Multiple Rooms on Earth

Joe Lewis Johnson, popularly known as Joel Johnson, was your average young lad. An average typical teenager, with spectacles and an unknown , unquenched love for rock n roll. He was not very popular ( nor that he cared ), but one must admit, for a goofy looking guy like him, schools are always hard. He would hate them all. He wouldn’t talk to anybody, because none of them showed him even a single bit of comradeship, that’s how he felt. His mother was a Doctor who was always busy( that’s what he only knows about his mother’s profession). His father was always on travel, cracking business deals and all. So you can say, our Joel was rich.

Now, don’t think of him as an introvert, or guy who doesn’t like to be around anyone. But what can he do if the folks are after him like a pack of wolves, always finding a way to make him look like a fool. He would be called a nerd many times( which he wouldn’t mind much) but sometimes they took it too far (the THEY that are being mentioned here are his school bullies). Once, they had a camping trip to a local forest. Joel loved forests and all, as he was a musician. Somehow nature would give him the inspiration for a song, or a new instrumental, which he then played with his band. When everyone was sleeping at night, they came around to his tent, dragged him from there. Took him to a place where nobody could hear his cries and started beating him. After an hour or so, they left. He was then rescued by his school teachers in the morning, when they were about to leave. Though the school did take action against the bullies, Joel had lost all interest in it. He still remembers his mother saying to him. “ You are gonna make a lot of friends at school”. Well, He didn’t quite agree with the statement after that incident.

Only perhaps his bandmates were any good. They were very good. But they were all outgoing and danger seeking teenagers, which our boy Joel wasn’t.

His mother, Dr Sheena Johnson, loved her son but she couldn’t take care of him as much as she would have liked. She knew he had troubles in life and she did her best to help her boy but he still felt lonely.

His only love was Rock n Roll, the wise words of Sir Ronnie James Dio, always gave him peace.

He was a multi instrumentalist, our boy Joel. But his love was the drums, pounding and thundering on them like the great Cozy Powell.

All day he would be either playing drums, doing his study( he was good at them), or playing God of war. Why God of war, you ask? It is because Joel, himself not that confident or strong, finds inspiration in Kratos, the God of war. The same goes for Sir Ronnie James Dio, the man on the silver mountain.

He was not depressed or just brooding about it, he just felt lonely. A man without friends is certainly not a broken man but not a happy man either.

So I hope I was able to help you get a good idea of our man, Joe Lewis Johnson. Now the mystery begins….

It was 14th February, the day for lovers. Joel was playing drums with another bunch of lads like him, who had no ladies to offer the night to ( they were not his bandmates, his bandmates, unlike our man Joel, were very successful with the ladies). As he had no fair lady to himself, he decided to spend the night earning the muller. Let me assure one thing though, it was not that Joel was not interested in ladies, he was ( he always loved reading The leavenworth case) but he never had the courage you need to ask a girl out. So as you all know, he was playing that night. Just after finishing the song, Joel looked and he saw guys out with their gals, spending precious time together. Suddenly a thought struck him. He thought, ‘ well, I guess it’s time to start singing my old songs’.

After the night had finished, he was returning home, listening to ‘ I want to know what love is’ by a Foreigner. Somehow he felt that he was missing something. Maybe he needed some friends, some fellas he could hangout with or perhaps, Joel thought, a fine young lady would be suitable for me. He was, after all, only 21 years old, studying music technology in college, a subject he loves. He then laughed loudly in the lonely streets,’ why would a perfectly sane girl be after me? I don’t have money (which was not true, as he earned a lot of them and also he had rich parents), I am ugly ( he was normal, not handsome, not ugly, somewhere in between, but he was good) and I am not cool at all ( now we know that isn’t true, right? A boy good in his studies, is smart and is a maestro on all rock n roll instruments, that should be defined as cool), why would any lady be friends with me?’ cried our lad Joel and bang! He struck his head on a low hanging branch and fell down on the ground, unconscious. Perhaps it was moments like this that would give a somewhat foolish picture of Joel. Anyhow he suddenly woke up, and suddenly because he heard a female voice laughing and saying “ You should be more careful as to where you are going”. She helped on his feet and then asked him ' why wouldn’t any girls be friends with you?’

Joel looked at the girl, and she looked all sane, and beautiful. He was all red, he didn’t expect anyone to be hearing his words. He said ‘ I am not, what you would say, very good at speaking to anybody really, let alone ladies.”( Joel would always use the word lady when addressing the fairer sex, having memorised the whole middle earth history and their ways).

