Suddenly the sound of shrieking started coming from all around. Afsar was reclining in his own lab on the 87th floor of a 100-storey building, performing research on an important subject. Suddenly, he felt there is no likelihood of coming sound from exterior to such a high rise building. That means the sound is coming from the room next to it. He unlocked the door and saw a 10- to 12-year-old boy screaming at the security guard to reach him. Afsar asked the security guard to release the boy and he later took him to his laboratory. Afsar peeked at the boy and asked-
—Why you are looking for me?
—You help me identify my mother's assassin.
—I'm not a policeman, you should go to the police station.
—My father works at National Security. Although it is quite confidential, yet I know one of your successful inventions is a device which can identify unknown killers and terrorists.
Afsar gazed at the boy with a little surprise. This boy is right, a few months ago he made a device at the special request of the Prime Minister. The special aspect of this device is that if any human fingerprint, a blood drop or any of the body cells can be given as an input, all his / her biography will be displayed on the screen of the laboratory in the form of video as output. Afsar kept a specimen of the suspect from the boy and asked to meet him three days later.
Afsar is one of the best scientists of present time. Several of his inventions have changed the world. Now people can move from one place to another without any kind of vehicle. He is presently conducting research on cells in the human body. He is trying to keep the cells and other organs of the human body youthful for a long time so that the life span of a person gets longer. After working whole morning, he is feeling quite hungry now. He looked at the clock and saw that it was 45 minutes past 2 in the afternoon. Suddenly, his eyes stopped on the date below the clock and saw that today is November 27, 2030. Today is his birthday. After a long time, he is missing his mother very much. Afsar left the chair and sat on his time machine.
The time is January 13, 1959, Afsar was standing in Purbapara zamindar's house. It is the black and white era. He noticed that a marriage celebration was going on in the zamindar house. A group of people were going to give a wedding gift with a brass pitcher in everyone’s hands. The bride and groom were facing various formalities at the wedding house. Afsar was a little surprised to see a groom standing with two brides. He also noticed a slight discrepancy between the two girls costumes, one was dressed up a little better and the other was just the opposite. He could realise that it is the marriage tradition of few religious zamindar family. At that time, in many cases, when the girl got married, a maid was given with her. Since the maid was always busy with household work and engaged in the assistance of her husband, she was also got married with the person along with the primary bride. After a while, Afsar realised that this maidservant is his real mother.
Afsar scrolled the time clock in his hand and advanced for two years. Afsar noticed that his mother was pregnant then. The zamindar himself was taking care of his mother. One of the reasons is that despite trying so hard, his primary wife could not conceive. He turned his time clock few months ahead and found a cute baby lying in his mother’s room. He realized that this is him. But he couldn’t discern the reason why a child is sleeping alone so late at night. After few moments, he heard a growl from the next room. He saw his mother hanging on the gallows and trying desperately to survive. He ran to save his mother, but soon he realized that he can’t do anything here, this is destiny. Afsar was even more surprised to see his father's primary wife staring at his mother with anger. The next morning his mother's death was proclaimed as suicide.
Afsar moved ahead for 5 years on his time clock. He found himself sitting on a large mat beside their pond and basking under winter sun, a bowl of molasses and puffed rice was placed next to him. His step mother was very busy detaching the pages of last year's calendar and wrapping his new primary school books with those. He has enough doubts as to whether his real mother would have cared him as much as she did. Even then, he don't know why his mind is filled with hatred to her now.
Afsar walks to the river next to their house. He saw a small boat tied up in the middle of the river. The boat was empty and there was no one there. Although so much green all around, no color was visible in his eyes, everything looked like a black and white picture. He wanted to row the boat for an unknown destination but couldn’t, he had to return soon. There was very little time on hand because the time machine was giving alarms.
Afsar is sitting in his laboratory and the boy in front of him is looking at him anxiously. He told the boy that his father had not killed his mother, it was a natural death. The boy left the laboratory with a sigh of relief. He savored from hot coffee mug. He lied to the boy. In fact, the boy’s mother was killed by her boyfriend. Avoiding everyone's eyes, she was involved in an illicit affair with him. If the boy had known this fact, he would have hated his mother instead of loving her.
Afsar is looking at the black and white picture of the boat and thinking he will not tell anyone about the invention of this time machine. He doesn't want a machine to shatter a person's lifelong trust.
This is my entry of this week contest BDCommunity Presents: [A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words] [Contest Week 2]arranged by @bdcommunity
I am inviting @zayedsakib and @gungunkrishu to participate in this contest. Thanks.