By Sarah Khan
Dodging through the group of seniors who bullied her, Petunia ran to the washroom and shut the
door with a slam. She gasped with a sigh of relief and perspired. Leaning against the wall, tears
rolled down her face. She wept fiercely.
The thought that she had no friend and a miserable family shattered her every time. It had been
years since her parents had died in a misery, she had no idea about. She had then been adopted
by a couple. She had dreamt of a loving family ever since she was small. She used to feel a
twinge of envy for those who had a loving family. Sometimes she felt like she didn’t belong to
this world.
She opened the washroom door and came out. There was silence everywhere and she could see
none. She decided of truanting from school. So she quietly walked from behind the backyard in
order to bunk the classes.
The number of people residing in the immediate vicinity was small, so she couldn’t find anyone
on the road except her. She walked crying all the way and wondering if there’s any way, she can
escape this toxic world.
Her way to the school passed through the greenwood. So, she used to travel on foot as no
vehicle could move smoothly on the woodland. She walked through the expanse of wild
moorland, reaching the thoroughfares.
She saw a river nearby. It was better to wash the face, hide the tears before reaching home; else
her foster parents will doubt about what happened and blame her for everything as usual.
Just when she dipped her hand into the river, she saw a golden ray of light being reflected from
the water. Petunia waved her hand inside the water in order to understand where the flash was
coming from. The water felt lighter than normal. She washed her face and realized that there
seemed to be emptiness in the water, it sensed like air.
Something snapped around her. She turned back and saw the snapping twigs. The grass and
weed were sliding against her pant legs. She heard the cooing of a pigeon. There was creaking of
tree trunks and birds chirping. She could smell the slight scent of flowers. The woods had
become dense and it seemed like an unfamiliar place.
Suddenly, something ran through the roof swiftly. Petunia twisted and jerked at every unfamiliar
sound. She was holding her hands out to ward off any unseen obstacles like tree.
Out of the blue, she felt a thrust and stumbled across the slanting slope. She could feel
someone’s weight over her body, as if someone was lying over her. But she was too frightened
to open her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t do anything,” she said repeatedly as she squeezed her eyes. “Please leave
me, I’m sorry.”
She felt somebody’s hand run through her sleeves. Her heart was palpitating and her palms had
sweated.
“I’m sorry. I’m – “, suddenly her mouth was covered.
“Shhh,” she heard the voice. “You made no mistake.”
Petunia opened one of her eyes slightly. She saw a face with inquisitive green eyes and blonde
hairs. She had never seen so deep eyes before. He looked so unreal. An earthy scent swirled
around him. When Petunia’s eyes opened completely, the strange boy gave a cosmic smile.
“Are you crazy?” the boy said in an appealing voice. “That was a snake.”
Both of them stood up.
“I didn’t know”, Petunia spoke in a sweet voice. “I thought you pushed me as an attack.”
“Had I not done that, the snake would have bitten you,” the boy said.
“Who are you?” Petunia asked as she saw the dewy leaves sliding across her skin.
“I’m Tyro Torrance,” the boy proclaimed huskily.
“I’m Petunia,” she said. “I lost my way to the home. Can you please drop me there?”
““I’m here to reunite you with your biological parents”, the boy muttered.
Petunia bewildered. She wondered if she had heard something wrong.
“You heard it right,” Tyro said. “Your biological parents are in a trouble and you’re about to
die.”
“I cannot understand what you’re saying,” Petunia frowned. “My biological parents had already
died years ago when I was young and I live with my step parents.”
“No, Petty. It’s happening in the other dimension of this world,” Tyro groaned, “Your biological
parents are suffering from Hepatitis and you’re in a serious condition. I’ve come from the fourth
dimension while you’re living in a three-dimensional world. You can change your past, you’ve
supernatural powers.”
When Tyro saw Petunia gaping and looking about nervously, he picked up a mirror.
“Look here,” Tyro showed the mirror to Petunia. “Do you see something queer?”
“I see a golden light,” Petunia gulped.
“That’s your superpower,” Tyro said. “Mirrors and all such reflective objects have an inner
power to transport people to other dimensions. But it could only happen to a person with the
same inner powers that is the one who has powers of traveling to different dimensions.”
“So, how did you know it’s me?”
“I found you in the woodland where you saw a golden light reflecting from the river while you
were washing your face. And that’s exactly the proof of your inner powers. I tried to call you,
but you neither noticed nor heard me because I wasn’t in the third dimension. Because of your
powers, you can be present into different places at the same time. I followed you, so I’m here
now. ”
“You travelled from the past that means you’ve inner powers, too.”
“No, Petty,” Tyro said. “I’m a physicist. I invented a time machine device that fits into mirror
and all such reflective objects through which I can travel to future.”
“How did you know about my parent’s condition?” Petunia asked.