She laughed. She said ‘ Come along with me then’ and held him by the hand. What was our boy Joel thinking at this moment?.” Well I be damned, this lady has a hold like a tiger”.

She brought him infront of a house and said ‘this is my house. All my friends are inside. Come inside and join us”. Joel, a boy who was never accustomed to such friendliness, smelled of fishing bait. He said ‘ of course I will join you but, pardon me saying this, but it is natural for me to be suspicious. On a night like this, on a silent street, a pretty young lady comes up and takes the loser of a boy to her friends. Now madam, I have seen a lot of horror movies and I can assure you that it is not a step I would have advised my fellow protagonist to take. When things are too good, wait for the end of the cliff.’ he ended his speech.

She laughed. Then she threw in a punch at him, still laughing. “ You have got a wild imagination, now come inside” she was still laughing. He obeyed ‘ If I don’t listen to this lady’s words, chances are that she may become violent with me and I don’t think my insurance would cover that” he thought.

Inside it was cool, it was mesmerising. There were posters of every rock band you can name. His mind was going like this ‘ That’s Blue oyster cult, oh! Dire straits up there babe, Night ranger too, ah! The damned Yankees up there with the folks, Styx, Boston, OH MY GOODNESS, is that…… RAINBOW? He asked loudly. She looked at him and said ‘ Yes. I am a big of them.’ but suddenly she was surprised. Our boy Joel was standing on one knee, just like when you propose to a girl to marry with the rings and all, You do not do that to any lady you have met, not certainly to a lady who you have met just 15 mins ago. But our man of the moment, Joel, had no such intention. He had gone into that position just to say he was sorry for doubting her, and the fact she was in the kingdom of rock n roll, he was honoured by her attention but things have to get awkward when Joel is in the scene. Just when he was about to say sorry, the friends of the fair lady arrived and found them in a rather incriminating situation, at least to their minds. Joel was frozen. The lady had no answer. One of the boys asked ‘ Amanda, why didn’t you tell us about your friend up here?’

‘ More like a boyfriend if you ask me,’ said another one.

Joel was all red. But he decided to speak up. ‘ I was going to ask her to forgive me as I had suspected her of doing horrible and evil stuff’. Yep, this is what Joel said to the boys. They of course weren't a mug ( that is their thinking) and they knew that their friend had surely fallen for this boy in front of them. Amanda said “ what he says is absolutely true”..

None of the friends brought it. But still they invited Joel inside for their games.

“So what's up with your days?” Simon, one of the boys, asked Joel.

He answered, “ Nothing much.”

The boy who we are reading about never liked to tell somebody about his plans or what he was doing with his life.

Gradually, after hearing their conversation he understood why Amanda brought him here. She, also like him, had no friend of the other gender. Her friends refused to come if she had n't brought Her boyfriend, which she didn't bring. “Well”, he thought ‘ the situation worked out great for her’.

This was getting terribly cringy. Ryan, the boy with the red hair, or auburn hair, was singing to his loved one a song by the name of “ Shape of you”.

‘ Man! Where have those days gone when you used to sing songs such as ‘ You're my best friend’ or ‘Thank you’ to your lover? What nonsense!’ he thought.

He looked around and counted about 13 couples up here. Oh! That is bad’. He was a very superstitious lad but at the same time practical.

After all the fellas had sung their songs ( They can hardly be described as one) the limelight was on him. He had to sing a song. He disliked such things, he was a good singer( another point that adds to his coolness which, sadly, the fool doesn't notice) but he never liked to sing on demand. He loved his own way, own time.

They kept on insisting and he obliged. He decided to sing his old times favourite “I am not in love” by 10cc. “At least this would be the truth” he thought. He was given the guitar and he played the song. Everyone loved his performance.

The party lasted about another hour. Amanda was a delightful young lady. She was smart and loved rock n roll. One by one they all started to leave, at last leaving Joel and Amanda all alone in the house. He was about to leave when she stopped him by the hand and said ‘ Thank you. I am really grateful that you took your time and helped me out on this. I am very much thankful to you.’

Joel smiled, and if our donkey knew how charming he looked when he smiled, he would have done that often. He said ‘ No problem. I hope I haven't embarrassed you by kneeling down and all, I had done that to ask for your forgiveness”

“ since when did boys start asking for apologies like that?” she smiled.

