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Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Extraordinary exploration

Frank remembered the pen drive and wanted to check it

out. He hid all the old man’s things in his cot’s cabinet

He took the pen drive and inserted it in his laptop . He

waited for it to open and he wanted to recall if at any time

he or Richard mentioned about these things that Richard

had brought out from the old man’s house .. He couldn’t

recall …

The screen showed only one file stored in the drive . He

opened it.. It was a video that played for 3 minutes . The

young Francis and another older man who was vaguely

familiar were standing in front of a cave ,a very big cave

opening . they entered the cave ,obviously the camera man

followed them … the camera panned the whole cave ...

and it was not the cave that Frank and Richard visited

earlier. The cave looked like an animal den not very

spacious and with low ceiling.. The man next to Frank’s

father moved to a niche in the cave wall and took a box

.Frank paused the video , to see closely the box.

It was a big jewel box ..a beautifully engraved and

embossed work on a wooden box .

The man was easily recognised as Oliver the old man now

as he was facing the camera . His father gestured looking at

the camera and the screen went dead..

Frank had not seen the box anywhere in the house and he

made up his mind to search for it without talking about it..

Once again he watched the video keenly, pausing now and

then.. In one frame he could see a monkey sitting on a tree

near the opening of the cave .. He recognised another rock

formation that he remembered from his childhood. He

recalled that particular rock was in the mountain range that

was towards the left side ,the western side of the house

.and much closer to the house ..just few metres from the

house . there was a small orchard that separated house from

the mountain which stood 6000 metres high above the sea

level .. It was the highest mountain around that place ..

Frank was now very sure that somehow Re and group had

been involved and he decided to ask Re. He decided to

explore it further.

Mary came to call him for dinner and she reprimanded him

for not having lunch or evening tea.

He smiled at her and asked her if Redim was informed and

Mary gave a broad smile and said, ‘ such a beautiful lady

and so friendly not a standoffish type.. I am so glad’ and

she left with a same smile ..

Mary had been the surrogate mother and had been serving

Timothy’s family for generations. now her son and two

daughters were working in various positions in Tim’s estate

When he went down ,Redim was already there , making

herself very comfortable and talking to his father . Frank

was not surprised as he knew her to be a very social being..

He greeted everyone and sat . He served himself and asked

Redim if she was comfortable

Redim laughed and said , ‘ better than any five star hotel’

She continued , ‘ what can we do tomorrow? I would like

to explore a bit of the countryside Frank..’

Francis , ‘ I am sure you will have plenty to do.. Frank has

lot of things to do..’

Redim asked him innocently, ‘ What kind of work uncle ?’

Francis did not take his eyes off Frank and their eyes met , ‘

An old man was murdered today in the village and the last

person he spoke was Frank.. so Frank is interested in

finding out’

Frank was very angry but coolly he said , ‘ Yes father I

am certainly interested and feel it is my duty to find the

person behind it.. I have some clues already!..’

Francis knew it was a bait but yet he took it , ‘ You didn’t

meet the police .. so who gave you some clues may I know?

‘No dad.. you may not ask ..when I find it, you will be the

first one to know But he was closer to you than me isn’t it

dad ?’ Francis had a coughing bout and he gave him

water..

Frank looked at his mother who understood there was an

undercurrent so he changed the subject ..

He started talking about his plan to improve the village

library and his plan to get a survey to find what kind of

help could be given to the villagers to improve their life …

He asked his mother , where you keep all your old stuff

mum.. I would like to see ..’

Mother was happy to be of some help , ‘ Why son.. you

know the basement here .. We store all our antiques there..

generations of old things are lying there .. Not actually

organised so if you need anything then you will find it or

difficult to find..

Frank was happy to know and he thought he could start his

search for the jewel box from there ..and then confront his

father..

When they finished their dinner, Francis got up first and

went into his room and closed the door..

The three of them sat for some more time and when his

mother left he called Mary and asked how he could go to

the basement as he had never gone down ..

She brought few keys and asked him to be careful as they

cleaned it once in a blue moon . She showed him the door

which was hidden below the staircase.

Redim was surprised that he never gone down to the

basement …

Mary cautioned him..’ you know Frank only your father

goes there sometime .. Many precious things both of

sentiment and value are there so be careful’

When she left Redim asked him, ‘ what was that between

you and dad? I sensed something was not right.. Do you

still believe your father had something to do with the

murder Don’t you think I should know!’

