The Old House and The truth of Nature By Pushkala V

Rathi started a new life in a new home far away from her hometown. Comfortable silence, exceedingly beautiful and peaceful is what her new house look like to her. Rathi was a IT engineer by profession and does various drawing and artworks which was her hobby. Migrating to a unknown place doesn’t make rathi feel uncomfortable instead she was very happy and excited about her future. The reason for Rathi’s decision to move to a new place is her loneliness which she felt when she is not alone. She had a thought that people are being mindless and cruel now-a-days. But Rathi is certain that not all of them are. “I found myself a place. No one will come and irritate me here”, she said to herself each and every minute.

 

The house looked pretty old-fashioned and there is a plant in each and every corner. But Rathi is okay with it, because she bought it with her own money and she loved the traditional works. “The plants are so beautiful. Thanks to the former owner of the house. They left it here”, Rathi started to settle. She made slight changes to make herself comfortable. Rathi ran to the nearby grocery store to buy some stuff she thought she might need. She felt strong and independent. Humming her favourite song, Rathi cooked her own meal. Started to enjoy her new life. Rathi ate her meal and gone to bed after setting up her house.

 

The next morning, Rathi woke up with full of energy and excitement for the day. Beautiful song of birds wake her not the alarm. She started dancing for the tune of nature.

“It’s Sunday, Oh right”

“I am going to draw something and then i will decorate the house”  

Rathi had a perfect plan to spend a day.

 

When Rathi started decorating the front door with her artworks, a woman passing by stopped to see her work. “These decoration are awesome”, the woman amused to see the house getting transformed. Rathi was happy to hear that and she tried to enquire who the woman is. They started talking about the house and after sometime Rathi came to know that the woman was a friend of the former owner of the house and her name is Kayal. Both of them are nearly of the same age as Rathi. So it has been very easy her to make a new friend. Rathi enquired about the former owner of the house. She was told by Kayal that Vasuki (the former owner) sold the house because she had a possibility for a new job in some other country.

 

“Vasuki is a botanist and she loved to spend time with this plants and trees around. She was not so happy in leaving them alone. But I see you took great care of them”, Kayal talked a little about Vasuki. Hours went off by talking, Kayal decided to leave and invited Rathi for a Lunch in her house which is few meters away from Rathi’s house. Rathi agreed and they shook on it.

 

The following day Rathi went to Kayal’s house as promised. Kayal’s house looked so normal. Nothing to get interested in. But there were plants and trees all around. Rathi wondered to see the same type of plants she saw in her house and she constantly remember that Kayal told her she was a waitress at a restaurant in the nearby city. “It looks like you are a botanist too”, Rathi started to interrogate. Kayal told her that it was not her plants but Vasuki’s. “She was doing many research with these plants and she didn’t find place to plant it in her house. You can see it. It’s already filled with pots. So she asked me to take care of some of them”. They both ate lunch and Rathi felt that it is really good.

 

Rathi and Kayal were talking for so long and they became good friends. Rathi was really happy to have a new friend. While taking Rathi told that it was very difficult to take care different species of those plants. Kayal handled over a bag to her, saying it is left by Vasuki for the next owner of the house. Rathi felt quiet odd to hear when Kayal gave her the bag and thought, “Why anyone in the world would leave something for the one who brought their house”. She accepted the bag and opened it with lot of questions in her mind. There she hound a book that is so much used and it’s pages were old and brown. And there was a ball in the bag. It is a glass ball with a alive plant inside it. “This glass ball looks so beautiful! Why would she leave this for me.” Rathi asked Kayal. “Vasuki really loved those her plants so much and she definitely knew that it would to difficult for any non-botanist to understand them. She left this for them. And she also thought it would be rude to ask a strange to take care of all the hundred plants she left. So she made that glass ball to say her thanks”, Kayal cleared the doubts Rathi had in her mind. But something was still bugging her. “Who would actually use such old bag in this century”, Rathi took a look at the book. It was Vasuki’s research book about the plants, but looked more like a instruction manual to her.

 

Rathi left Kayal’s house and said she would be late for work the next morning if she stay. Kayal was so happy that she came for her request. It was 8 already. Rathi came home placed the bag in sofa and gone to sleep. That night she couldn’t actually sleep well. Rathi thought that it might do something with a long day and didn’t considered it.  

