CHAPTER 5>BEANS SPILLED

I was still too numb from the incident to witness pieces of her head forming themselves. “What do you mean by ‘they don’t die like this’?” I spat at Roran. “There’s something you should know”, Roran spoke, eyes fixed at me. “You are like a little sister to me Koy. I found you after so long and I don’t want to lose you again.” Then he opened his laptop and double clicked on a huge password protected pdf file. “Read section 23” he said, more like ordered. When he said section, I assumed it would be a paragraph or a page. But the ‘section’ turned out to be a story. A big story. I silently wondered if there was a shorter version available. Since there wasn’t, I read, giving extra emphasis to each word.

Subject 3:: Name of subjects: Swann Galvamore and Swann 2

Swann is a modern saint. He strives for humanity and unity. He has won several peace awards and a nobel prize. His twinticle Swann 2 is the complete opposite. He slits people’s throats for money, enjoys every fight and is a murderer of seventy three innocents. He is due to be examined for a psychopath, but turns out he outsmarts everyone.

The rest of the few pages described the difference between the ‘subjects’ and how Swann 2 killed people for fun. It was the second last paragraph which caught my attention.

Swann 2 was on the run. He terrorized every single town in the city. When no one else could get anywhere near him, Swann used his intelligence to draw him out of hiding and the police shot him straight in the heart. Doctors examined him and reported him dead. Swann was devastated after that, believe it or not, because he was too attached to Swann 2. He cried and wept for twenty five minutes, continuing in the ambulance besides the body.

Within an hour, the heart of Swann 2 started to heal on its own. Swann 2 was back on his feet, a smug smile wide on his face. All the researchers were stiff from the shock. Swann’s last words were “I cannot live to see ‘myself’ destroying my fellow beings for one more second” before he used his protection gun on his own brain. The second that Swann’s heart stopped beating, Swann 2 collapsed too, his skin texture like cement, dead for good.

I looked up at Roran, eyes unknowingly filled with terror and panic. “Koy, you’re a nice person, one of the sweetest ones I have ever seen. Which means that this thing, he pointed to the toddler-me, is going to be bad. Very bad. And if it comes to as much as killing her…” he couldn’t complete the sentence, but I knew what he wanted to say, that killing her was only possible if I died.

It took me a moment to process everything. Once I was sure my voice wouldn’t break, I looked at him and said “Roran, it wouldn’t come to that. We’ll think of something if the time comes.” A long pause. “Plus, I’m not a saint. Although I root for world peace, I haven’t really done anything to make it work. We’ll just, we will think of something Roran. We’ll try to control the situations.” Finally the hard look from his face vanished and I got my old Roran back. We half smiled at each other through the sobs which made me feel like I was home.

Within a few minutes, we heard some moans from Koyna 2. I rushed to her side to see her gently opening her eyes. She still lay in a pool of blood, but she was back, alive and healthy. I was so relieved and happy, I picked her up and swayed her from side to side. I think I saw a small smile on Roran’s face too, but it vanished quickly. Atleast, he was somewhat back to normal. We fed her some baby food and she took a nap. The research and long databases of information suddenly became very interesting to me. I wished I could read every word on every file. Unfortunately, after five hours of continuous reading my eyes became weary and I fell asleep right there on the sofa.

When I opened my eyes, sunlight was pouring in. Since I didn’t have my bag of toiletries, I brushed my teeth with my finger and went looking for Koyna 2. I heard mr. H laughing, uhm I think it was H2 because H was rude, arrogant and kept to himself. Obviously, his twinticle was a fun person to be with. Who knew someone could go surfing at the age of 50!? H2 was cool. Anyways, H2 was laughing along with a little kid. I entered his room and found a five year old me trying to reach his head to get a chocolate.

It was still a little funny and spooky at the same time, to see myself as a kid, and growing so fast. Koyna 2 looked like a 5 year old in my old but pretty pink dress.  Roran had taken good care of her supplies. I never asked him how he had my dress, but it sure came in handy today.

“You were not a friendly kid” Roran said suddenly besides me, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. He looked like he was lost on a walk down the memory lane. “I remember your first day to school. Your mother had asked me to come along. You didn’t cry, didn’t laugh, you weren’t even nervous. No one knew how you were feeling. You didn’t make any friends for more than three months! Even as a toddler, it took you a long time to let me play with you.” The things he said were kind of rude, but his playful smile told me he accepted me with my faults and I love him for that. His mood contrast was too much compared to yesterday so I asked him after a wide smile and a few moments of speculation. “What’s up? You seem happier!”