“Your biological parents have an orphanage of their own where I’ve been growing up, too. Your
parents have been generous to me. They’re very ill and I can’t let that happen to you what
happened with me like how I lost my parents when I was small. We can change your past and
your life will be better.”
Tyro and Petunia entered the other dimension through the time machine invented by Tyro.
Petunia observed her wrist watch, it seemed like 30 hours had passed in just 30 minutes.
Tyro enquired about Petunia’s parents from/to their acquaintance from whom he got to know
that they had recovered from the disease and were returning by the evening flight. Tyro and
Petunia felt relieved to know this. However, Petunia wanted to meet her biological parents
before returning back to her third dimensional world. So, they stayed outside the airport.
After sometime, the flight arrived and the crowd ran like a rabble of butterflies. Out of the blue,
Petunia’s biological parents emerged. They were still out of their reach. Therefore, Tyro and
Petunia took a taxi to follow them.
Suddenly, the cab stopped on an isolated road and Petunia’s parents came out. They paid the
driver and he departed.
Tyro muddled as he saw a car heading towards Petunia’s parents. It seemed as if the car is going
to bang with uncle and aunt. Tyro didn’t have supernatural powers, hence Petunia turned up to
push them aside so that they don’t collide with the car.
Unexpectedly, the moment Petunia turned up; she felt a sudden heart ache. Tyro shouted her
name and cried out as she fell on the floor.
Her eyes opened and she found herself on the same moorland where she had met Tyro earlier.
She stood up and looked for him. The trees were gazing at her like silent sentries. After a while,
she heard Tyro calling her name. As she followed his voice, she reached the past where Tyro
turned up all of a sudden.
“We couldn’t save your parents,” he lowered his head. “You can only stay in the other
dimension up to the time your body can hold the energy. It makes your heart beat faster and you
might get heart problems if you overuse it. So, when you were pushing your parents away before
the collision, your body lose its energy and you got back to your third dimensional world.”
Petunia cried.
“Is there any way I can bring them back?” she sobbed.
“I don’t think so. Your body isn’t able to hold that much of energy”, Tyro turned anxious. “I’m
sorry Petty”.
After a pause, Tyro said “You might not believe, but those who killed your parents in the
accident are nobody except your own relatives.”
“What?” Petunia was amazed.
Tyro had lodged a complaint against them. When Petunia reached to visit them secretly, she got
to know that those relatives were her own step parents.
Actually, Petunia’s biological parents had gone out of station for the treatment of Hepatitis, so
they had temporarily handed over the responsibility of their business and the orphanage to their
relatives. The latter falsely declared themselves as the owner of it. Petunia's biological parents
got to know it all through a phone call. However, they could not believe, so they wanted to
confirm if it's a defamation case against their relatives. Since Petunia’s biological parents got to
know, this could risk the lives of their relatives because they would be arrested. When they
returned, the relatives thrashed them by an accident through the vehicle of the biological parents
so that people think they died of rash driving. Petunia was spared, so the relatives adopted her.
The relatives had always been greedy of money and envious of Petunia’s parents because they
were rich.
It was upsetting for Petunia to realize that her parents couldn’t live, but she was satisfied that the
relatives got arrested for business fraud and murder.
Petunia from the past, as an infant, bore complications later out of hepatitis transmitted by her
parents. Tyro got her admitted to the hospital. It took weeks for her to recover. But when she
finally recovered, Tyro made some experiments on her in order to develop the time machine. To
his amazement, little Petunia developed supernatural powers through the experiment.
When Petunia from the third dimension realized all of these, she was speechless. It was Tyro
who stood for her in all ups and downs. Her biological parents had passed away and her relative
aka foster parents had turned traitors. For the first time in her life, she felt somebody really cared
for her and that was Tyro.
Petunia looked around to find Tyro. She then walked and reached the bushes. It seemed as if it
had been days finding Tyro. She cried as she couldn’t imagine losing him for keeps.
Her body had lost the energy and she staggered and fell in a heap. She realized that while she
was in the other dimension, years had passed in the third dimensional world. So when she had
returned, she turned up as a young adult woman. Winters had arrived in the third dimension.
Since long, she had been lying on the floor.
“Petty”, a husky voice echoed all of a sudden.
Petunia’s heart started beating faster. She turned her face, slowly opening her eyes
unconsciously. Someone lent his hand which she held and stood up. As her heart pounded fast,
she couldn’t believe what she saw. She rubbed her eyes and saw a familiar young man.
“Tyro”, Petunia burst into tears of joy.
She hugged him tightly.
Tyro ran his hands through Petunia’s hairs, overwhelmingly. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes”, Petunia smiled, drawing him towards her with her eyes.
They both danced through the majestic forest that was the hangout spot for young lovers.
Enthralled by the nature, they smiled at the episodes of past, celebrating the present in the hopes
of a bright future.
By Sarah Khan
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