Anish became a bit blank, thinking it is the future. That lady said, "First, come sit down, then talk." Anish sat down keeping a distance from the lady, beside Anish, Makriva also sat down.
"What do I call you?" Anish asked.
"How did you forget my name this quickly? Usually you used to call me ma'am, here you can continue that. My name is Udaya Khanti, say anything you want." Udaya Khanti said.
Then Makriva said something to Udaya Khanti.
Hearing that, Udaya Khanti said to Anish, "Makra is asking. Oh, did you forget his name as well?"
Anish nodded. Udaya Khanti continued, "Ok, he is Makriva. Makra is asking what exactly happened with you, and where is your bangle."
"Bangle? I don't know anything about it, and at last night," when he mentioned last night he remembered the crimson moon in the sky, he ran outside the room and rechecked, and yes it was red. Not some hallucination. Makriva followed Anish. Anish came back inside the room in a bit, and behind him came Makriva. Anish asked, "What happened to the moon? Why is it red?"
Makriva asked something to Maam Khanti, her reply made Makriva a bit calmer.
Udaya Khanti said, "We clearly have to unpack a lot of things here. So again, sit down and let's go one by one, no rush."
Again Anish sat down on the bed and said, "Ok, ask whatever you need to know, maam..."
Udaya Khanti said, "First, tell me what happened after when you left last night."
Anish understood that Maam Khanti was still addressing him as Viriya, wanting to know what had happened after she left to get here.
"I don't really know any place you mentioned. So basically, I don't think I am Viriya. I am not Viriya." Anish hesitantly told.
Hearing that, Udaya Khanti started to pay more attention and said, "Hmm, I am listening, go on."
"I lost my job, and when I was leaving I got struck by something." Anish said.
"So, when is that?" Udaya Khanti asked.
"I just lost my job yesterday... a long time ago? I don't know, you are saying Hindi is an ancient language..." Anish rambled.
"Ok, go on." Udaya Khanti stood up and said.
"After that accident, I thought I was dead, then I still don't know how I caught some word fragments from the background." Anish replied and slowly stood up.
On the other side, Makriva, seeing their expressions, asked Maam Khanti something. She replied in a short sentence. Makriva then went outside, before leaving he reminded Maam Khanti of something.
"What did you hear?" Udaya Khanti asked.
"I heard just fragments, and don't know how I understood this weird language back then. Something like, kill.., kill her..., it's not true... And I think there were 2 people, 2 men specifically." Anish replied as he slowly walked around the room.
"Kill, kill her, someone tried to kill you..." Udaya Khanti said with a slightly worried expression, dragging the sentence as she thought of something. "You don't have the bangle, do you remember anything about it?" Udaya Khanti asked again.
"No, I don't have any memory of that, maybe Viriya lost it or they took it?" Anish suggested.
"So you heard about killing you — killing Viriya. Then logically it should be with them." Udaya Khanti replied, then asked, "What happened next?"
"Then I slowly woke up from that state, and saw a lunar eclipse and the red moon. Th-"
"So during the eclipse the situation already happened, ok go on."
"When I sat up, I heard something drop, it was stuck at the back of my neck." Anish took out the knife and gave it to Udaya Khanti and said, "After I stood up I saw this face's reflection in it."
Udaya Khanti examined the knife. "So then you understood that you are not.. you?"
"I was shocked but thought I should at least get treated first, so I ripped these parts," showing the ripped cloth. "And roughly tied the wounds."
"It was last night, how did you heal then?"
"I.. am not sure, after that I followed an old metal-looking path, and when the sun was up a bit I got unconscious again. Because of the wounds, I guess."
"Describe the place you were in, anything you remember."
"I was at the side of the ocean, I am guessing. There were some big broken buildings on the sea and also on the ground, and a metal path near it."
"Ok, I understand where it is. Go on."
"Next thing I remember is, I woke up from a lot of pain in a room, 3 persons were there, I was healed completely. And beside me there was a ripped doll, hairs around it."
"Voodoo."
"Exactly what I thought, voodoo. They didn't seem like bad people though, but voodoo?"
"I have to check, I can't see any sign of it other than the reason of this conversation. And voodoo is just a skill, depends on how you use it. But yes, it's mostly known for black magic." Udaya Khanti gave a little knowledge to Anish who thought voodoo could only be used for bad.
"They offered some food to me I guess, I didn't eat. After getting out from there I saw a group coming towards here, I understood the word 'school' and some other words somehow. A while later, that tall guy noticed me, and you know the rest from him I am guessing."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. And his name is Makriva. Would you want to add anything else? And what name do you remember yourself as?"
"Ani — Ananta." After saying that Anish thought, "Why did I even lie about it, it's not like I haven't told the whole thing to her. Arhhh!! And the stammering, great job Anish, great job, at least sound confident."
"Hmm? Do I smell a lie?" Udaya teased him, smiling.
"Ok, we can go with that. So, Ananta, that's all right?"
She asked.
Anish said, "Yes, Maam Khanti, if I remember anything I will tell you again."
"Like your name?" Just plain old teasing from Maam Khanti.
Maam Khanti started connecting clues, thinking about what might have happened.
"So you remember being fired from your job, then being in an accident, then waking up here, right? Anything before that? Like what was life as Ananta?"
