Chapter THE UNUSUAL CHILD
Bhanu and her family were so happy to have the child.But, what was more surprising, was that, except for Bhanu, none of them knew that this was not her son.Everything had turned magically weird.
Aashutosh and his mother felt as if, she had given birth to the boy after nine months of pregnancy.And to her shock, magically, there were also photos of her and her husband on the walls of their house, that showed her having a swollen tummy.
For a moment she wondered whether this child was her sister’s or hers.But then she thought this would all go in vein, because the child needed mother’s milk.And as she never was pregnant,she couldn’t breastfeed the baby.
Just then , as if her body listened to her, the moment the baby boy pressed his lips on her breasts, her breasts started flowing with milk.
And the moment the boy drank her milk, she felt that the just born boy turned towards her and smiled, and was back to drinking the milk.Her body was becoming more and more beautiful and radiant as the baby boy drank her milk more and more.
The boy had turned out to be extraordinary . He was named AARAV.
When he was 4 months old, where babies still learn to sit, the boy had already learnt to walk.At the end of 6 months he was running around the house troubling his father all the time.
But Aashutosh was the happiest person ever. He would enjoy running around his son, who would trouble him, run away, go for some distance and then turn and give his toothless smile. Aashu just couldn’t get enough from loving his son .
Aarav had started talking at a very early age. When he was just 2, he would talk long lines.He turned to be good at whatever he did. Especially art. He would draw extraordinarily at only the age of 9.He had grown into the best singer of his school at just 10.
But he was bad at bio and chemistry.He was so bad at those , that he would end up singing or playing the flute while these classes were going on.
But not everything was perfect with him.The worse things were his birthdays.One or the other thing would happen on that day.
On his first birthday, three houses of Kamhaan were dust due to a fire over night.On his second birthday, flood had caused devastation in the town, causing 16 deaths and immense damage.When Aarav turned four ,his grandma died in with a cardiac arrest. Initially , the troubled Aarohi thought that it was just coincidence , but later she started doubting, but Aashu claimed that she was overthinking.
How much ever she claimed that it was coincidence, deep down she knew that they weren’t.The mayor’s sudden death, half of the forest surrounding the town burnt to ashes, a whole family dying due to do an accident while boating in the lake.The ‘coincidents’ just didn’t stop .
The worst coincidence came when Aashutosh, who had finally begun to believe that the accidents were actually no coincidence, ended up dead due to a car accident while returning from a gift shop on Aarav’s fifteenth birthday.
Aarohi had no end to her bitter life.Just when she had thought that Aarav had entered her life, everything would be good, but no.Life was testing her.And she had no reason to blame Aarav at all.
After all, did he do this?
No, she wouldn’t blame her son at all.
She had promised her sister that whatever happens she will not give up Aarav .Aarohi’s sister had entrusted such a responsibility on her for a reason.And she had to fulfill the conditions of the friendly priest.Though she had not known the complete truth either.
He had said that Aarohi will remember everything once her sister touches her head, but Aarohi didn’t. There still were somethings that just couldn’t leave her thoughts . She couldn’t remember the path which led her to her home world and also about why were Aarav’s birthdays so dreadful. She knew Aarav was not ordinary, not only in comparison to the mortal children , but also to the children of the Black and White world.
Neither did she remember the priest’s face, no matter how hard she tried, she had remembered his kind face for some years after Aarav’s arrival. But now , even when she strained her emory to remember it , she failed.
She remembered the memory lapse that she had seen .But the only difference was that now, instead of the Priest talking to her, she could see a man with a blurred face .
And on the other hand, though Aashutosh had left quite a fortune behind him for his son, it was getting less day by day.She had no choice but to find a job.
Since she had no degrees or certificates of the Mortal world’s colleges and universities , she had begun a daily lunch box service for her living which in the mean time had grown quite famous.
And also Aarav’s questions about almost everything he sees , were growing exponentially.Though she loved him, but the moment he would start asking his weird questions, he would start annoying her, he would ask questions like,
‘Mom, why are leaves green?’
‘Mom, why is the sky blue?’
‘Mom, where do people go after they die?’
And the list was endless.But she was the worst shocked when he had asked,
‘Mom, is there any other world, other than the world were live in? And is magic real?’
She feared that, now as he had begun asking such questions it was high time that he should know who he is.