He was delighted. She had agreed to meet him the following sunday. He was almost floating. Her smile, her playful way, and above all… her love for rock n roll. Nothing could near that. He closed his eyes for 10 seconds to make himself ready for the coming Sunday. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the same place from where Amanda took him to her house. Wait a minute, he never bothered to ask her where she lived. He knew the locality but He didn't mark down the house nor did he ask Amanda or any of her friends where they studied nor did they ask him actually. But he was assured again by the fact that he had her phone number. It was strange though. Suddenly a girl comes and takes home for a night to her house where they have fun with all the friends. He doesn't know the house nor did he look at the locality much( how could he, it doesn't happen everyday that you would get dragged by a beautiful young lady who then took you to her house where she introduces you as her boyfriend, now does it? Well, the more practical of the readers are already smelling The fishing pot but an 18 year old boy won't notice that) Well it's time he returns home.

He is surprised that his mother still didn't arrive. She was supposed to be there before midnight. ‘Well, leave her to her life and let me sleep’. With this cry, he goes to sleep and starts dreaming about his life with Amanda.

Syed Arabi Khalique, the world renown multi billionaire and adventurer, was giving a speech about his new book. Not a speech actually, a lecture as he was in a university room. Strange thing was that he was the youngest man in the room.

“ Now my friends, I shall begin my, what these fellows say it as, lecture. I see that you have your pen and notebooks with you. Good. I will start my talk and please my pals, do not interrupt me. It's hard to get the groove back to a lecture. Whatever questions you have, just write them down and ask them after I finish. Is it good My friends??`` The class cried out their answers.

“ The mind is a complex thing. You all know that, But how? I ask. Imaginations. That is what I think separates us from all those other things. We can dream, we can think, we can remember.”

“ Now tell me , Atul, That's your name I presume, where are you from?”

“Delhi ,Sir.”

“Now I want you to close your eyes and think about your place”.

“ You have seen it, right? In your imagination. Now think about…. Hawaii. Close your eyes and think.”

“ Now , have you ever heard of Andaman and Nicobar island? No? No problem, try to think about that place”.

“ Now when I told you to think about your hometown Delhi, the images that came were the places you have been to, right? But when I said Hawaii, you perhaps thought of an island with a juice bar and coconuts and all those things. You said never been to Hawaii, ok, maybe you had seen it in movies and pictures. But what about Andaman and Nicobar island? You never knew such a place even existed, yet when I said the name of the place, you had a picture in your mind.

See how our mind works, people say we are imaginative but we aren't. You didn't think of anything new, right? You didn't, why?”

He paced from one corner of the large classroom to another. He continued

“ That means, none of our imagination, thinking is original. It's just a mashup of what we have, that we recreate. It's just like a song, people rearrange the chords, the tune but yet, these are the same chords used by Everyone”.

“ You might think of middle earth and say” hey, Tolkien had some imagination”. Nope, he used his surroundings and whatever picture he had in his mind from all those years he lived around earth. Nothing in our mind is our creation. It has been taken from what we see, what we have seen, nothing is original apart from nature. Let us , for example, look into the mind of a child and see.. He has nothing when he is born, Nothing in his mind when he is born but quickly with time, he catches all that earth has to teach us. So you get my theory, nothing is original. Nothing”.

Joe Lewis Johnson was certainly in a hell of a lot of energy as he was thundering through his drums. Even his bandmates, who knew he was a good drummer, were surprised by his performance that night. They never knew anyone who could play the drums on Stargazer like Sir Cozy Powell. He was all smiling and he certainly looked a lot confident and suddenly he looked like a dashing young fella, but he still was Joe.

That was our friend's problem. His mellow and quiet nature always made him a shadow, nobody would notice him, if he had done a crime, the police still wouldn't interrogate him as they wouldn't even notice him.

As it happens with a quiet folk like our friend Joel, a single smile can make them fall to the ground and also can make them all charged up for the day.

He left just as the gig ended, he was supposed to go and meet the Lady( who we know as Amanda) that night. He usually walked to his destinations, anybody would know that this was a different occasion and if you had a good ol Harley Davidson bike,( his parents were rich, as I told you) in your garage, you could take that thing and ride it but our man of the story sadly never had much of the knowledge of these sorts. Hence he was still single.

It was a good 4 miles walk, which he did in 1 hour and there was the restaurant in his sight.

He walked in. He went to the counter and said “ a table for two, with all the candles and flowers, can you arrange that?” ( our friend was certainly getting better by time) the young men behind the counter smiled and said ‘Yes'

He sat in his place and waited for his fair friend. He decided to doze off for a moment, just to be ready for Amanda ( I was wrong about our friend getting better).

He was awakened by a fair but ferociously strong hand. He looked and saw the radiant smiling face of Amanda looking back at him. She said

“ Wake up sleepy head” and knocked at his head playfully.