“Because I’ve decided not to give up. Twinticles are human clones after all. If we nurture them well in their growing phase, teach them manners, we could at least try. I am going to do my best with this thing and I’m not going to let it hurt you, or me or anybody else. It’s about time something changes over here. Even if it doesn’t work, we WILL think of something.” Something positive was exactly what I wanted to hear. I gave him a quick hug and went to the kitchen to make coffee. I wished I was awake to hear Koyna 2’s first words. Roran says she said ‘food’ but H2 swears it was ‘dude’. Funny man, H2!

While I was pouring some sugar in the vessel, a sweet voice interrupted, “I want coffee too!” Koyna 2 said, confident that she’ll get what she wants. I loved hearing her voice, and hated turning her down. “I’m sorry Koyna 2, I wish I could give it to you but you’re still too young to ingest caffeine. You can have it tomorrow.” By the pace she was going, I was sure tomorrow she would be a teenager. I resumed back to my work. A tiny detail slipped my head though. Koyna 2 was the opposite of me. Which means that she was not obedient.

She started shouting in a high pitched voice, continuously repeating ‘I want coffee’ so many times that I lost count, along with some hearing too. H, H2 and roran all came running to the kitchen, trying to convince her to stop, but she was so adamant. “Raising her, even for two days is going to be tough” Roran whispered and I nodded in agreement.

CHAPTER 4> IT STARTS

“These things are growing rapidly” Roran said, examining the baby. Ever since Roran laid eyes on it yesterday, he’d been upset. Because now I wasn’t just a research partner. I was also a guinea pig. Well, the baby was more like it. I only helped. The baby would look up at me and smile, it was hard to call it a creature. I kept smiling back often, temporarily forgetting what it really was. Some time later, I even started cooing and playing with it. The innocence, the smile, the naïve cries were all too cute! It reminded me of my kindergarten class. Speaking of class, “Hey Roran, mr. Shikhar called and confirmed my position. Both in college and this research.” He just nodded. “Come on Roran” I said, “Why are you still upset? What’s done is done. Just accept it and be happy that you, I mean, we have more samples to work with.” He just shrugged it off. He gave me some files, both physical and digital, regarding the research. It was huge data. I started scanning through it, trying to understand it. But it wasn’t just a day’s work.

We decided to call it day. I went home with the baby. It was my twinticle, so it was attracted to me. When I wasn’t in sight, it cried and cried continuously. Sweet and irritating at the same time. Huh. Roran didn’t even come out to wish me goodbye. I felt like he was still hiding something from me. Well, I was a part of this research now, nothing could be hidden for long. It was such a weary day, I slept instantly on the sofa, only to wake up in a few minutes to hear the baby crying. It was growing fast, but it was still a baby. I bought some baby food and fed it to her. I liked the pace at which this was happening, the ‘creature’ becoming ‘it’ becoming the ‘baby’ becoming ‘her’ now.

Looking at the baby was like taking a ride in the past, like looking into your own eyes. Even though I was exhausted, there was something I’d been meaning to do since the morning. I had some baby photos of myself. I bought them out from the dusty attic and placed it beside the peacefully sleeping baby. The resemblance was obviously high, but it still gave me goosebumps. The exact same eyes, the hair, the little finger statures. Except for one thing. From what my parent’s used to tell me, I was a still sleeper. I didn’t move much while asleep. Sometimes it even scared them! But this baby, well she twisted and turned every five seconds. After a while, it started getting annoying. But it didn’t matter much because soon, I fell asleep. 

I was so excited for the big day that I didn’t even wait for the alarm. Two minutes remained for the alarm to go off and I didn’t mind waking up, which was very very unusual for me. At least today I wouldn’t be late! The first thing I did was check the baby. But where was she? She wasn’t in her bed. So much for not being late. Panic surged right through. What was I going to do now? I rushed through the house shouting “baby, where are you?” I wasn’t sure what to call her, so I went with ‘baby’. As I went in my bedroom, I found it messy. My rooms were never messy. The thought haunted me, did someone search my room looking for the baby? What if that someone kidnapped her?

A few moments later, I heard a gibberish baby talk, followed by a sweet little laugh. I turned around to see my twinticle happily pulling out clothes from the small drawer at the bottom. A wave of relief and a smile spread over my face. “There you are!” I went straight to her and hugged her. “You really like to make a mess don’t you?” I was just relieved no one broke into the house to kidnap her. 