But Aashu’s death had hit him hard , he had lost his abilities of singing , flute , music and even drawing , which was something which he used to do almost everyday , had become something he rarely did.
And finally he is 16 years now and also puberty had hit him, so he had grown responsible and had almost stopped his questionnaire.He used take care of the lunch box business when he was back from school.And no sooner were things becoming normal, Aarav was close to seventeen.
And Aarohi had no choice but to finally tell him the truth.
In his childhood, Aarav was quite a trouble, but he was not stupid. He had already figured out that he was different from the other boys and girls of his age.
He would get weird dreams, where he became someone else , whose body would be so divine that it would literally glow.He would watch himself sitting on a throne and around him, he would watch people, who were so different than normal humans.They would do weird magic and do things which could barely even imagine.
Some days he would dream of a war which would finally end with him waking up.
And some of his dreams included a woman, who was so much like his mother ( Aarohi) , he would watch her running through dark clouds and it would again end by waking up.
Some times he would dream of another woman, who he would make love with, while he being in the body of the glowing being. He was astonished , that after waking up he would feel like he really did it. He had even named her, Shubhanka .He would enjoy being with her, although she was just in his dreams.He would enjoy her lovely giggles and also felt pleasure hearing her soft moans.
In the beginning he would get annoyed by these dreams, but once Shubhanka started coming in his dreams, he would enjoy them.
The main reason for that was that Shubhanka resembled someone who he had a secret crush on ,from his childhood .
The moment Aarav had joined school, he would get bullied, not because he was new, but because he was extraordinary.
And as it happens to all the people who are extraordinary, the same happened to him.When a person is intelligent than almost everyone of his age, the person is either considered as brilliant or as a freak.And unfortunately Aarav was considered as a freak.
None except for two people were his friends.One was Pranay and the other was....Disha.
He had first befriended Pranay when he had saved Aarav from a senior year bully.The boys used to spend so much time together that they were inseparable.They were like brothers from different mothers.
And his other friend was Disha, his secret crush.He still remembered the day how he had befriended her.From the day Aarav saw Disha, he had a liking towards her.And ofcourse after he came to know that the girl from his dreams (Shubhanka) looked just like Disha, his liking increased even more.
So it just happened that their biology and chemistry lecturers had created a group of two and assigned them a project.It turned out that Aarav’s partner was Disha. His joy was on heights.But he feared whether or not she would like him because from childhood, bio and chemistry were his worst subjects.
But Disha wasn’t the sort of a girl who would make friends based on their intelligence and also she knew that Aarav was pretty good at almost everything except for these subjects.
So she started teaching him and day by day their friendship grew. Though both of them knew it was more than friendship neither accepted the truth.
But to Aarav’s bad luck, Pranay , his brother who he cared for more than himself, and Disha, who he had lost his heart to, despised each other. They hated each other and whenever Aarav tried asking both of them would say,
“I don’t know, I can’t stand that ugly face”
When Aarav would be with Pranay, Disha wouldn’t talk to him and when Disha was with him , Pranay would stop talking. But whatever it was , those two were still his best friends.
Aarav’s seventeenth birthday was coming closer by the day, and when only three days were left, Aarohi’s restlessness was at peak.So she did the only thing that first came to her mind,
"Priest, please help me, I can’t do it. I know I promised you, but I can’t!”
Then from nowhere, a calm and peaceful but a magestic voice some in her mind.
“What troubled you Princess?”
“You heard me! Why couldn't I speak to you for all these years ? I don't even remember how you look!" Just then , in her mind's eye , the image of a image of a heavenly man turned up. Eyes that shone centuries of knowledge and wisdom . A kind and peaceful face , that lightened up even the darkest of places.
“I can remember now ! "
"That's good . Now , tell me , what troubles you?"
"Its just ...how can I tell him, and that too after seventeen years that I’m not his mother, how can I tell him that he not my son?”
“But you promised me this before you ran away from the Black Kingdom. Have you forgotten that?”
“No. But...I can’t. Please, try to understand.I just can’t.....”
“I loved my mother too... So I can’t deny your request.But prophecies cannot be unfollowed, but for sure they can be altered.”
“What do you mean?”
“On his birthday itself he will know who he is.Though,not the complete truth... That he will have to figure out by himself.”
“Who will tell him?”
“I know the exact right person! Just keep faith and everything will be fine."