CHAPTER 3 – APRIL 23RD
Julia woke up wearily and looked at the time. It was 7 in the morning! Unbelievable, even during schooldays she never woke up so early. She rubbed her eyes as she wondered what caused her unearthly wake from sleep. Casting her eyes around the room ,they fell on the diary which she had set aside yesterday.
It was unbelievable. The entry for April 23rd had not been there. She flipped the pages and realized that there were entries only till April 22nd and for none of the days after that. She thought she had been dreaming but the presence the diary proved the contrary.
She gingerly picked up the diary and turned the pages to Nadia's bio-data and read the address. It sounded like a local one. She could always check that out at the library. She did not know why she wanted to check out the address but then a voice inside her told her to do so. A tiny part of her wished that the entries had continued and that she knew what was going to happen next. She knew that sounded crazy but too many co-incidents make it non-co-incidental doesn't it? Though lost in her thoughts, Julia did notice the pages of Nadia's diary flip forward due to wind, but did not register it so quickly. It was as though it had all happened in slow motion and yet so fast. The wind had flipped the pages of Nadia's diary forward and it came to a halt at a neat handwritten page – April 23rd.
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She went down for breakfast much to the surprise of her mother who hadn't made anything ready thinking Julia wouldn't be down till much later. Julia still engrossed in her thoughts brushed past what her mother was saying and made herself a sandwich from the kitchen. She would have taken the sandwich to her room to eat if it were not for the call from Rebecca.
"Julia? Listen, we are all very eager to get to the cave and Kevin and Sam have called me thrice already. I thought you wouldn't be awake yet but thank god you are. Listen can you make it to my place in 10 minutes? –Cool then. Try to bring something to spruce up the cave like we discussed the other day will you? – Ya sure! See you! Bye."
Julia hung up and gobbled down whatever was left of the sandwich she raced up and took out her school bag. She clumsily emptied its contents on her bed. She did not care to pick up the odd scrapes of paper [notes that she and Rebecca had exchanged during class hours] that fell on to the floor. She pushed them under her bed with her feet while at the same time trying to force the storybooks and the games into the bag. She somehow managed to do it and sat down on her chair. She need not start in another 5 minutes and she very badly wanted to find some reason in the goings on. She picked up Nadia's diary and turned to April 23rd. it was there all right. Only the last few lines trailed off. She made a mental note not to take up sweeping or dusting the place, which might lead to getting dust in her eyes…and probably and incident with Kevin… which was what had happened for Nadia... and Jack. And also, she was not going to tell her friends about Nadia. Why should she say just because Nadia did? With these thoughts swirling in her head, she half dragged, half carried her heavy bag down the stairs, yelled an explanation to her mother and took off on her cycle to Rebecca's.
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"Hey! Watch where you poke that broomstick!" yelled out Kevin.
The four of them had gone to the cave as planned. They had felt their way to the cave [thanks to Enid Blyton with her wool idea], this time deciding to go on foot. Apart from Julia's games and books, Rebecca had brought some old rugs and broomsticks as well as her old wireless radio come tape player. Sam had managed to bring some stick-on-the-wall pegs and pictures to hang as well as a bookrack, a crudely mended version of his old, broken one. He had also remembered to bring 2 torches with him. "Sorry the other one is broken but it works well for a spare. You never know when you might need one!" Kevin dug up some cassettes, magazines and tinned biscuits and chocolates from all parts of his house and smuggled it over.
"No one will find them missing, don't worry! I found all this in the mess in my sisters room, and trust me she wont find them missing. If she even manages to find her feet in that room…well I wont say ill eat my hat but ill probably eat this chocolate here!"
Julia remained very quiet throughout. She did not show any signs of excitement when they entered the cave. It was not the characteristic chattering, bubbly Julia, ready with her overly-witty, sarcastic replies but a subdued Julia who entered the cave with bent knees, and looked warily up to see how high the ceiling was. To her surprise, the ceiling was a foot longer than her and she stretched herself to her full length. The cave was indeed spacious and as big as her living room. The walls and floor felt very cool. At some places in the wall, pieces of rock seemed to jut in suddenly, which made good shelves and ledges. Rebecca ran her finger along the wall and exclaimed – "This is dirty and dusty. We have to clean it before we decide to adopt this place for ourselves or we might catch many diseases."
