The Rejection

9

I have written that the cave holds the fortune, but let me explain more that, what kind of fortune does it hold. It was told to us by our father, “It happened somewhat 154 years ago. Time was around 10’o clock night. It was winter so at 10’o clock the night was even darker in the village. Villagers were winding up their day and were about to sleep, some were even sleeping too. Some were in their home and listening to the radio about the news of nearby cities, some were taking their dinner, and some were sitting outside of their houses and sitting on the bench and were talking to each other about their day, about how bad the economy was, and how every time villagers like themselves had to suffer from the bad economy... Children were packing their bags for the next day of school. Some were even playing in the street light as their parents were talking to each other about children’s future and their education. In amidst of gossiping children were playing, it was still silent because of winter. Suddenly a huge explosion was heard by everyone. Everyone got scared but tried to ignore it and continued doing what they were doing. After some time it was heard again but this time it was so massive, every villager’s house and the property felt earthquake too. Everyone started to run in panic and gathered in an open place near the jungle where they could be safer from earthquakes and explosions. All were frightened and started praying to God to save them. The earthquake did not last too long but that explosion’s sound was still ringing in people’s heads. No one had the courage to go inside their house, everyone was looking at each other, thinking about what they should do next. The head of the village was out of the village and that created more panic as everyone was used to follow his order in panic situations but he was not available to give them orders. All decided to stay together for that night and tried to be not worried about it anymore, as long as they were together they had nothing to worry about. Our ancestors or great great grandfather and their family were also part of the crowd who were standing altogether to save themselves. After that night, the next morning when all went to their own houses, great great grandfather of ours went to their house too. It seemed pretty normal for everyone, no damage was done to any house, and place and stuff were intact of everyone. Everyone thanked god that no damage had taken place as they had worked really hard and made money by it and did not want their property to get affected by the earthquake. Everyone works hard for their money but villagers like to pretend that they work harder than the city people do. 

All started to live their day normally from that morning. On the way to their work, our great great grandfather saw something weird, near our house. A big hole was created which was so wide and so deep that he had never seen before, one like that. He got curious about it and wanted to know what it was and how it got created but was afraid to do it all alone by himself. He went back home and asked his brother to accompany him to that hole and to see what it was in. Both of them reached there in haste and began to explore it. They saw the hole which was created, was really very huge and it was not possible to explore it, without having any tools. He took the help of aerial roots of a banyan tree which was above that hole and they tied themselves up and went into that hole. It was completely dark inside it. They were scared and in the back of their mind, various thoughts were running that they should not have come in here without letting anyone know. They decided that they should not go any deep into the hole and should get out of it. But then they reach a certain point where they saw some sparkly things which were reflecting. They got curious and thanked themselves that they did not go back after reaching that point. They untied themselves from aerial roots and went close to that thing which was reflecting. It was reflecting so much, they had never seen anything like that before. They did not quite understand what it was, but through reflection, they guessed it could be something similar to diamonds. One of the brothers tied himself with root and went up, out of the hole to bring a lantern. He brought the lantern with himself and went back again in the hole to check what exactly it was. With the help of lanterns, they got closer to that sparkly thing and they were stunned to see what they see. It was really Diamond. It was a huge block of Diamond. Widely spread and in huge mass it was a whole block of Diamond. They could not believe in their eyes and they thought they were dreaming about it. It could not be real, like Diamond?? How could it be from here overnight? They were in great tremor and yet were very thrilled. They hugged each other and were so happy. They came out of the hole and began to think about how to hide it out of the sight of villagers. A hole was really heavy and it was difficult to hide it with anything. They temporarily covered the hole with the help of so many aerial roots. 

They went further into the jungle and sat under one tree. They started to make plans for how to cover it, as it was so big and enough that it could catch anyone’s attention. They had to hide it and while doing so, they also had to make sure that no one sees them. The younger brother of them told his elder one that, yesterday’s explosion might have caused it and the earthquake and everything were because of it. But elder brother asked him, how one explosion could create such a huge block of a diamond. The younger one told his elder brother that he had heard from his friend who lived in a city that some years ago, astronauts had found one earth-shaped diamond in space, and how he laughed at his friend that how it could be true. But that day after seeing that he was convinced it could be true and he even told his brother that might be it was a meteorite of that Diamond. Because it was a huge explosion and when it entered their village and something that was coming from outside, from the space, must be able to create such a noise and turbulence on their surface, that they felt the earthquake. It might be the case, but whatever it was, they were happy as they were the first ones to discover it, and then onwards they could have its possession. But they warned each other that they would not tell anyone about it. They were just going that was when they realized that they should cover it permanently and should find different ways to reach it. They both started to build a cave at midnight when all villagers were out of reach to that hole. They thought it would be safer if they built different ways or routes to reach that cave which they were making. They saw that it was at the deepest where a diamond was in widest form and had even covered several kilometers, while above it was little thin, and little thin above it and so on. The diamond was in a pyramid shape. To keep the base safe they found the most secure route to hide it and called it floor number five. They then built floors 4,3,2,1 respectively. And with each floor, they built secret ways to reach it. They covered the hole from the upper surface which was visible to all and kept their secret ways with them. The best way to keep the cave safe was to never discuss it in front of their friends and even some family members, to keep all the secret ways safe, and to not be a fool and try to take all the diamonds at once and sell them to become rich. They knew they had to conserve the diamonds for the future and they did not want to sell all of it at once and make others doubt them about their wealth. For all villagers, that cave never existed. Those two brothers would go into the cave and would bring a piece of diamond and would sell it in different shops then they started to sell it in different villages nearby. Their purpose was that if they would continue going to one shop or one village, in particular, every time, someone might get cautious about it and would ask them questions which they were not able to answer. They knew what they were doing was somewhat wrong because they should inform the ruling government about it and then the government would hold its possession. But they would make themselves happy by thinking that God chose them and it was written to be it off theirs only. Once they started to the age they decided to pass their legacy to their children. Out of two brothers, one did not get marry and the other got married and had six children. The six of them divided themselves between those four floors and they had simple needs and were satisfied with what they were getting. None of the six used to fight over diamonds and were living happily. They then passed their legacy and each child was appointed to one particular floor only. Based on their capability and intellect they were appointed with each floor. Both brothers knew it was a river flowing of money inside the fifth floor, so both of them decided to never appoint any child to that floor, and whoever finds it could use it. Because the amount of diamond which the fifth floor carried was so much that it could change any good person’s heart and mind and manipulate them into becoming greedy. Whoever has the capability of finding the it-fifth floor must have the intelligence to use it well, so they never and later on their sons never appointed the fifth floor to anyone. But in every generation, one person always knew where the fifth floor was. (In our family my father did know where the entrance was.) They decided that no daughter would ever be taken in for any particular floor as they could not afford to leak their secret to outsiders. Yes, daughters were outsiders for them from the beginning. They became very rich and that legacy continued after generation after generations.” This was what our father told us about Aarav’s last page stated. And in a diary, Aarav revealed everything but where the entrance was. 