She was a toddler already, crawling and everything. I got ready early and one hour before college time, I reached at Roran’s. “She’s growing up so fast!” Ah! Always wanted to say that. I sounded so much like my mother, I missed her so much. Roran didn’t even smile at my remark. He was expressionless. “Roran…” I started to say when my alarm in my phone rang. College time. Today was my first lecture. “No college for you today” Roran said, “put the alarm off and stay.” This was the first time Roran had spoken. “Why?” I asked, confused. “Shikhar gave you two days off. This twinticle is in its toddler days, it will be very attracted to you.” I hated the way he said ‘it’. “Roran, ‘she’, not ‘it’” I corrected. It was like I was talking to a wall. He continued in the same dead voice, “You cannot teach a class with this thing around. Everything is taken care of. It will stabilize itself in around two days, after which it can stay away from you for some time. Then you can start your college.” That was a bummer.

It was useless talking to Roran, I wasn’t even sure he had ears anymore. He didn’t respond, he didn’t react. All he did was breathe and walk. The bell rang and mr. Shikhar came inside, with a few more people. I assumed this was their research team. “I’ve been meaning to meet you Koyna, and also Koyna 2”, mr. Shikhar said with a warm smile. Two things I immediately registered. Firstly, twinticles were named after their host. And secondly, mr. Shikhar appeared much friendly now. Was he a twinticle too? According to the files I’d seen earlier in the day, I was the fifth person to have a twinticle. And there was no mention of mr. Shikhar having one. My question was answered when I saw him talking strict business with one of his team members. Shikhar kept his personal and professional behaviour different. That wasn’t so freaky compared to my first theory…

After tea and some introductions, we sat in a circle and mr. Shikhar spoke directly to Roran. “Our doctors have created the amoeba like compound very similar to the original one. We must visit there soon.” The rest of the conversation became a blur when my attention shifted to the baby. Koyna 2 was sitting in a corner fidgeting with some toys we recently bought her. I loved soft toys and dolls as a kid, so obviously I bought her some planes and cars. She loved them and I gave myself a smug smile.

Out of nowhere, she stood up and tried to walk towards me. I let out a loud gasp. She fell down and I rushed to pick her up. I loved to see myself as a kid, trying to walk. How many people could see that themselves? I felt like I was the only person enjoying it. The others just started speculating and estimating the time at which she reaches my age. Except for Roran, he just looked terrified. Well, at least he was giving some expression now. It made me believe he was alive.

A few hours later, the discussions ended and Shikhar left with his team. Roran closed the door and I heard tiny footsteps at a faster pace. Koyna 2 was running! She took one of her aeroplanes and ran upstairs. That was fast! I ran after her. She had already reached the terrace. She ran straight to the edge with the plane, and jumped off with it in one hand.

My world stopped for a minute. One second she was right here, running and smiling, the next minute she tried to fly like the plane and landed on the ground, surrounded in her own blood. I couldn’t find my voice, or legs. Somehow still, I gathered myself and ran downstairs. Roran was already by her side, he lifted her and started to bring her inside. I think I could see a part of her brain, her head was in pieces. I was so much in shock that I couldn’t even cry. I didn’t want to literally see myself die. But I did. Roran guessed what I was thinking and spoke, “Don’t worry Koy. She won’t die. They don’t die like this, She’ll be fine in an hour or two”. What the hell did he mean by that?

CHAPTER 3> FINALLY AN EXPLANATION

I love to sleep. It allows me to forget all my worries for the day and live my imagination. However, my beauty sleep was broken by my scheduler alarm for my trial lecture. “Shit!” I swore loudly, remembering I had to go to college and make sure the students liked my teaching. I had no time whatsoever to prepare! I’d spent the whole afternoon with Roran. I was being irresponsible. Not anymore. I couldn’t be late; I’d already managed to spoil my timely appointment with the principal yesterday. I hurried in the bathroom, took a quick warm shower, and changed into formal clothes. I kept it simple with a grey suit and black skirt. 

When I entered the class, I was hoping to see a few students on their benches with some books to scribble down notes. I knew the standard of the college was high, I should have checked the strength of the classes too. The class was more like an auditorium. The floor was slant, for a better view, and student all over. They must be more than a hundred. If this were a cartoon, my eyes would pop right out like a spring.

Anyways, if I wanted this job, I had to get myself determined to get it. I believed in hard work and fate. And this was where fate bought me. I had to endure it. I sucked up my fright and introduced myself to the class. “My name is Koyna Brahma and I will be teaching you geology.” I knew this was college and not KG, but I still expected a “good morning teacher” in chorus. When I didn’t receive one, I continued my lecture on palaeontology. I’d decided to go with mega fossils and microfossils today. However, when I saw that the class was bored, I started giving them examples of the Jurassic park lead and the f.r.i.e.n.d.s. character Ross. When I linked these characters and some of the words that they’d used on television, I started getting looks saying “she’s cool!” from the students. I smiled back. That, I liked.

