourners in the hall were already alerted to the sound.

They had seen Aniket in three funerals. They knew that the tender and beautiful boy they knew no longer existed. This action was not as surprising to them as it was to Anita.

The clicked their tongues and gathered their belongings with a sigh. They no longer could mourn in peace in that pod.

'The legacy of the house of Dharma is left in the hands of Shaitan,' they lamented as they left.

Aniket had a dull look as he watched them leave. He threw the doll to Nate face down and went to see them off.

His aunts and grannys were very vocal about not wanting to see him while his uncles and elders kept a disgruntled silence. Aniket is a petulant guy in front of family. He likes to argue and be rebellious. This had been the case in pod Dharma where he was raised and pod Sun he was married into. His backtalk can be very provoking and insulting, disrespectful to the elders who put thought and heart into raising him. Anita got over her shock and pulled Nate's hand to go stop him from getting into a fight.

Nate was holding reversed Russian doll that mixed all the ashes of Aniket's mothers into one. He had a very stomach twisting feeling.

Timekeepers are born of war and linger by war unto death. They grow up and enter a pod. A pod has their life partners, but they don't celebrate a wedding. They treat it as joining work. They don't have children. They don't celebrate a single event their entire life.

They only honour the dead.

This is what the children of war must do. They must live a life honouring the dead.

Nate pushed the doll in Anita's hand and rushed into the bathroom. He puked.

Then he puked again several times, until he emptied the contents of his stomach. He closed the door of the bathroom and did not come out again.

Nate was born in the house of a saintess. He was a unique existence even among timekeepers.

Although he was not religious, he understood the thing they call blasphemy. With his entire being and soul.

But for him to so weakly slide down on the bathroom tiles and close his eyes, blasphemy was not the only reason.

'I have created the Devil. I am sorry, my loves.'

Nate put his head in his knees and squeezed his eyes tightly. He cannot cry. He was a white man with translucent skin and eyes that easily become red. If he cries, Anita will know.

Then she will know…

He had cheated again. With all three of them.

And now…they had become one urn. They were forced to live in the dark. And in death, they even lost their identity.

…

But Nate cannot cry. He cannot.

Nate's loud sobs from the bathroom were like thunder in the sky. It woke up Anita up from her concerned trance. She ran and beat hard on the bathroom door. Nate did not open the door and did not respond to her. Anita had been worried about Aniket the entire time. But she could go mad with worry and not look back because she was standing on the strongest rock in the sea.

She didn't understand what happened. In those days, Progeny was predominantly an intelligence agency, but Anita didn't even know how to pick a lock.

She couldn't feel her hands or legs in panic. She ran out to the only other big rock in the ocean she knew. As expected, he was quarrelling with the elders at the pod gate. But when she called him, perhaps hearing the urgency in her tone, he immediately came to her. The elders also heard her panic, but didn't stay to ask what it was. They left with terrible expressions.

Aniket didn't look high or eccentric as he calmly picked the lock for Anita. But neither did he seem curious or bothered about why Nate was crying loudly. The men had differences, but they were more united than the sky and earth. Anita couldn't understand his indifference.

'Nikki, do you know why Nate is crying?' Anita had a foreboding feeling.

Aniket didn't meet her eye. He paused for a moment, and nodded lightly. He twisted the lock open, but he didn't open the door. He gestured for Anita to go inside.

But Anita didn't want to go. A woman's intuition is very strong. No man would cry so hard in a house of mourning for a simple reason.