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The Parallels

by Soma Bose
(Pune, India)

The sun seemed to be setting very soon, he inched slowly into the twilight keeping his feet down towards the steps, the steps narrowed at its end which connected the base of a well. There was a faint light of sun, his eyes were transfixed on the mermaids sitting on the wall of the well!

They were sitting with the opening their tails towards the dark open side of the well. He tried to throw the light flashing from his torch around the well, but someone grabbed his neck.
"What are you doing?”
“I think some mermaids are twisting their tails one after another sitting on the wall of the well,” he spun his neck to look at the edge of the well.
“You think they are real? The stranger took the torch and moved its light cautiously around the well.
"I think they have heard you to come here,” the man rubbed his eyes to have a clear view, but this stranger and he too did not see anybody else!
Both of them called out ,”Hello?” But there was no response.
Ten to fifteen feet down, the well was dark and a ladder headed for the down steps, the torch flashed the floor of the well, it was dry. The ladder was metallic and rusty which descended into a tunnel.
“I am going down,’ the man looked down.
He too accompanied this person. His instinct became alive as he heard some hissing sound, "Careful!” he warned as a snake moved aside.

They followed the passage through the tunnel, they found the outline upward facing the bank of a river.
“Mermaids!” He shouted.
“Have you seen that?” The stranger looked shaken.
“Yes, I have seen them, they are almost near of us!”
His voice excited with thrill.
“So they are real with no imagination,” the stranger joined his voice.
The mermaids were still visible inside the darkness of the river as the flash of moon light bestowed upon the water.
Suddenly they discovered another man standing on the bank,
“Hello?” The first stranger called this man.
“So you are now aware of the mermaids, you are the only witness before your eyes to observe them except my eyes,” the second stranger said in a calm voice.
After a silence, the second stranger explained, "I am a scientist, I run a research centre in another universe. I have taken the mermaids with me, I have invented them.”
“Superb! You have done well, is it real or a matter of joke?”
“I have a lab in my world where

with faith and determination I may have everything before my eyes!” The scientist replied.
“How did you find your way towards our universe?”
Both he and the first stranger considered the matter unbelievable.
“Impossible!” He exclaimed. (He is the main character to be introduced with first and second stranger in this story).
“I found a way in through the spacecraft launched from this world, it was rotating around our universe, high gravitational energy of our world grabbed it towards our path and I found a passageway to this world.”
“The mermaids are beautiful, they remind us about an ancient myth.”
Both he and the first stranger looked again at the mermaids swimming across the river.
“Don’t have a kiss from them, it is dangerous, I represent them as an evidence of science, their muscles are made of electromagnetic strength. Actually, they are a form of advanced robot designed delicately depicted from ancient myth,” the second stranger(the scientist) replied.
“A scientific bluff?” He scowled.
“This is my invention and your pride in future too!” The scientist laughed.
“What is your intention?” The second stranger asked.
“What do you think I intend? I am the future of both of you!” The scientist declared.
“What are you saying?” He was looking confused.
“Every entity repeats itself in different worlds, in different time frame, only the lapse of time causes difference between us, does it not? That is why I am your future and this person (pointing out at the second stranger) is your past!” The scientist explained.
“So we are the same!” He realized them as the presence of past and future, both of them vanished from the place , only he remained silent on the bank of the river.
He strode silently behind them but found them nowhere! He moved back in his own house where he designed some structures of mermaids adopted from old mythology. Earlier, he had some vague ideas about the mermaids consisting with some picture books! Now he found himself researching in a laboratory with the electro-magnetic muscles to be put inside the designed structures of mermaids!

He stormed out his house and reached the place again where the two strangers were last seen. He sensed the strong waves of electromagnetic field where the chances of flickering with hallucination were not the matters of joke, it was a mere possibility for anybody to avoid brain D.N.A fluctuation.

The appearance of the two strangers was astonishing, knowing full about the Scientific research to explore parallel universe, he doubted, whether this was real or any imagination?

***