He was sitting in front of , according to him, a very beautiful lady. He decided to speak about rock n roll , his favourite subject. She was also a rockoholic like him. They are laughing and enjoying themselves. Our friend Joel was not a very clever lad but he was a genuine lad.

He said “ I bought these flowers for you.” handing her the flowers.

She blushed( when a girl blushes, that means You have won her heart)

She said “ That's so nice of you. Who said you can't speak with any girl? You have the manners of a gentleman”.( He never knew that he was a gentleman)

He replied in a fully gentleman-like manner “ I am glad that I could make you feel that way”.( Our boy is certainly leaning his way).

Then he sang the song “Every little thing she does is magic” to her. She was beaming and the rest of the people in the restaurant joined him.

All over the moon was she. Our boy Joel had done a good job in making a lovely girl's day all good.

When the time had come for them to leave, he took her by the hand and said to her “ When do we meet again?”

She said “ Come to my college music fest this weekend. My band is gonna play there too. We would love to have you there.”

He said “ of course I will.”

With that she bade him and went outside, her brother was coming to take her home.

He decided to rest for a moment and then return to his place. He rested and woke up. There was food all over the table again. “Why had they given the goods again?” He thought ’Well who cares. I will just ask them to pack these things up”.

He took these things with him, and started walking. He reached the place and was surprised again seeing his mother not at home. She was supposed to be here by now. He looked at his watch. It was only 10:40 pm. His watch has surely gone wrong. It is supposed to be midnight. Well, he didn't care, So he went to sleep.

Dr Sheena was tense. She didn't know what to do. Her son was acting all weird. She was a lady of science but she still had beliefs in the supernaturals. Her son was not behaving the way he always behaved.

She was surprised that night when he said he was bringing a lady to the house. She was happy about bringing in the lady part but she was surprised when she saw her son sleeping on the chair, with his head on the table. At first she thought that perhaps her boy was deserted by his girlfriend. So she went to him and patted his back. That suddenly awoke him and he was surprised. He asked her “ How was she?”

She got confused “ who are you talking about?”

He said “ Mom, I am talking about Amanda”.

Her motherly instinct rose. She knew there was some trouble. She just played along with the game.

“She was just magnificent”. Said Sheena

“ Yes. I am in love with her”. And then her dear son started praising Amanda in every word he could find.

She was tense. There was surely some problem up here. She decided to ask her friend Dr Wilbraham Stufford to help her. She called him and told him everything she saw, she was crying. Then she called her husband and told him everything. He was surprised too, He didn't expect that. He simply said that he is coming.

She was crying. Was her son in love with a Ghost?

Days were going great for Our lad Joel. He was never better on drums. His academics were getting better. He was feeling confident. He felt like a different man. Amanda made him feel like he was something. He loved her. She was the only one who understood him. Plus, his mother also loved Amanda. Add To that, she also has a song of her name, done by none other than Boston. He could feel the change she brought on him. He felt like a man. To prove that he had done something which he never did before, he took revenge.

He wrote the names of each person who were involved in beating him up when he went camping with the school. He got their names and addresses through Facebook and instagram. He planned as to how he should take revenge. He decided to go one by one.

April 6, Billy Hammond, age 19 …

Was admitted to hospital because of an alleged branch of a tree falling on him, injuring him in the process.

April 10, Simon Howard, age 18…

Was assaulted by an unknown man.

April 14, Cecilia Gabby, age 18….

Was admitted to hospital because of an allergic reaction, eating a sandwich which had peanuts in it.

April 18, Adnan Ahmed, age 19 …

Almost drowned in the pool because somebody had drugged his drink.

April 22, Laiman Shawn, age 20…

Admitted to hospital because of an overdose of sleeping pills.

Inspector Lance Furrough glanced at these cases and he felt there was something that connected them. He showed them to his teammates and said “ Boys,I think we are up against a maniac this time”.

Inspector Lance was an experienced police officer. He knew his job. And he certainly had whatever the job needed him to have. He saw that the case certainly was of interest. It was a serial assaulter. He noticed that in each case the criminal could have easily killed them all but he didn't. It could be She too.

The biggest mistake a serial offender makes, such as in this case, they always follow a method. That is what gets them caught. If your way of doing the job is erratic, then it's difficult to track you. But with guys like that, you just have to wait and read his method.

In this case the facts were too convincing, all of the 5 students were studying together when they were in school. They all were friends. It was not a long shot to guess that it could have been a school time friend or enemies there who did that.

Inspector Lance sent his men round to get information about the victims.

Sheena was crying on her husband. Mr Mason was in deep thought. They were all silent. Dr Wilbraham was there too, with his friend the billionaire Syed Arabi Khalique.