She was still stunned and did not know whom to tell or whether to even take notice of what had happened. Words couldn't just appear on a page could they? She observed what was going on quietly. The way things were shaping up made it even clearer that Nadia's diary had quoted her day. She got to work with a broom, that's what Nadia chose, she thought to herself quietly, but there is a difference, Nadia chose to work with a broom, but I landed up with one! Sure enough dust got into her eyes. She yelped when her eyes hurt and Kevin hurried her to the pond where he helped he wash her smarting eyes. She was trembling with excitement and the strange feeling of having Kevin so close. It did not at all take time for her to realize that things were happening the way Nadia's diary had said. She was very subdued with distress. No one seemed to notice anything wrong. At least that was what it looked like till Kevin spoke up. She was suddenly very conscious of the fact that it was Kevin who had to be the first one to notice and speak up about her and not one of the others. She did not know exactly why she was having these thoughts.
Kevin had observed that Julia had been very quiet throughout. And more-so-ever after he had taken her to the pond-side to wash the dust off her eyes. Of course she was known to lapse into her own thoughts and at those times she would be very quiet. But this was different, for her eyes did not have that dreamy look or her lips that pretty smile. Instead she had a troubled expression in her eyes, though she seemed perfectly normal her smiles did not extend to her eyes. And even when he made some stupid comments to get her to say something, sarcastic as usual, she did not reply and this caught his attention.
"Julia? What is wrong? Why are you being so quiet today?"
"No I'm not!" Said Julia, a little too quickly and a little too defensive.
"Julia! There really is something wrong. This is the second time that you have tried dusting the walls with a broom!"
Julia looked at what she had in her hand and saw that she was holding a broom. Her mind wandered to the Nadia's entry of April 23rd, and back to the faces of her friends all of whom were wearing an expression of mingled curiosity and concern. She gave a huge sigh and sat down on the floor, signaling to the others to follow suit.
"I guess it will be a burden of my heart if I tell you. That rainy day when you guys came home, remember we went up the loft…"
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"So you are saying that the April 23rd's entry which was not there yesterday, suddenly seemed to be there today morning but April 24th's entry is not there."
"Not only that Sam, but then there are other things which freaked me out too. Like my life, the incidents, the sequence of events, seemed to be exactly like hers."
"So… what you mean to say is that whatever happened to this Nadia a 100 years back is happening to you in the same order…"
"Not only that! What about the April 23rd entry?"
"You might have imagined it. From what you have told us it was late in the night and you must have been sleepy."
"Well April 24th was not there and I double-, triple-checked it this morning."
"Julia, are things happening just the way it happened to Nadia today?"
"I Dunno…but then the mention of Nadia's find of a 100-year-old diary which belonged to an Arpita, according to her, was a little more than a co-incidence don't you think so?"
"Her feelings and mine are the same about this. I mean I just read all about her internal conflict of whether to tell her friends or not…and was shocked to find my self going through the same thing." Julia was now pacing up and down the cave, clearly distressed.
"C'mon Julia! There were no more entries were there? So I don't think you'll have to give it more thought!"
"No more thought? Guys do you know…"
"Julia! Tell you what," said Rebecca cutting her off and catching her by her shoulders, "I think you put this aside for now and help us set up this cave. Alright forget it."
"What do you expect me to forget? Do you realize that what is happening to me, happened to Nadia, happened to Ella and to her diary person..?" Rebecca went around and put her arm around Julia, who leaned back on Rebecca's arm and rested her hot head against the cool walls of the cave. That sudden change in temperature helped her to cool down and think rationally.
"Tell you what…"said Rebecca when she felt that it was safe to talk to Julia without having her head bitten off,
"you go and wash your face in that nice pool and we shall set up this cave, then we will go to the library and check out the address, ok?"