 

 

The next morning Rathi woke up late because of the trouble in her sleep last night. Rushed to work and forgot to water the plants. The day went on with so much work. When she came back home in the evening, she was shocked to see all the plants dreadful. She remembered that she forgot to water the plants. She watered them all and wondered “How could this plants look so dry in one day. There looked healthy yesterday”. She got freshed up and sat in the sofa to relax. “Oh! I left the bag Vasuki left for me here”, Rathi opened the book, there were many valuable tips to pamper all the plants. But there were some pages in the book that looked like it got pasted together purposely. More than 50 pages were pasted together. She tried to separate the pages but stopped, she was scared that the papers were so fragile. She might tear them when trying to do so. She took the glass ball, admired the beauty of the plant inside and decided to hang it in the middle of the living room.

 

Again that night she felt so hard to sleep. “Today I was pretty busy and exhausted. Why can’t I sleep”, Rathi tried to close her eyes like a steel door and meditated. Somehow she slept after few minutes. In the midnight there was smoke all around the house and the glass ball which she hanged in the living room got some smoke inside it. Rathi was in deep sleep, so she didn’t know anything about the smoke. The strange smoke started to fill the whole house part by part and it took the whole day to reach Rathi. Rathi felt hard to breath. When she woke up with discomfort in her breathing, she saw all the smoke around her. She somehow managed to find the window and opened it. Rushed to the kitchen to switch on the exhaust fan. She saw the smoke all the way across the house but didn’t noticed the glass ball. Eventhough 3 to 4 minutes passed with all the windows open and exhaust fan on, still the smoke had not left the house. Finally Rathi decided to call for help, as she thought that it might be fire somewhere so the smoke is coming from inside the house. She called the helpline, told what happened and left to Kayal’s house.

 

Kayal felt strange to see Rathi so early in the morning. Rathi described everything happened in the house. As soon as the police arrived, they checked for the reason for the smoke in the house. But they couldn’t find anything in fire or got burnt. There is no reason for such smoke get in the house. After sometime, the Sun raised and all the smoke that the Police and Rathi trying to get out of the house, disappeared in a minute. Police left after the problem got solved and asked Rathi to inform if something is wrong. Rathi was totally confused that it was only a few days, she came into the house and everything she knew about the house didn’t explain anything about the fire. Kayal was with her when the police arrived. She asked Kayal whether this has happened before when Vasuki was here. “No, I haven’t seen anything like this before. The house was totally fine when Vasuki was here” Kayal told about what she knew but Rathi was not satisfied with the answers.  “Well, the smoke is gone now. Go on. Be normal. You have a long day ahead. Get ready and get to work”, she made Rathi move on.

 

The smoke incident was still bugging her. It was a usual day. She came home in the evening, watered the plants but all of them looked too unhealthy. But Rathi was following the instructions in the book Kayal gave her. “No use. This book is old. If this plants continue to be like this, then I might have to move all of them outside. They might lack sunlight and fresh air”, decided to move the plants outside when she get free time. She is done with all her works for the day and off to bed. Same uncomfortable sleep made her feel so bad this time. She sat in the living room and tried to sleep. Rathi thought her discomfort might be because of her bed design. She saw the glass ball hanging in front of her for few minutes and then she has gone to sleep.

 

The strange smoke started coming back again. Rathi fell asleep in the sofa. So it didn’t take much time for the smoke this time to wake her up. But today she saw the dark smoke inside the glass ball, felt bit freaked out. She took the hanging ball, scared to see the smoke inside. “There was no opening seen in the ball, then how could…”. Being so scared of the ball. She throw it away. The smoke from the ball spread all around the house and became dark in a second. She couldn’t see anything.

 

Suddenly she felt like she was in a different place. The place she saw was dark and scary. “It was too hot. I can’t breathe”, she struggled to see through the smoke. After sometime Rathi managed to see what is around. It was a dark land. The heat she felt was from the volcano. The land was so pollution. All around she saw through the horizon is just dark sand, rocks and dark mountains. The only source of light is the volcano. No sign of life. No plants or animals found. It is like a disaster hit the earth. Rathi fainted and the last thing she remembered was a whispering voice saying “You should not have done this”. She fall on the ground so hard. She didn’t know what happened after that.

 

 

 

Several minutes later when Rathi was about to wake up, she didn’t know another unexpected incident is waiting to happen. Even now she is in a different place but it is not the dark place she saw before fainting. It is a place like heaven Rathi saw such a place only in her imagination. Everything is green and the Sun shine like Golden ball. The air is fresh and pure. The scent of flowers, music from birds and running stream. “I am dead. I am in heaven. After breaking that ball I guess I died. The dark place I saw must be Hell and now I am in Heaven. Oh my God”, Rathi lost her mind.