Mason said, after thinking for about 5 minutes,” What can be the problem? He was always a find boy. Suddenly why?”

Arabi stood up and started pacing around the room, from one end to another. He said “ let me know state the facts of this problem again.

Joel, your son, was a fine boy until 4 months ago, when he came home after a gig at a restaurant on 14th February, the day Of the lovers. The change is still not noticed around this time.

February 21, your son had gone for his gig again and told you that he is gonna eat outside with a friend. A female friend, I suppose. He comes early, with untouched food.

Now there might be some explanation behind that, there could easily be an explanation for this.

Now 28th February, a strange day itself, your son tells you he is gonna bring in a girl, name Amanda, to introduce you both. When the time comes, you are your son sleeping. You wake him up. He wakes up. He asks you if you like Amanda. There you did one good thing. Don't try to play the game straight. It is never a good idea in such cases.

Now, are you sure that you heard a young lady's voice about 5 minutes before you entered the room? If that is the case, this becomes interesting.

March 12th, Joel has gone again for a gig. After he returns he says to you, Mr Mason, that his girlfriend was coming. You are happy that your son has found a friend. About an hour later, You went upstairs to ask him what would like. You were hearing voices of two young love birds , chatting and laughing. You knocked on the door, no reply. You knock three more times, no reply. So you decided to barge in. And you saw your son was sleeping and there was no one in the room. But then suddenly you are surprised, because the voice of the fair lady and your son is still coming. You turn your son around and you are seeing Joel speaking both in a girl's voice and in his voice.

He wakes up about an hour later. He asks you whether you liked Amanda or not. You also play along, which was a wise decision. He seems to have been in some imaginary world or else how could he make these all up and why? But suddenly you are struck by lightning when he casually mentions a joke you told him when he was with Amanda. The joke was an old staple of yours but you never told that to your wife even, how would Young Joel know all this?

The rest of the month goes like this. He goes out every weekend to play music and meet Amanda.

His study never went better. His drumming never went better. So this girl is having a positive effect on him.

April 06, your son went out and came back breathless, at midnight. You asked him where he went and he didn't reply but he always used to reply to your questions, Sheena , isn't it?

April 10, He came home , again around 12 am, with, if you did not deceive you, blood across his shirt. You asked him what was on his shirt. He replied it was red wine. You got tense. Your boy was not what you thought He was. He somehow changed.

Mr Mason, you noticed that your son started doing exercise and running and all that sorts of activity. You think it might be because he wanted to impress his gal. Still, you were worried as he never did anything of the sort. He never played any sports, the only tiring thing he would do was drumming but that's not the case anymore right.

You started to notice that he used to go out every 4th day and would come back at about midnight. His relationship with Amanda grew even stronger. He didn't bring Her home but he did give her number to you guys and her address too.

The number was blank, no such number existed. The address you guys were given existed and there lived a girl by the name of Amanda but she didn't know your son. She never went out with him but she did have all those friends Joel mentioned. How can that be possible? Amanda brought in her friends to testify to her words. You spoke to her parents too. You guys decided to take a photo of her, just to check of She is the Amanda your son had been in love with.

Yes, she was. But she denies even knowing your kid and she seemed truthful.

Nobody apart from your son himself saw her with him. We all checked every restaurant he went to with Amanda or so he said. They all say the same thing.

Joel comes. He orders a table for two and the food. Then He goes to sleep. Wakes up. Take the food and go back home. Yet Joel's version of the stories are different But I think we know who is speaking the truth.” with this Arabi stopped talking. He looked at the parents and Dr Wilbraham. He then said “ We must notify the police. Your son, I fear, might be causing troubles”....

Joel was doing fine. He was with Amanda. She was wearing something yellow and nice. He never knew the names of these clothes worn by women. He was looking at her and she was talking endlessly. A talkative gal with a silent lad is a great combination. She asked him “ Do you love me?”

He was taken back. He didn’t expect this from her so early. It was almost 4 months since he met her, of course it was the right time but our friend was still himself. He decided to reveal what he had in his heart. He rose and said “ I don’t know how to say this but I cannot hide it anymore. I have to say this to you, I LOVE YOU.. You mean the world to me. I don’t know what I was but after you came, I learned about myself. You showed me a new horizon. I am madly in love with you. The sun, the moon , the stars, everything has lost it’s charm to me because I have seen someone who shines brighter than them, who shined the light in my dark life. I don’t know how you feel about me but I am in love with you. If the sun in the sky refuses to shine, I have to live by the night that still is mine”.