‘

I am sorry Redim .. I know that he has been involved with

some shady dealings ..but I must have some material

evidence … as you said I should not create evidences for

the conclusion.. Until it is proved, I must keep an open

mind ..’

Redim was troubled , ‘ when are you going to check the

basement.? If you tell me I could help you’..

‘

The pen drive found in the old man’s house has a video

that shows my father’s past association with the old man .

They both found something or they were led to find

something in a cave which was not the one that I have

seen.. I want to know the box that they found is somewhere

in the basement.. If it is ok with you, come after midnight

..I don’t want anyone to know especially my father!..

Redim was still confused but she was ready to help him .

They left to their rooms..

Frank was dreaming ..his father was fighting with someone

and he was watching helplessly …

Someone was shaking him up and calling his name . He

jumped from the bed and switched on the light to see

Redim standing there laughing quietly and it was 12 past 30

Redim laughed , ‘ were you dreaming ? you were really

agitated in your sleep .. Don’t be like this .. We are here to

help others whether they earthlings or some creatures ..

Nothing personal.. Come ..let us go .. take the key…’

They stood for sometime on the second floor landing and

checked if anyone is out in the hall below … Everything

was absolutely muted..few dim night lamps were there

here and there giving an eerie atmosphere ..They crept

down slowly and knowing that the doorway to the

basement was under the staircase .. They had to bend down

to move under the staircase ..They could see the door with

a lock on it. Frank tried with the biggest key found in the

bunch when it did not work ,,experimented with the next

one and it opened with a click .. He opened the door and to

their disappointment the room was small and they could not

see any other doorway..

Redim switched on her cell phone torch and checked

closely the wall.. Then turned her attention to the carpeted

floor.. Redim showed the carpet and asked , ‘why is there a

carpet? ‘

‘Of course ,it covers the doorway to the basement…

Amazing that I never knew ..’

They moved away and lifted the carpet.. As he guessed

there was a door on the floor and the lock was embedded

into the door . He lifted the lock and he could see it was

bigger than the one outside. He used the biggest key in the

bunch and it opened. He pulled the door from its handle

and the door moved up and he slowly dropped it to the

side…He could see steps below and he went down

signalling to Redim to follow..

Redim followed him down and it was pitch dark ….their

torch light lighted up only few metres around them. They

could see all sizes of boxes …Redim was searching for the

light switch on the wall nearby when suddenly all the lights

were on.. Redim screamed and jumped to reach Frank and

hugged him , he could feel her trembling ..

Then he saw them… two monkeys were seated on the last

step and the switches were found on the sides of the steps..

Frank knew the story of the old man and he knew Re and

his people could transfigure , he was terrified to see them

there .. Then he felt Redim and told her that it was alright…

Redim heard Frank and lifted her head to look again at the

monkeys and she recalled that the creature she met earlier

was a bird ..she was furious ..

The bigger monkey said, ‘I am Re..it is Ro here .. I am

sorry if we had spooked you.. But we came to help you..’

Redim looked at them and said ,’ this will be the last time

you people come unannounced and uninvited .. I don’t like

this’

Ro said apologetically, ‘ yes madam, we thought it would

be of some help if we came along.. You both are obviously

trying to help us so it is our duty to help you .. If you feel

you would be comfortable with birds or dwarfs .. we don’t

mind taking the form’

Grudgingly Redim replied , ‘ it is ok’ and Frank had to

laugh .. They both laughed and looked around them .The

basement must be nearly 1000 square metres easily as their

house and the whole lot was filled with boxes.. some

cartons and many were wooden boxes.. he knew that

without the help of the beings , they wouldn’t have found

it difficult to search.

Then he showed the picture of the box that he had seen in

the video and saved a screenshot of the box.

Re looked at that box for sometime keenly and asked him

why he wanted to find?

Frank had to tell Re that he needed some kind of evidences

to link his father to the old man

Both the monkeys looked at each other and their eyes met

Redim and Redim smiled and said, ‘ it is ok you can tell

anything, Frank and myself are together in it’

They moved further down without replying.. Frank moved

to one side and Redim to another side .. Most of the boxes

were not closed with masking tape but few were secured

well.

Redim opened a box to find some books and it was about

black magic, ghosts and many more titles of thrillers. But

she could see none was fiction …

In another box she could see some old female dresses

obviously very expensive ones… She went on checking

very systematically..

