At this time, Anita used a phrase that Nate buried inside his consciousness, hoping never to hear it.
'Nate, do you remember the Russian doll?'
Anita looked up when Nate did not speak.
'Do you remember what Aniket said that day? There was no Aerog twin that was successfully birthed in history. It is biologically not possible. So how was he born?'
'What are you saying Niti?'
The physiology of an Aerog twin is very different from an identical twin or from any other normal person. Whenever Aniket gets admitted in the hospital, the physicians, especially surgeons, get confused about to how to treat him. There is no doubt that Aniket is an Aerog twin.
'Nate…' Anita brushed her eyes, 'The Aerog twin is sort of a tumour in the womb. He doesn't have an umbilical cord. It is impossible for him to be born!'
Nate heard these words once before. A doctor was irritated because he couldn't understand the nerve pathways while preparing for Aniket's surgery. He threw the file at his deputy and shouted, "It is impossible for this creature to be born!"
In the end, Aniket was not treated. He was bandaged and discharged, so he can heal at home. The same thing happened three times in a single year. Nate changed his role to a sniper and also trained him in remote warfare. Aniket was new to the field and injuries are unavoidable, no matter how talented he was. Nate was just trying to reduce the risk by changing his position. But Aniket thought he had been changed into a killing machine and started using drugs.
This matter had weighed on Nate heavily ever since he knew Aniket's thoughts.
'But Niti, what does this have to do with the Russian doll?' he asked, his voice strained.
Anita brought two disposable cups. She put water in one cup and salt in the other one.
'This cup is filled with life and this cup is filled with death.' Anita reversed the salt cup and closed the water cup with it. She separated the cups again. 'What is in the cup now? Life or death?'
'Death?'
'It's not arsenic Nate. It's salt.'
'Life then.'
Anita realised she was not the queen of metaphors. She said, 'Neither. Let's call it disease.'
'Yes.'
Anita opened her purse and brought out a little Russian doll. It was the cutest thing in the world, but it made Nate's face blanch till it became a white sheet.
Anita opened the Russian doll. There was nothing inside. She repeated the same thing she did with the paper cups. She closed the doll and showed her husband, 'Nate, what now?'
'Hmm?' Nate was startled.
Anita pulled his hand gently. She rubbed his palm along the needle to relieve the numbness there. Last night, Nate didn't wake up when the doctor gave him the needle. It showed how thoroughly exhausted he was.
But Anita was worried about Aniket. She could only trouble her husband, even though he was so unwell.
'How about now Nate?' she asked, feeling guilty.
'Umm….'
Anita demonstrated again by touching the rims of the two paper cups before slowly 'folding' them to be on top of one another.
'Nate, the two cups are two wombs from different time frames. One cup has the Aerog twins. And one cup has ashes…'
'Niti, please…' Nate physically retreated. He leaned away.
'Of One.'
'One…'
Anita felt uncomfortable herself, but she quickly opened a video. Nate had closed his eyes and had forgotten everything due to the trauma. But he saw again what Aniket did at his mama's funeral. The ashes of his lovers were all mixed together in front of Nate's eyes.
'Niti…' the inflectionless voice was a precursor for Nate's anger. Anita was most afraid of Nate's anger. It is as hot as the sun and unforgiving as the desert mountains.
Aniket suddenly came and sat between the two on the seat. He had eaten all the bagels. Now he was chewing the last one.
Niti and Nate froze.
Aniket stacked three paper cups together and banged them against a last one in reverse. The crumpled fourth cup started leaking water. Aniket suddenly reversed and separated the cups. Now the both of them had a little bit of water.
He didn't speak at all. He ate his bagel, drank the water from both cups and left.
Breathing in the silence after he left, Nate first found his voice. Something struck him inside his head like a god's hammer.
'So you're saying the Russian doll is actually a womb! My wives' consecutive suicides created it…!'
Anita nodded urgently. 'There is not enough room for identical twins with different genders in the same placenta. Nate, Aniket's Maa did the opposite of folding space! She expanded it! Her ashes…no. Her body Nate. She became the Russian Doll! A fortified and sanctified divine womb that enclosed that knot that left two strings free…'
'The knot?'
'The knot the divine consciousness put in the thread to stop the eye of the needle from slipping.'
'But Niti, you are saying…'
'Aniket and One are twins. Our boy…was conceived in a different time. He gestated for seventy odd years. Then he came here.'
Aniket had no known parents. Someone found him at a young age, eating grass in a devastated mine field. He was probably three, probably one. They couldn't tell. An unlikely conundrum but one they thought was solved by diagnosing him as an Aerog twin.
The more likely truth is, he was just born.
Nate let out a deep breath. 'So that's why he is so similar to One…In…the womb…must've been empty. But for One.'
'Yes…'
Anita could feel Nate's grief. His various emotions. She couldn't tell him at the time, Aniket was not 'similar' to one One. Aniket was One.
From the beginning, there was no Aerog twin. From the beginning, it was One's ashes that's been collected and put inside the Russian doll.
Aniket was not One's brother. Aniket was One's death.
Thus came the code, King Adharma lives forever.
The ultimate duplex mirror.
This is why it had be all three of them. Because One had asked the great almighty to make him live. Grandma reflecting the sky. Granddaughter reflecting the ground. Daughter in the centre, reflecting the womb.
He was born in the womb of death, her son.
People only remember the marvels of science and forget the miracles of art. The story of One's death has been around forever. But three women cast their entire lives to make it true.
Aniket as a reincarnation of himself was perhaps unable to be made by King Yama himself. Perhaps he will one day take over the throne and become the Hell King himself, mom thought idly.