Our boy Joel had hit the bull’s eyes. She was smiling and blushing. The people in the restaurant heard his words, Joel uttered them quietly yet everyone heard his words, and they started clapping. He decided to drop Amanda to her home. He had brought his bike for that very reason ( Our boy is learning his ways quite well, we see).

After they had arrived at Amanda’s house, he told her “ Good night Amanda”. She looked at him and then she turned but stopped in the way, ran back, hugged Joel tightly and kissed him on the cheeks. With that she ran back to her house.

He was dazzled. He was trembling. He felt like he had been struck by lightning, then he smiled and turned his bike to go back to his home.

Who would have recognised this boy that was now standing in front of them. June 15, he stood like a man of the world. 4 months ago he was just a boy who used to play drums, loved rock n roll, a regular student and a total spectacled nerd. Now our boy had turned into a strong, tall man who knew his ways. Always smiling and very polite in his manners. But what changed was his standing up against injustice. Earlier, he would take the back seat and let karma do his job. He would not even try to stand up for anything. Now, he would just stand and give one thrash by the back of his hand. Our fair lady Amanda changed Joel into a fully different man in just 4 months but she also made on change in him, which was not her fault, he always had it in him, that he now could be unreasonably violent.

Inspector Lance assured himself again that he had enough evidence to go for an arrest. The matter might get messy but it is seldom clean. He told his boys to get ready “ Remember, we are going to arrest a maniac. He has rich parents, so the last thing we want is to get the boy hurt before we can prove he is guilty. So be careful”.

Joel woke up in the morning, a breeze blowing into his room. He never felt better, or the morning never seemed better. It was a Sunday morning, and he was happy. He ran downstairs. He saw both his father and his mother together eating their breakfast. He felt somewhat relieved seeing both of them. It was after a long time that the family was together. He sat down and started eating. His mother said ' Good morning, how are you today Joel?’

‘ I am fine mom, good morning’. answered Joel.

“Listen Joel, Today we have to go to a function given by a close friend of ours and you have to come”.

Joel nodded in agreement.

June 15, 7;00 pm. They all had gone to Arabi’s house. Joel never knew his parents were friends with this eccentric billionaire. He was excited in a way, It would be the first time that he would be going into a billionaire’s party. While he was thinking, they had reached their destination. Joel looked with eyes wide open. This was what he wanted in his life. A huge mansion like this, where he could spend the rest of his life with Amanda. His parents walked slowly up the stairs and he followed them closely.

When they entered the mansion, Joel was stunned. He never had seen something so grand , so big, so bright. It was just like in the movies, the big ballroom with the chandelier on top emitting the light of gold.

There were many people there. All rich and successful men and women of the society were there. He was surprised when he saw that Amanda was there too. He started walking to her when his mother said “ You can meet your girlfriend later. Now, we have to go and meet the owner and the host of the party, Arabi’. With that she took him up the stairs to study.

There were several people in the room, Dr Wilbraham, his parent’s friend, Colonel James Denver, his father’s friend, a couple of people head no idea about and Ben Jones, Amanda’s brother. He was stunned to see her brother. Ben was not a guy who would go into these high class parties, even if he was invited. Yet here he was.

He took a seat and sat down, relaxing his mind. After 5 minutes, came the ever dashing and debonair fellow known as Syed Arabi Khalique. He closed the library door, then turned to them, saying….

“ Good evening my dear friends and foes. How are you all this evening? I hope it has been a pleasant night for you so far. Now, we all know why we are here, don’t we? Only apart from our dear friend Joel here, right?” he looked at Joel, Joel smiled in confusion.

“ Yep, our friend knows nothing about tonight, yet if I am not wrong, You do know a lot about the nights, don’t you mate?’ he asked, Joel didn’t know what to say.

Arabi continued “ You see my friend, it is because of you that we are here tonight. Exactly four months ago, on the night of the lovers, you met somebody, Right?’ Joel nodded.

“ You met a certain attractive young lady, who then almost dragged you to her home, right?’ Joel was surprised. He didn’t tell anybody about this. So he nodded.

“ She had her friends at home, you all chatted and enjoyed, you sang a song too, if I am not wrong, “I am not in love” by 10cc, right?’ Joel was surprised. He thought perhaps Amanda had told all this to them.

“ You got attracted to this dazzling lady, you went out with her every weekend, took her to restaurants, parks, films, everywhere, right?’ Joel just nodded.

“ Now, what if I told you all that whatever Joel did, Wherever Joel went, whoever Joel went with, was all in his mind, would you all believe me?’ asked Arabi.