 

“You are dead my child”, Rathi heard a voice. But she can actually recognise that voice. “I heard this before. Oh, yes! It is the same voice that I heard when I fainted. She turned around searching for a person of that voice. There was nothing. Everything she can see is just the beautiful trees and flying birds. She thought that it might be her hallucination. Rathi remembered hearing that voice twice. The place, Rathi saw and the place she is now didn’t let her believe that all this are just her dream. “But I can’t see anyone. Then how can I just here a voice”. All the technologies, advancements, research, knowledge she had didn’t let her even believe everything around was real. Rathi didn’t faint this time. It is such a heavenly place. No one will dare to close their eyes.

 

 

“Anyway, I am here. I want to know what is happening”, Rathi shouted to the voice. The sweet kind voice started to talk again, saying “Dear, you are confused. Let me clear all our doubts about the different dimension you have been to”.

“Dimensions?”, Rathi exclaimed.

“Tell me who you are and where you are. Come and stand before me. Let us talk”

“Explain me everything”

“I am standing before you, sweetheart”

“It is you who didn’t see me yet”, the voice replied.

 

Rathi was even more confused now. She looked around. All she can see now is just the trees.

“Just tell me where you are”, Rathi yelled at the top of her voice.

“I am a tree. You are standing in front of me”, the voice replied very calmly.

“A tree!”, Rathi looked at a tree before her and recognized it as the tree she saw in her home.

“How could this be even possible”, millions of questions raised in her brain.

The tree was a woman. So pretty and calm. She looked sad.

 

When Rathi recognized that the tree is alive. She couldn’t take her eyes off from the tree woman. “You are so beautiful”, Rathi said to the tree and added “I apologize for the way I behaved. I am stressed and confused. Please tell me what is happening”.

“What do you mean by dimensions?”

 

 

“This place is Green Dimension. Your world is based on the two different dimension. One is ours and other one is the Dark Dimension which you saw before I dragged you into my dimension”, the tree woman described the dimensions. Rathi understood that the dark place she saw was the Dark dimension.

 

The tree continued to explain, “Your world is White Dimension. It contains both Green dimension and Dark dimension. White dimension is vulnerable to the changes made by the humans. If they continue to destroy our kind, soon the Dark Lord will take over humans world. Life will extinct from Earth”. Rathi questioned who was the one the tree woman called Dark Lord. “The evil soul and the only life in Dark dimension. He is powered by the destruction of my world through your world. Humans are the main source of destruction. We struggle to keep the Earth alive”.

 

 

Rathi was listening to everything she said carefully. “The only way to make him stop from evolving is through making us live. We are fading away from the white dimension because of humans. If they didn’t stop, humans will end up being a rock in Dark dimension forever”, the tree completed saying what Rathi has to know. Rathi is no more scared. She now know what she saw and what she had to do. She realized that she didn’t care for the plants and trees even in her home. “I am so stupid. I concentrated much on my work and forgot to water the plants left in my home”, Rathi told with pain from her fault.

“The former owner of the house even left a instruction manual to take care of the plants. But I didn’t even used it once. But I don’t know how I could make all the humans change”, Rathi asked the tree.

 

“You don’t have to worry dear. Everyone have their chance to change. Only pure soul can enter into the Green dimension and the others can’t. You entered and saw what is happening. You have a chance to change. It’s your decision now. Just Loving us will not help us survive”, the tree made it clear to Rathi that she was taken there just because the tree wanted her to.    

 

“But where does all that smoke came in my house and in that glass ball? How did I go to Dark dimension?”, Rathi wanted to clear her final doubt. The tree made it clear, “The glass ball was a portal to both Green and Dark dimension. It indicates the status of the world. The improvement in natural life and the destruction. You broke it because of your terror. That made you go into the Dark dimension. That Glass ball was not for the use of normal humans. It shows its power only when it is with the soul which can pass through. While the Sun shine, the ball represents the Green dimension and when the Sun set, it represents the Dark dimension. It showed you the current status. The Dark Lord tried to enter into your world through the portal. That’s why you saw the smoke. But don’t worry dear. He is a darkest soul in the world. He cannot get into your world. I will let you access the knowledge of the book you got, to save us”.

 

With everything in mind, Rathi was ready to go home. The tree made a portal through which Rathi can pass on to White dimension. While entering the portal, Rathi asked the tree “Can I know your name? If you have one”.

“Yes, I do”, The tree sent her home and closed the portal.

When Rathi opened her eyes, she was lying in the floor with the Glass ball broken into pieces. And heard a gentle voice saying “My name is Vasuki”.