Julia nodded quietly and went outside to get some air and wash her face. She knelt down on the edge of her pool and cupped some of that clear, cool water in her hands. She splashed the water on her face, and did not bother to wipe it, as she wanted to enjoy the cool feeling in the hot summer. Kevin came out to bring in the other things to decorate their cave. He glanced at Julia sitting down quietly with her face tilted upwards, water droplets running off her face… Strange, he had not felt anything of this sort in the last four years of his friendship with Julia. He smiled to himself as he approached her.
"Hey Julia! Stop staring at the sky. We have work to do. Come on and help me take all these things in."
Julia wiped her face with her hands and got up from there. She went to the corner where Kevin was standing and picking up the rugs one by one.
"What are Rebecca and Sam doing there?"
"They are still cleaning!"
"If those two got more clean, well they would redefine the work Clean!"
"Apparently those two don't seem to think so. Besides, the floor wasn't at all swept!"
"Well I swept…" started Julia angrily."
"…The walls," finished Kevin laughing. Julia slapped him playfully with a book and they went in, carrying the rugs, the stick-on-the-wall pegs and the pictures to hang.
"Finished cleaning?" asked Kevin smirking at Sam.
"Yes, and we are ready to arrange this place!"
"Where do we start?"
"Well, should we start by hanging the pictures?"
"Julia, that is one of the last things we do. I vote we go bottom to top. We'll first start with arranging the rugs, then the bookshelf. Also we can use these ledges to keep our tape recorder, cassettes and torches. Sam and I found this little, cozy hole…or rather a cavelet, so to speak, we can keep the chocolates and biscuits, as it is a very cool place, sort of like a fridge. The games we can stack it up next to the books rack."
"Well you seem to have everything well planned out, so I don't see any need to laze around…"said Julia looking at Kevin who had sat down on the rugs he had brought and had almost dozed off to sleep. Julia gave his legs a kick and they all set off to work, Julia's mysterious dairy forgotten…almost. She still had the nagging feeling that things were taking shape, exactly as in the diary.
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Julia stood at one corner of the cave and looked at the whole view. Not bad, thought Julia. Everything was perfect and cozy. What it lacked was cushions to sit on.
"I can stitch the cover for the cushion." Offered Rebecca.
"I can bring the old pillows in our attic so that you can use the cotton in it." Said Kevin.
"Well now what?" asked Sam looking around enquiringly.
"I think we should get going and check out the address." Said Julia.
"I guess we should. Julia will not rest if we don't."
Julia gave a small smile, but the others could see that she was worried. Rebecca noticed this and proclaimed that they pack up for they day.
"Once the cushions are ready, we would have finished our work and this cave will be all set to enjoy."
"Ya sure! I will bring the pillows over as soon as we get home and you start working on it."
"Lazy git! For a change why don't you work too?"
"I can't stitch!"
"Well you can cut can't you? So you just bring the pillow stuffing over after you remove the cover."
Kevin made a face and when Rebecca opened her mouth to scold him, he broke out into his handsome lopsided smile. They all went out of the cave and Julia secured the ivy curtain in place "just incase," She said. They walked out of the forest talking about anything but the diary. Julia again remained very quiet. They were first going to her house to bring the diary and then proceed to the library. She was walking slightly behind the rest and so Rebecca fell back to walk with her.
"Hey don't fret! Well check out the address like you wanted to."
"Well I was thinking, why do I want to check out the address?"
"Ummm…good question!"
"Well actually, at first I wanted to just see for the fun of it. But then according to Rebecca, she checked out Ella's address."
"And where had Ella lived?" asked Rebecca breathlessly, eagerly waiting for an answer.
"That's the worst part! You see it was written with a black ink pen, and the diary was old…so this was the last sentence of the entry and the words were smudged and torn at some places…"
"Oh!" said Rebecca unsure of what to say. So she just put her arm around Julia and that somehow comforted her. Julia was uncomfortable about the mystery of the diary and yet her curious mind wanted to find out all about it.
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