Joel suddenly got shocked by the very assumption that somebody could even question somebody’s …. Mind, brains, sanity, like this.

Arabi continued “ I know our friend Joel is certainly shocked by my question here. I, however, beg him to remain silent till I have finished my words”.

“ Joel did all these things that he said he did. Who can prove them wrong? Of course there is one person who can and that is our Lady of the moment AMANDA…”

With that entered Amanda, and everyone understood why our boy Joel would get all delusional about this lady. Her entrance suddenly enlightened the whole room. She came into the study and stood beside Arabi. Arabi continued

“ Here is our fair lady. Now my dear, do you know this good looking fellow who is sitting down there?’ pointing to our lad Joel.

She answered “ Sadly, I don’t know him. This is the first time I have seen him.”

These words came as a sharp spear aimed at his heart, and went through it. Betrayal, Betrayal, Betrayal, these words were ringing in his mind. He stood up and cried “ You are lying, what about all those nights we spent together, all those moments, were all those nonsense?” with that he lurched forward but was stopped by a couple of the younger men, who put him back into his seat.

“ Please my dear friend, don’t do so. I assure you, she is as innocent in the matter as you are. She didn’t even know that you existed until your parents decided to go to her house.

The problem, my dear friend, is you. You all here perhaps are thinking “ what really is the problem?” The problem is that our friend Joel has fallen in love with…. His imagination.”

“ Don’t be shocked. I am explaining. First, we know that Amanda never knew anybody by the name of Joel, that is that she doesn’t know our friend at all but our friend certainly knows.

He supposedly took her to many restaurants, film theatres, parks etc, isn’t it? Well, the interesting part is that my boys( I employ a dozen lad in my service, they do detective work for me) found out that all the places he went to, he went alone and he came alone. There was no one with him. He would go to the restaurants, would order the food, suddenly would fall asleep, food would come to the table, he would wake up and ask them to pack the food. After sometime, they would not bring food to the table but would pack them for home and he would take them. The same thing would happen at the parks, he would walk there, would fall asleep on a bench and wake up after 15 to 20 minutes. There was no place , my friend, where somebody saw you with a girl, let alone this dazzling beauty.”

“ Her friends also testify the same thing. They never saw you. They don’t know who you are. But still How come you know all of them?”

“ You also told your father the jokes that you said your father told you but he actually didn’t. How come you knew the jokes?’

“ You know many things about Amanda that you possibly couldn’t know even if you were stalking her” Arabi was saying but Joel rose up again and cried ..

“ I never stalked anyone. How dare you accuse me of such nonsense?” Joel was fuming and again he went forward to attack, this time Arabi but again he was put back into his place by the youngsters.

“ We can never be sure, right? You may or may not have stalked her but there are certainly things you know about her which nobody apart from Amanda herself could tell you. It is very strange indeed. Also last night when you came home, your mother noticed that you had lipstick marks on your cheeks which couldn’t be possible, because you were all alone last night too”.

“ You went to her college, which you did. Your version of the story involved a lot of romance with the lady, and also with you ending up as playing the drummer that night for Amanda’s band the Steelers. But you didn’t play that night, and here is the evidence for that. Look at this video of that night’s show’’. With that he pointed to the TV that was in there, it was playing the college music video, everyone was stunned when they saw that indeed Joel was not there that night, at least he wasn’t playing the drums. Arabi continued his talking, while pacing up and down the room.

“ So you see, Joel was not playing drums that night, but there is a tiny interesting thing there, How did he gtt to know that Ryan, Amanda’s friend and bandmate, had a phobia of clowns? Even Ryan’s closest friends and family didn’t know this fact. How come Joel knows all these things? He is sleeping most of the time, we know that he never had a real talk with any of these guys yet he knows a lot about them, which he could not have known even if he was stalking them all”.

“ I think I know what the problem is…. Recently I published a book of mine, named ‘ Imagination is the window to reality’, where I gave a theory that caused a lot of noise and controversy”.

“Well I think our friend Joel is an example of that very theory” said the eccentric billionaire Syed Arabi Khalique.

Everyone was silent. Nobody expected to hear something like that. Many knew his theory and had dismissed it as a “rich man’s folly”. But Arabi seemed serious.

“ You all might not believe me but atleast hear my evidence which can point to what is actually going inside Joel’s mind”.

“ Now, according to my theory, a man’s mind is not capable enough to produce images, stories, it is not. The wildest dream you have, the creepiest thought that you have, whenever you are thinking of a situation, it is not your mind which is creating all those scenes or all those simulations. It is actually happening.”