Frank did not know what to search.. because he knew the

wooden box would be found by the monkeys..in fact he

thought they already knew where it was kept.. he thought if

he could get some diary or some old days’ tales … he was

moving through the boxes without checking the goods

when he tripped over a box. He fell down and he could see

all the things from the box around him.. The objects looked

like some stone tablets ...thin rectangle pieces measuring

about 10” x10”.He took one and he could see a number

.looked like 3 ..and took another and could see 2.. he

looked at the tablet closely … a picture was drawn at the

centre ..it was rather engraved on the tablet . He couldn’t

decipher the meaning ..he looked from all the sides .. few

people were looking up at something ..it looked like an

arrow with wings ..

He collected all the seven tablets and placed them in the

box and carried to the steps .Redim called him from

somewhere and left the box there and went to her. He

found her with a pile of what looked like old newspapers

She took one newspaper and showed him news that was

circled in ink..The heading was ‘unnatural deaths continue’

He looked for the date ..only the year was visible 1910 .

He told her to bring all of them so that they could read

them all in comfort..

He couldn’t see the monkeys anywhere.. He called

Re…Ro.. no answer . he walked towards the other end of

the basement.. there were many pillars so he couldn’t see

them ..he walked on and then he saw them .. there were not

two monkeys but many.. at least he could count ten of

them. Few were carrying a small cylinder like objects and

running and hopping silently towards the steps and

disappearing into the dark doorway..

He was furious.. he knew that these creatures did not have

any sentiments and now he knew that no ethics too!

‘Re, how dare you steal things from our basement? This is

what I am getting for helping you ! ‘

Re came hopping from somewhere and said, ‘ We are

taking what belonged to us .. We have been searching for

the same for the past thousand years! We knew it was kept

somewhere safe by us and then it vanished from the place

where we had kept.. We had made a mistake of killing the

person who had the information… Then we were searching

for them vainly all over the world..’

‘World?’ Frank couldn’t help but ask..

‘

yes all over the world ..we came here to help you but

found them.. you seem to be our mascot and believe me we

would remain ever so grateful forever..’

Frank was still angry , But you could have asked my

permission before moving them.. we had them’

Ro now answered , we don’t understand your logic.. we

have taken the things that belonged to us not yours …so

why is permission needed !.. anyhow we are so happy that

our future generations will remain loyal to you’

Frank couldn’t answer them…finally he asked ,’ what

could be so important ? ‘

Re jumped up and down , ‘ you are too primitive to

understand and even if I explained , you wouldn’t be able

to compromise . I can tell you that these are important to

our survival’

Frank then asked , ‘what happened to the box that I asked

you to find ? did you find them?

Re and Ro both started at the same time ..Then Ro said, ‘

we found the box and the box contained our things ..so we

transferred them ..The box is over there ‘

Frank was speechless.. he understood the whole sequence

.Thousand years back some one must have found these

precious things and kept them in the wooden box and hid

them in such a way that it remained hidden for nearly a

thousand years .. Then Oliver the old man with his peculiar

behaviour of roaming the mountainside must have found

them and gave to his father.. Another thing struck him.. , ‘

But Re , I saw one of your creatures in the video.. So why

did you wait till now?

Re replied , ‘ yes Frank that was our failure . Zo was there

but he did not see what was in it but he said that they found

a treasure ..so we thought it must be the same shining metal

that the human gave so much importance’

Redim came there and she told him about the monkeys and

she saw those carrying things .. He said, ‘ he will explain

later’ and turned towards Re.. ‘ Re , I don’t want you

people coming down to this basement again and if you do I

have to break my promise and reveal about your existence ‘

Re replied , we give you our word of honour.. we will not

come here without your permission .. But we don’t have

anything of interest here .. So no need to worry .. now we

take your leave’

They moved out of sight in a second..Redim was too

curious to know and Frank told everything to her. Both of

the stood for some time thinking about the strange events .

Frank broke the silence , ‘ come let us go before someone

finds us here ..Tomorrow we will check what we have ..’

Redim laughed and said not tomorrow.. today ..it is already

four past and both picked up the cartons and left after

carefully switching off the lights and locking the doors

behind them.

Redim came to his room and dropped the carton of

newspaper and left to her suite..

Frank was too tired and sat for some time about the

extraordinary exploration in his own house and he slept

…

******

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