"Yes, it was normal. In this year, Ambi — sister was supposed to get married, but I think because of me, or COVID — pandemic, it's not happening."
"Seriously, Ananta, you dropped your sister's name before yours?" After she saw Anish was a bit comfortable around her, she wasn't missing a chance to tease him.
"Well I — whatever." Anish couldn't find words to reply.
"I have some guesses, before that I need to do some tests." Udaya Khanti said. She went to the door and called, "Makra! Makra!"
Udaya Khanti said, "Ananta, wait here, I will be back."
Anish sat down and kept waiting for them.
After a while they both came back.
Maam Khanti and Makriva came back. Makriva sat behind Anish and Udaya Khanti remained standing.
Udaya Khanti gave Anish 5 small coins and told him, "Say you are Viriya and scatter them."
Anish followed without question. "I am Viriya."
The scattered coins landed as 3 front side, 2 back sided.
"Now take them back, and say you are Ananta, the actual name, you don't have to say it out loud."
Anish murmured, "I am Anish." And scattered the coins.
The same result, 3 front side and 2 back sided.
Watching that, he asked, "Is this some kind of probability magic?"
"Yes, it's divination. Which is telling that you are Viriya, also Ananta."
"Ahhh? Because my soul or consciousness is inside her body? So we are both here?"
"We also tried, we didn't get any answer so we let you try." Udaya Khanti said as she thought of something.
"What are you even looking for?" Anish asked.
"Mainly trying to understand what happened. So from the divination result, I can think of many possibilities, which boils down to 2 things.
First, you really transmigrated here, and you are in her body. Evidence supports that, like that knife and your missing bangle.
And second is memory distortion. Maybe someone distorted your memory, could be the voodoo, or maybe the bangle did something to you. Or something completely else."
After standing there in a silence that wasn't that long but felt like forever, Anish said,
"So you are saying there is a possibility that Ambi, ma, papa, all just a false memory? Great.. great." Anish said slowly. Then enthusiastically said, "Well then there is not much problem, I am here, just memory problem, that old, what was her name..? Yes, Viriya. Old plain Viriya."
Udaya Khanti, hearing the crack in his voice, said "That's only a possibility, any of that can be true. Either you really transmigrated or it's just memory distortion."
"Yea, I get it, get it..."
Anish walked outside and looked towards the crimson moon without saying anything else.
___
While Anish was outside, Makriva was about to go there to stay beside Viriya. Udaya Khanti stopped him and said, "Let her be alone for a bit."
Makriva asked, "So what exactly happened with her?"
Maam Khanti said, "Her memory got distorted somehow. She doesn't remember anything and thinks she is a different person. Maybe someone else did something to her. Or you were saying the bangle is important, maybe side effects of that?"
"So she just forgot everything and thinks she is someone else? What language is she speaking?" Makriva asked.
"She is speaking an ancient language, maybe your mother and some specific people would know it.
And there is another bigger possibility, that she is really not Viriya from inside, that old life, maybe that's real. Her thinking and the knife support that better in this situation." Udaya Khanti said with a slight sigh.
"So what happened? To her?" Makriva hesitantly asked.
"The best situation will be, she is her and it's just memory distortion. Also can't look away from other possibilities, that someone else is inside her. Maybe she is in the body of Ananta — Ananta who she is claiming to be." She said all this in a fairly neutral voice. Then she said in a sad voice, "Also she might be no more."
Hearing that, Makriva just looked down without saying anything.
"Let's hope for the best." Maam Khanti said, not looking Makriva in the eye.
Then Makriva said with a forced slight smile,
"She is wearing the old ripped clothes from yesterday, ask her if she wants something fresh."
"That's for the better, it might distract her for a little bit." She went outside to talk with Viriya, and after a while came back inside.
Maam Khanti said to Makriva,
"Tell me about the nightmare, what can you tell, I don't want to bother her about that yet."
Makriva said, "I was coming back after informing you, then Sir Himasha was talking to me around the corner. I heard a dropping sound from the room, so I came inside and saw she was sweating a lot, clutching her hand, and sometimes trying to hold nothing. I shook her a bit, she woke up and held her neck. After a while she calmed down."
"So did she scream when she woke up or what?"
"No, actually coming to that. Then I thought she hadn't eaten anything from last night so I got up to ask outside to bring food now. As I stood up, she screamed. I was confused at first, then she pointed at this while crying." Makriva took out the harmonica from inside his cloth and said, "I used this to make her fall asleep, so maybe somehow she recognised it from inside without knowing?"
"Yes, it can be, but it seemed more terrifying to her than her dream. This much reaction is.. I am not sure." Maam Khanti said.
"What is its origin?" she asked.
"You already know, I had this from when I came from there. But before that it was my dad's, maybe he made it or got it from somewhere, I don't know."
"If the situation is in our favour, I will ask her about it myself, if not I will explain everything in a letter. Give it to your mother, she will be able to ask her about it later."
"Ok, I can't really.." while talking, someone knocked at the door and said, "She changed and wore my clothes." She looked towards the door and noticed Viriya standing there, wearing new clothes. She said something to Viriya. Viriya came inside and sat down.
Udaya Khanti got up and said, "It's already quite late, I will send some papers with translated words so you guys can communicate something."
She also said something to Viriya and left the room.
Makriva didn't really know what he should do. So both of them stayed silent as the night deepened.