“ There are zillions of timelines in this universe, the actual number might be even more than that.

Now each of these timeline is going on, just like ours. Our brain is nothing but a portal and almost an USB through which we are all connected to the other timelines. I have used the word portal because all these images, scene,sound,simulation,everything that we hear, that we see in our mind is actually real but it is not our mind that is actually creating it, it is only that our mind( the brain, in other words) is showing us the suitable images we need from the other timelines.

Our mind is incapable of such imagination. We only see nature, we don’t create anything.

The portal that I am talking about helps us in every situation. If we are stuck in a situation, it shows us which method we should use, by selecting the best method throughout each timeline.

Why do we go to school? To learn the facts? Of course but also we gain the knowledge which helps our mind to choose which timeline would be helpful if we are in a certain problem.”

“ Now, with our friend up here, He because of his pain, loneliness, and also because of that hit to his head, somehow successfully opened the portal through which he, when he went into those quick naps, would go to the other timeline and hence he would see Amanda and everybody else. This is why some people, when they are hit on the head, somehow end up as a maestro musician, a top notch mathematician or even a dozen languages. It is because of their getting hit on the head somehow opens up their portal, through which more information starts coming.”

“ Joel got hit by that branch that day which somehow opened up his portal, I don’t know why his other timeliner didn’t do anything. And also you on other timeline don’t change that much, hence Joel knew so much about many of you. Though that doesn’t mean that your whole timeline is gonna have the same story and the same life as you, even the smallest changes bring differences.”

“ So, Joel went through the portal and I don’t know why but somehow on the last day,that is yesterday, when Amanda kissed him, that lipstick mark came with him up here.

Joel was stunned. He now got the idea as to why all of them would look at him so strangely at the restaurant, why at the parks would some people tell him to go home and take some rest, why would people say to him in the theatres that if he came to see a movies, why did he waste the time sleeping… Those little things are now making sense. He finally understood what was wrong with him.

Suddenly Arabi’s phone rang, he picked up the phone and said hello… Arabi was looking tense. As soon as the call finished, Arabi cried out “ They are coming after Joel.”

Everyone rose from their seats, Mr Mason asked “ Who is coming after my son?”

Arabi answered “ The police, it seems Joel has killed somebody”

Joel fell to the ground due to the shock “ I didn’t kill anybody, I just hurt them.” said he

“ Well my friend, they are all dead and the police have enough evidence to arrest you and put the hangman’s rope around your neck. They have entered my estate”

Sheena cried out “ Oh God! What should we do?’

Arabi, still keeping his cool, answered “ I have a way. I have a helicopter on top of my mansion. The helicopter is gonna take Joel to a safe place for now. The police can’t stop a helicopter from going, and I can always say afterwards that a guest of mine needed medical attention, so we sent him by air. All the medical matters I can easily handle. We just need to get Joel out of here.”

Dr Wilbraham asked “ How is escaping gonna help him? He can’t evade the law for ever”.

Arabi replied swiftly “ Nobody knows apart from us friends that Joel was here, so even if Joel does escape from here, the police can’t prove it. Meanwhile, while he escapes, one of us handles the police while another uses our media people to portray him as the victim, IF you want to save Joel. If he does escape successfully, we can take a breather, while my lawyers take the case and free Joel. I promise you all, nobody is gonna be in trouble.”

With that Dr wilbraham, along with Mr Mason and a couple of their friends, went out in front to stop the police from barging in. On the other side, Joel is taken to the Helicopter by Arabi, along with his mother and a couple of others.

On the front, the door is opened and inspector Lance arrives with his team, only to be confronted by the likes of Wilbraham and Mason. They ask “ why are the police up here at this door?”

Inspector Lance replies simply “ arresting Joel for assaulting his school friends”

They were taken back. Arabi had said something different, and the police were saying something different. The police are still stopped by them, asking the police questions like do they have the arrest warrant and sorts..

On the top of the mansion, Arabi helped Joel get on the helicopter. His mother was also getting on the Helicopter but was barred by Arabi. He said “ You have been seen in the party, it might not be possible for you to go so quietly while he can, well he must. So please don’t waste the time anymore, I don’t want the police to see us in this incriminating situation. Let Joel go alone.”

With that Sheena got down, and the helicopter started to rise.

Joel looked down on everyone and was feeling sad, He would have cried but he knew he had to be strong. So, just to pass the time, he asked the the man who was controlling the helicopter

“ Where are we going mate?”

The man replied “ To Orxfield research center”

Joel asked “ Why?”

The man replied “ of course, you are going to be the subject there. You are the lab rat”