Aarav’s diary was written with the last message that he could not tell anyone where one could find the fifth floor but it was the place where it was least expected.” Aakriti ended her story with tears. Sameer could not stop laughing and he even fell off from couch as he was laughing like a child. Aakriti gave him a strange look but it did not affect him. Sia asked Sameer to shut up but he was not in control of himself and he continued laughing. “Diamond’s meteorite? Like Seriously? What do you think, are we seriously going to buy this story?  Do you really think that we are that dumb? Yes actually we are dumb for letting you stay in here and you give us this crap. Hey.!! Maybe after you are done with this story, you could tell us how aliens invaded your village and how you captured them and make them watch the Koi mil Gaya movie. It’s all good story to her the story for entertainment and of course, you are from the village so you could tell us millions of stories to entertain us, but it is not practically acceptable that someone could find Diamond meteorite and without letting anyone know it is used by every generation. You can stay here for longer and think about it more and take your time but do let us know the truth and not made-up stories. We already have heard enough.” Sameer was still laughing and looked at Sia but she was pretty serious and kind of bought that story of Aakriti, she was really gullible. Sameer was frustrated with the story and shouted at Aakriti, “We have had enough of you, please don’t drag this more and tell us what is your actual intention of coming into our life. Because we have got a wedding to attend and importantly it is our own. So please wind up your little drama and allow us time to prepare for our wedding. If you want to stay here for free and enjoy food, it's ok, do so... But stop fooling us and tell us what it is.” Aakriti started to cry and ran into the washroom to hide her tears, looking at that Sia got angry on Sameer and asked him not to behave like that. 

“What has she done on you? Do you really believe in the story she just told? How can you trust her? We really don’t understand much about science or space or anything but this is something so lame. I mean I cannot even stop laughing after hearing this story. Don’t let her try to trick you with your emotional heart.” Sameer hugged Sia and said so. Aakriti came from behind and interrupted them and pointed her finger towards Sameer’s laptop and said, “Maybe you should check in it. I don’t know much about how to operate this but I do know Manan has it and he used it always to find something. I know through this how someone can find everything about everything. ” Sia opened Sameer’s laptop and search over the internet, “There is a possible way that Earth-sized diamond is floating in space which is formed due to crystallization.”- Search result stated it. Sameer was still not accepting that and told them so what if it was floating it did not simply mean that the part of it entered the earth in a small village without any propaganda of it. To which Sia replied, “Don’t you think, it makes perfect sense? Why would anyone go see what has happened in the village and due to lack of media and internet and enough resources, how would someone even get to know about it? And it was roughly 150 years ago... Who would go see in the village that why earthquake and explosion had happened if someone has erased all the existence of its after-effects?” “Okay, let us assume what she is saying is right and that village has Diamond reservoir. But what we have to do with it. We do not want any Diamonds which are illegal and the possession lies with one family.  This information does not lead us to what happened to Aakriti and what happened to Manan or the fact that why we found Aakriti in that state. If we are going to believe in some story, Aakriti you should tell us about everything and not just the Diamonds. Don’t try to lure us with Diamonds, as I have Diamond of my own and I am very much happy with her.”- Sameer said so while looking at Sia. Aakriti had feelings of jealousy as she was never treated that way, the way Sameer was treating Sia, with love and care. There was nothing much which she could do. She sat on the couch and drank water, which Sameer had brought for Sia. Sameer looked at her in disgust. Sia went to her and told her, “You told us everything about Diamond but you still have not told us what happened to you? How did you come to here, hundreds of kilometers away from that village? Where is Manan? Why did we find you in a strange situation? Who brought you in here? Where is Manan? Why has not he shown up yet or why he is not trying to search for you? Were you guys being separated by something and are not able to find each other? Or you are not together by your choice? Tell us something so we can help you. We do not want to interfere in your personal life but we want to know so we can help you.” Sameer told her he did not want to listen to any more of her (Aakriti’s) story and he wanted to go out and take some fresh air. But Sia insisted he must listen and he was left with no choice but to stay and listen to another story.