The next day, at school. I looked at the contents of my tiffin box. Mom had made soft rotis along with potato-chickpea curry. The brownish-red gravy tasted spicy yet sweet. The airtight box released puffs of steam when opened, releasing the invigorating aroma of the dish. The soft potato and crunchy chickpea gravy filled my mouth with joy. The rotis were also another level of heaven. They felt like touching a pillow and when you tore the roti, it felt like cutting a piece of linen cloth with scissors. It's funny how small things like these are the things that I craved when I started my job.
"Two days," Akriti said.
"Two days," I repeated, nodding my head.
Two days from today, NASA was going to release the first-ever picture of a black hole.
Then Rohit said, "Wait, listen, I searched about the first black hole picture. And I found a few articles that say that we could be receiving the first picture of a black hole on Wednesday. If we do, then this would again be just a very good guess. You might have seen an article and made this prediction."
"Yeah, but...what those articles won't tell you is that there would be a press conference about it."
"Of course, there would be a press conference Anirudh!" Akriti shouted. The whole class was staring at us. but after looking at our embarrassed faces they continued their own verbal musings. Akriti widened her mouth in a grimace. "Gotta be careful," She said, tilting her head.
"It does look like I am lying...I am not." I said.
"Look Anirudh," Rohit said, "we are just scared about you. You could be delusional. There could be something mentally wrong with you. But at the same time, I do agree that there are things that can't be explained at the moment. However, It is more likely that you are mentally ill, than you are a time traveller."
"All I ask of you two is to have patience. Remember what I said about 15th April? Notre-Dame burning?"
Then Akriti said "Yeah, that seems like a promising prediction...only if you're not bluffing about everything. On 15th you will be like," Then Akriti contorted her face in a funny-looking way and continued, " 'haha, Akriti and Rohit you two are such fools for believing that I am a time traveller, haha.' Or something like that."
Rohit and I laughed at Akriti's humorous impression of me.
"No, I won't say that! And what's up with that ridiculous impression?" I said, trying to control my laughter but Rohit burst into laughter as soon as I said that. He laughed for a good 20 seconds.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that funny," Akriti protested.
"Yeah, sorry. It's just your face..." Then Rohit burst into laughter yet again. I couldn't help but laugh too. And so did Akriti, covering her face in embarrassment
"Anyways," Rohit said, "why don't you use that genius brain of yours and think of something that happens today? It doesn't have to be something big. Even something like Akriti tripping and falling on her head would do. "
"Hey!" Akriti punched Rohit on the shoulder. Rohit started giggling.
"Oh, yeah Akriti falls off her bench and then her books fall on her."
"Oh, come on Anirudh!"
"The point is that 15th April is still, what?"
"7 days away, on Sunday," I said.
"Right. You expect us to wait for a week to sell you off to the psychiatric hospital?" Rohit said.
Now Akriti started laughing. She said, "drop books on me now Anirudh! ha!" Rohit gave a small chuckle and smiled.
YOU ARE READING
The Reverter
Science FictionA man goes back 7 years to April of 2019 after he dies in a nuclear blast in 2025. Anirudh, a common man, now must figure out a way to stop world war three from happening, and hence save the world. But there are other forces at play. What will happe...
