The Antelope's Journey

34. Stop fantasizing!

It was a relief that Kali finally agreed. Francina was surprised that she got through to him. Now that Kali agreed to the plan, Francina was naturally becoming unsure. The plan was to rest their fate and chance of freedom on Kali—he would go ahead on a quest to find the totem. The man already had not many promising aspects to his physicality, but his spirit had proven to be relentless and resilient.

Maybe it is a good idea. I made a good choice. I wasn’t planning on leaving here without my mom, anyway.

Monkey hopped out of nowhere and into Kali's arms. She made a few excited noises to receive Kali. Even, Kali was happy to see Monkey. In particular, seeing that Monkey was okay brought him joy after having left her in the empty palace the previous day. Seeing Monkey was a consolidation after receiving the horrendous news that he would be going alone to finish the game. And that, thousands of lives rested on his shoulders. They were performing the ritual to open the portal for Kali. Francina followed Mrs. Peterson’s instructions, “The potion must be dripped in a circle fit enough for him to go through… Now, we chant...”

They said a mini-prayer. The portal would not open. “What’s going on?” Francina asked, “Why won’t it open?”

“I think we were supposed to do this at the hour of 3:33 a.m.” Said Mrs. Peterson, “We missed it—”

It was 4:46 a.m.

“No!” Francina melted down with disappointment. She thought that they would just send Kali off and get as far away from the palace. She really thought that they would get away from the rebels. “What next now? He’s stuck here? We're all stuck here?”

Mrs. Peterson could see the distraught in Francina, “Maybe we could come back tomorrow night.” She had to think hard on this. “At the same time, I don’t think I want to fight those rebels, especially knowing that I'm the one who wronged them.”

“How are we going to do that? How are we going to walk in here because they’ll be here tomorrow? If they don’t find us here, they’ll just stick around to guard the palace. There’s no way we can get in.”

Mrs. Peterson argued, “Now, you my dear. They don’t suspect us at all. We can always just walk in here pretending to be one of them.”

A silence for a while, Francina was dissecting her mother's ideas for a while…

Mrs. Peterson proceeded with her own responsibilities. “Now, I just have to free those WIC guards.” She sat at a table with two of them—one had a magic ball and the other was the newly captured man. They were very glad to see each other again.

“We may have never talked back in the cave but it’s good to see a familiar face in strange places,” said the reader. “We all have bits of information as per our station in that company. You will have to tell me what you know.” He performed a spell meant to hypnotise him and grant access to his mind-environment.”

The man was now fully taken over by the psychic. The man sat still and quiet with his were closed. “He is still resisting my control over his mind. We’ll have to wait for him a while as he calms down. The psychic started burning weed, of which he used to calm his clients down.

“So, how did you end up in that cave?” Mrs. Peterson thought she should hold a conversation with the psychic while the man calmed down.

“They came for me in my sleep, carried my soul with them and I woke up here.” The psychic continued. “In my waking life, I should be in a coma. They told me I would only work for them for only 8 years, but it has been 25 now.”

“Did you see their faces?”

“At that time, I did, but after 25 years, you forget faces. But he is new," he was referring to the man. "I’m sure he remembers them.”

The man was calm now. The psychic placed his hands on his magic ball, he silently said a prayer only he knew. He then began hovering his palms above the ball. His silent prayer now became whispers only he could hear. Slowly, the ball started glowing a purple light. Gradually, the different colours started emerging and meshing up to provide clear views.

On the ball they could see the man staring at a beautiful woman. “Who’s that?" Mrs. Peterson was curious.

“Oh, we’re actually seeing his personal life first. We’re looking at his greatest desires.”

“Do you want to watch that?”

“No, Mrs. Peterson.”

“Then fast forward it! You always do this!”

“I keep telling you I can’t fast forward it…yet. I haven’t learnt to, yet. Okay? So, we’ll just have to sit here and wait for him to stop.”

Mrs. Peterson tried to be patient but the man’s longing took longer than expected. More and more of that dreamy woman was seen on the ball. More and more of her from all angles. “Gee, he must be horny all the time, if he thinks about her that much,” complained Mrs. Peterson.

“He’s still young. He had his whole life ahead of him and they snatched it all. And when you’re in that darned place, you look to your imagination to keep you going. When facing hardships, only fantasy can carry you on.”

However, Mrs. Peterson was so over the sight. More and more of the woman… Mrs. Peterson got up and left the table. She went to the sofa in the room and laid down, “Wake me up when he’s done fantasizing.”