A Sew Through Time [Banbudh And Budbak]

50. Dear little Yuvati

It was of least care forDr. Laxmi if her goggles bore a crack or two whilst returning from their dimensional ventures. Hands of an artist bear strokes of paint, hands of inventors bear toils of machine grease. The dustbin rolled before she pushed it behind the workstation and put apart her equipment over it. Looking back, she observed the supercilious glow of the time machine perish under the light of LEDs.

"Did you see my water bottle?" Ajay closed his computer and eyed each table again. The dimensions would bring a surge of otherworldly forgetfulness after returning back.

"It was empty, so threw it away" Laxmi took off her lab coat and swirled it over the workstation. It fell over one awkward closet-sized computer which made Ajay say,

"I'm awfully tired to put those behind. Maybe tomorrow..."

"Got any plans?"

"Yeah I'm hungry" he replied while stacking his equipment back into his drawers. The test tubes clinked in their holders when he closed the drawer back, "I miss those cucumber sandwiches they made recently"

"If you go to the canteen then bring me some"

"How many?

"Eight of them"

"Yate of th-?" he settled his eyes after rolling them, "That was dumb..."

"You know who is dumb" chuckled his colleague, twice his senior and thrice his level of wit which would leave him dumbstruck to his own interpretations. He sealed the awkwardness away by replyng,

"There could be no other as insane as the insane Dr. Laxmi"

"I'm glad you know" she grinned.

It was late by the time they entered the canteen after four where janitors were piling up foldable chairs and stacking them behind turning walls. Inside the glass screen was one cucumber sandwich left, and to order it one must use their fingerprint and ID codes, that is after checking their balance. The scientists of the Plati never found themselves reconsidering so. For the work alone Laxmi had accomplished, she never had to worry for her finances her whole life, as for Ajay, he was younger and sometimes a little jealous; but it would be stupendous to not consider Miss. Srivastava both a genius and a true friend.

"I'll visit my hometown this Diwali" he revealed when taking off the plastic off the sandwich.

Laxmi filled up her cup off hazelnut coffee, the sip serving as her reply.

"Where will you be going?" he asked, "To your family? A vacation somewhere?"

"I'll stay here, what else" she crumbled the cup and tossed it into the bin, "I don't get to do things you do every year"

"What made you say that?" Ajay giggled, "You have all the time left in your world now that you invented the machine. You can burst firecrackers with your society's residents together, make a few cards and sweet baskets too"

"It feels weird to celebrate something alone these days" Laxmi chuckled faintly, "You, my guy, will miss out this winter once you're near the equator. I bet you'll turn into fruit pulp in that summer"

"Woh kuch nahi" Ajay gave her the remaining sandwich, "Work, weather and the world will always stay hot"

She gobbled up the sandwich and suggested they should meet Dr. Sailo before heading home. A thread of worry was sown into her tone whose prick Ajay felt, the concern about Sailo never stepping into plain light since several weeks.