Atticus stood there stupefied, glued to the floor as he read the meter reading dates. In his mind now ran a thousand conjectures.
He wanted to discern the truth underneath. He repented for barraging the two with his questions and accusations but he wanted to figure out who was behind all this. But above all, he wanted proof that he was not going insane.
So taking out his mobile phone, he checked the date again and then with a withered, helpless heart, he ran behind the two who had walked away.
"Listen!"
"Listen to me you two!"
He had to run quite a distance to catch up with them.
"Haaaa..... Haaaa....."
Placing his palm upon his knees he bent down and took deep breaths to tame its haggardness.
"What do you want?" asked Morpheous as he saw the old man panting for his breath.
"Someone... Someone is trying to play with my head," he said and stood upright. But from the look on his face, Eva could sense that he was still breathless and uncomfortable to talk.
"That is fine," said Morpheous and looked at Eva to continue walking.
"I was trying to apologize here, young man. Considering my age, I think I do have the liberty to yell a bit. Don't you think?" said Atticus and looked at both of them in anticipation.
"We do not want to cause you any more trouble. You have helped us enough. We will be on our own now." said Morpheous with a straight upright face as he was not ready to take any more of this bullshit.
"But you can reach there faster with my jeep!" and thus Atticus threw a bone towards them. He knew that time was the essence here.
Morpheous looked at Eva and thought for a while. Then looking at Atticus he asked,
"But why do you want to help us so badly. You don't trust us and we have no way to prove that we are telling you the truth. Then why do you want to take up all this trouble? What other intension do you have?" and finally Morpheous blurted out what was troubling him the most.
"I have my own reasons!" said Atticus and crossed in hands in front of his chest.
Morpheous was going to say something more when suddenly he felt an intense ringing in his ears.
"Gaaahhhh..." he yelled and held onto the right side of his ear.
"What is wrong? What is wrong with you?" asked Atticus and came close to him. but Morpheous took a step back. Taking a couple of deep breaths and jerking his head to the side, he said,
"I am fine."
"No seriously, what happened to you? Do you need any help?" asked Atticus.
Morpheous turned and looked at his jeep and said,
"Let us do it this way. Neither you speak about your reasons nor do you ask us about ours. We take your help and meet our friends and we will end this union."
Atticus nodded and walked towards his house and drove the jeep towards them.
"Get in!"
And thus drove the trio towards Riverdale, sitting in acute silence inside the jeep. After crossing the residential area of Whitestone they entered the serene area of the ranches. Craning her neck out of the window, little Eva let the cool breeze ruffle through her hair. Her eyes captured the greenery around but suddenly something caught her attention randomly.
On the sloped land were stones and crosses placed at a distance. A couple of them had some inscriptions of them and a few had fresh flowers underneath and few ones had them wilted. From the side mirror, Atticus could see that Eva looked curious, so he said,
"That's a cemetery if you want to know."
"What is a cemetery?" asked Eva and turned ahead.
"A place where you bury the dead ones. You didn't have it back at your place? No graveyards in your era?" asked Atticus.
"We do not bury. We offer the body to the fire God who separates the soul and helps them to pass through the gates to either heaven or hell," said Morpheous, and his reply somehow made Atticus happy because he had been fed up from his silent retreat.
But somehow the topic of death made Eva go back into silent mode. That painful austere silence started to prevail again, drenched with the melancholy in her eyes.
Reading the thoughts that rummaged through the mind of his sister, Morpheous immediately switched the topic,
"What made you change your mind, if I may know?"
Atticus looked at him out of disbelief, for even in the short span of time he had realized that Morpheous was more of a reserved and taciturn person. He was not someone who would strike up a conversation first. But with one glimpse at the side mirror, he released why. Even though he had a hard exterior, his heart was still soft, supple, and very much human. A heart that cared for his sister more than anyone could ever fathom.
Taking a deep breath, Atticus said,
"It's not possible for anyone to go to such lengths just to make fun of me."
"Uh... huh..." mumbled Morpheous.
"Ermm... there was something else that I found which was a little out of the place. Not sure how it fits the picture though," said Atticus and pulled out a parchment of paper from his pocket.
"You remember the diary that I received from some unknown person?"
"Yes," said Eva and turned curiously.
"Well, it had my electricity bill. Kind of like a note that the government or some council will generate based on how much energy you have consumed in a month."
"So?" asked Eva, unable to understand how it mattered.
"The thing is, you get the bill at the end of the month. This is the eleventh month of the year 2020, but the bill is from 2021."
"From the future?" exclaimed Eva and pulled the paper from his hands and tried to look at it even though it didn't make any sense. Then she flipped it back.
"What does this thing mean? It doesn't look like the usual script of yours? It is something handwritten I guess" asked Eva and the moment Atticus saw it, he pushed the brakes hard.
The jeep came to a screeching halt.
"What happened?" asked Morpheous as he could see that Atticus looked gravely disturbed and anxious. His lips were half apart as if he was attempting to speak something. He stuttered for a moment and said,
"This... This... is my signature."
He spoke with his eyes still wide in disbelief as he saw his own signature and date written at the back of it. Now he was pretty sure that it was not a joke. Something serious was happening. He was now sure about it.