He certainly had the resources for it, but the Russian Doll stacked nine times is how One (or King Adharma) organised Progeny's entire data. Aniket was the duplex mirror on the wall of the innermost doll. He only had to climb timekeeper levels up to the fifth level, and the entire organisation will come into his very hand.
Anita was still wondering how to comfort Nate when her husband suddenly took her into his arms. Not a moment later, she was sitting on a hot thing while wrapped inside hot, pincer like arms.
'What's gotten you so excited?'
Nate kissed his wife's ear. He hadn't yet found out why she was crying. But he couldn't stop his hands from roaming all over her, his hot breath from falling on her.
Anita had no intention of letting this burning object anywhere near her. But Nate was a very passionate man. He would not let her go once he started. Naturally, she opened her XO and told Aniket to interrupt his business. Nate was still a patient!
'Well?'
Timekeepers cannot have children. XO blocks their fertility levels. However, they can get rid of this block if they study it hard enough. Nate cannot be said to be the studious type, but he was one of the very few timekeepers who undid this block after timeless research.
His intention was not to have children. Just to remove any inadvertent enemies of his passion. Such a studiously passionate man will not allow anything to come between him and his love.
But when he heard Aniket's purposely loud and hesitant footsteps, he stopped what he was doing and helped Anita straighten up.
'Time travel,' he said to her.
'Huh? Time travel?'
'In dying, my wives travelled back in time and became the womb of an Aerog twin. Of course, they knew how to go there because this twin was their own child. It is a bit of a paradox, but that's how time travel is.' Nate looked at Anita. 'Time travel!'
Anita laughed and smooched the silly man. 'Yes Nate. It was not your fault. Pod Dharma is an ancient pod that is said to be King Adharma's own pod of wives. Your wives must've known about folding space from the beginning.'
Nate rubbed his face. 'I wonder if they really had to die for that…'
'Since they were giving a life…' Anita twisted his head and said strongly, 'Their choices had nothing to do with you. They didn't want to leave you while you were in a relationship. Do you understand?'
Nate sighed and rubbed his face on Anita. He picked up the Russian doll and drank the contents inside with a swig. Putting it in his pocket, he walked out.
Anita is too silly. As if this rascal would dare to walk in on his dad's business. Only if he wanted his butt not to bloom in ten directions.
Seeing a visibly relieved Aniket outside the door, Nate threw an elbow around his neck and walked away.
So you are One.
Nice to meet you.
A few days later, the trio left the hospital and the country and went back to their pod. Aniket was overcome by curiosity and decided to eavesdrop on mom and dad's funny business. He had been running out of moves to put on Anita and needed inspiration.
Only, what he heard was Anita's endless sobs. He was very alarmed.
'He's already very different. Already cannot communicate. What if he knows about this? And he certainly will…He won't talk to us anymore…He will become even more of a loner.'
Who is she talking about? The neighbour Roddy's pomeranian?
'Don't cry Anita…you've been crying every day since that day. Let's deal with it as it comes.'
'And what of…what of…' Anita hyperventilated for a long time, making Aniket want to rush in. She used a very tiny voice to say, but he hacked her XO to listen closely.
'What of…what if…What…'
"Niti…'
Anita answered between sobs. 'He died Nate! What if he remembers that? How traumatic!'
Who died? Was it Nate's virtual avatar? Surely, he was a little weak. But he died already?
Aniket wanted to tell Anita that Nate's virtual avatar won't remember the previous instances. Nate was very cheap and didn't buy the rebirth function.
'Niti, you're worrying for nothing! I think you're getting old. Your hormones are changing.'
As an answer to which Niti sobbed louder.
'Niti, I didn't mean it like that…Niti, I'm sorry…'
'I'm only thirty-two Nate,' Anita said with a clogged voice. Aniket saw from a crack in the door, she brought Nate to his knees. He was begging for reconciliation while rubbing her tears.
'And O…O…I mean…' Anita showed her index finger for some reason. 'Was only twenty-five. And…and…and you know who is also twenty-five! They've had parallel lives…what if!'
Nate hugged Anita tight as she devolved into a puddle of salt and water. Aniket silently closed the door and left.
The last thing he heard was Anita talking about someone's suicide attempt.
The neighbour Roddy's pomeraranian didn't commit suicide. It must be Roddy.
As a result, Roddy, the neighbour got a free counselling session from the hot neighbour. One must know that Roddy is not gay. He was not bi. He was just smitten.
It is lucky he was not in World Prison or he would've been dropped in an abyss of nightmares because of this small movement in the heart.
After successfully treating the poor man, Aniket made his way out of the grand villa by himself. He was waylaid by Roddy's mom who used a large voice to berate him.
How long will you trouble your sister like this? She was so worried about your suicide attempt. If it's just cash you want, why don't you ask me? Am I not your aunt? Do you have to pretend suicide to get her attention? Anyway, your brother-in-law is not bad to you. You should respect your elders….
After exactly half an hour, Aniket got his ears back. But it is doubtful if they are ever the same again. They are a pod with no parents. It's troublesome because not everything about life can be studied in books. Without the elders' advice, children are lost.
Unfortunately, Anita sought the hand of the neighbouring aunt who thinks they are brother and sister. What a mad girl!
The next morning Aniket had a very serious look in front of Nate. He was standing in attention and in uniform. He was saying 'yes, sir', 'no sir' to this and that for half an hour.
Nate raised his eyebrows and shrugged to Anita on the way out.
'Is he serious?!'
'He's very serious.'
'Will he seriously leave the drugs?'
'That's what he says.'
'What changed his mind!'
'He says the neighbouring aunt gave him a lecture.'
Anita was speechless.