Secret of the Caretakers

Collecting the crumbs

Ch – 2

“Life can’t become what you wish it to become just by you sitting around and getting wishful.”

I lay spread-eagled in my bed and read those words, pasted to my ceiling, over and over again. Rosa’s leaving the CC’s so secretively and not letting me come with her had left me heartbroken. She was always protective of me, given that she could always see what trouble I was going to get into. So I figured that wherever she had gone, chances of my causing trouble were more than feeble! But still, I was most of the time an asset…an escape route if not a shield… Whatever it was she had to deal with she could have taken me along. The more I stared at that line overhead the more egged on I became. I was about to jump up and start planning a way of finding Rosa when guru Zen walked into my room.

A guru at the CC’s is much more than a teacher. A guru eliminates the darkness of ignorance from your life and enlightens you about everything worthy of your mind. Philosophical as it may sound, but to the 9-10 year olds who are usually brought in at the CC’s these guru’s are like a lifeline. Each guru is responsible for 5-10 children throughout their stay at the CC’s and right from their feeding to their mentoring, the guru is morally obligated to take care of these children. Guru Zen was one of the oldest members of the Caretaker’s Clan and he always took over the most difficult cases that came to the CC’s. He was compassionate and considerate but that didn’t mean that he was someone you could cross. For the past 9 years that I had been his ward, I had loved him and feared him, both at the same time! So when he walked into my room I sat up anxiously, for the first time registering all the mess in my room.

Guru Zen walked up to the edge of the bed and placed a hand on my shoulder. I could sense sadness and pity in his touch, but when he spoke up it was nothing short of a command…

“Spike, why are you here when your heart lies elsewhere?” said he.

“Wha..?!?!”

“You think I don’t know that Rosa was more than a friend to you?” asked guru Zen.

“I…Guru Zen…I feel so abandoned right now…” I muttered.

“Had I been in your place I would too, but I know something that you don’t, hence I need not feel the same way.” he said in his penchant mysterious way.

I started to roll my eyes and mid roll realized that he has come to tell me something about Rosa.

“Guru Zen, do you happen to know where Rosa is?” I asked him directly, there was no time for discretion.

“I don’t” he said shortly.

I waited…

He walked towards the window and looked out.

I waited some more...

“I am going to tell you something which the clan has forbidden me to share with any resident, but since Rosa’s life may depend on it; I would like to disagree with the clan.”

I could not believe my ears, for the first time ever I was seeing guru Zen break rules!

“As you know, Rosa is from a family of clairvoyants and is the only remaining descendent of the celebrated family. For her, the gift did not come around the age of 9, as was the case with her predecessors but at the age of 4. Since her visions were very feeble in the beginning, the caretaker clan could not really detect it and bring her in. By the age of 9 however, her gift, just like yours, magnified. She could see multiple possibilities of future given the various permutation and combinations of events, thereby acquiring the ability to change future. Also by that age she had become a social recluse, becoming acutely aware of her own condition and reining it in her control as much as she could. That is when we brought her to the CC’s.”

He paused.

“Guru Zen I am aware of her past…I need to know where she is presently so I can be with her if she is in any kind of danger” I reminded him.

“Spike, my boy… I know that she was your closest friend and you are probably aware of all this. But are you also aware of another magnification of her abilities in recent past?” he asked, his black eyes boring into mine.

I remained quiet. Rosa had become a little distant in the weeks before leaving but I had not thought of the possibility that it had anything to do with her abilities. After all, most of us reach our epitome by the age of 9, when our central nervous system develops to its fullest and after that it’s simply about developing control. I wasn’t aware of further magnifications after that. My silence made the answer clear to guru Zen and he passed me a kind smile before continuing.

“A week after she turned 17, Rosa started getting glimpses of events that have past a long time back. Not the “coming” but the “has been”. And these events were not just from her lifetime but from years and even centuries ago. She consulted me about it and I took her to meet the prime gurus. After due consideration of all her visions about the past, they concluded that she had inherited all the visions of her family and was developing an ability to view the future of her generations past.”

“Whoa! That must have been unnerving”

“We can’t even begin to imagine. Think of the times when you didn’t know why you have your powers and all you could do with them was land up in trouble! Well, Rosa was back there after so many years…once again!”

I could sense a protective frustration in guru Zen’s tone. He had led us all from those insecure lots to our confident selves today and seeing one of his best experiencing the pain and desolation of uncertainty was a direct hit on his pride.

“So she can see the past now, but why did she have to leave the CC’s? It’s not like you are not allowed to have further power magnifications in this place! Or is it?” I asked.

“No Spike! The CC’s didn’t make her leave. We were instated to take care of all the helpless gifted ones. We are not supposed to chase you out the door as soon as you become more powerful than you were when we brought you in. It was Rosa’s decision to leave and a very sudden one apparently.” he said.

“But…why?”

“In the past few days she started seeing the visions that her mother had, a few days before her death.”

“Oh!” was all I could say.

“Initially she came to me for some answers but when even I was unable to help her, she started retreating into a shell of her own. And then last night, we found the note that stated that she is leaving. It is my belief that she has found out some truth about her parents’ death and has gone on some self initiated mission to fix the future.” guru Zen concluded.

“Well then I better find out where her mission begins…coz once she is done with all the fixing that she needs to do, she is going to need some one to get her out of the mess…” I said, standing up.