I wasn’t the kind of person who’d enforce rules on others, students specifically. I couldn’t be a strict teacher. I wanted to be a friend, someone they could readily approach to in case they needed to seek help. Till now, everything seemed to be in place. I was happy by the facial expression – response the students gave. Feeling confident, I left the room. I was hardly aware of the head mister and some senior teachers sitting there to examine me. All in all, I was satisfied by my performance. I was asked to leave for the day. The results were due in two days. I wasn’t sure if I could wait that long. Not that I had a choice.

I decided to pay Roran a visit. I got in my truck and started searching for my keys when I heard a faint baby-cry. I instantly turned around and saw a tiny baby crying on the back seat. I immediately got up and covered that baby with a handkerchief I had, assuming it was feeling cold. It was so small it could fit in my palm. This was weird. And then the memory came back. All of it. That amoeba, the wrapper, that foetus. It wasn’t a baby. It was a thing. That freakish thing which kept following and haunting me yesterday. If I had any indecision about meeting Roran, it vanished. I had to see him immediately.

I didn’t even bother calling him. I drove as fast as I could and stopped only when his house was in view. I kept ‘it’ on the seat itself and rang the bell. When nobody answered, I tried the door and it was unlocked. I stepped in hoping to find Roran, but saw mr. H instead. Uh-huh, make it two mr. Hs. Dressed exactly alike, playing carom.

“What the…” before I could think, words that sounded really bad were coming out of my mouth. Roran heard my voice and came running outside his room. “Hi Koy” the smiley mr.H said, and the frowny one just ignored me like I was a ghost. “Let me guess” I said deadbeat, straight to Roran who had his expression like he was caught stealing. “He doesn’t have a memory problem, does he?” “Come in Koy” he said, and I did. 

“Why did you lie to me? This is outrageous. It doesn’t even make sense. So, mr. H has a twin brother. Big deal. Why did you have to hide it? Why did you tell me he has a memory problem when in fact I’m pretty sure, his brother came to us later yesterday?” It wasn’t a big lie but the fact that Roran had to lie to me made me angry. “Don’t you remember anything I told you yesterday, huh Koy?” I stared at him for a long time thinking about all that he’d told me. “You mean to say that he’s not his brother?” I asked. “No” Roran said, looking at the ground. He then looked up slowly and whispered, “Promise you won’t tell anyone”. “I promise”. “Good, because you’re gonna be a part of this secret.”

Roran started telling me the full story. “We found twinticles about five years before. In Africa. When the man met his fully grown twinticle, they were of completely opposite nature. At first, they thought that they’re long lost brothers. But something seemed amiss. They took a few medical tests. Even the doctors couldn’t put a finger on what was going on. So the tests were forwarded to some labs. After two years of inspection, they came across one more case in the same area. That’s when they knew how it happens. Every twinticle is initially just a shapeless tiny being. It needs the blood of a human to survive.” Shapeless tiny being, much like the amoeba, I thought. “Once it has the blood, it gets attracted towards the person who’s blood it receives. These creatures grow to look exactly like that person. Except that they’re the complete opposite of them. They take every behavioural trait of the person, and reverse it.” I was dumbfounded.

“They grow pretty fast and and age as much as the person. After that, the aging rate of the twinticle adapts to its host person.” I felt like my mind whirling. Like my brain was against gravity and flowing upwards, trying to get out of my skull. “Mr. H is our subject. I’m observing him for anything that might be useful for our research. That’s why I stay with him.” He turned to look at the duo playing carom. “They’re completely opposite. Mr. H is whiny and a cry baby. His twinticle is happy and encouraging. Koy, you have knowledge of geology. Some of our experiments are pointing to facts that twinticles come to life from some fossils underground. We don’t know what exactly is happening, but we could definitely use your help. The reason why the college needs another geology professor is that we need a helping hand in our research. And I think you fit. The principal Mr. Shikhar and my partner is actually considering you as a good candidate. He just called me up.”

As good as the new job news felt, my mind was still whirling about the twinticles. I knew what it was, I knew where it was. A new sample for his, or maybe ‘our’ research. It was in my truck. “Roran”, I said finally. “I have something that might help”. Also, I added, “I need help.”