Memories...

The next day Tejas still laid on his bed when the caretaker came. His hands were raised as if he was celebrating something in his sleep and his mouth snored and hissed. The caretaker had expected that he would be wide awake, ready with more insults for that day.

He shook him gently but in a firm voice he said, "I need to change the sheets."

Tejas turned in the opposite direction. The caretaker shook him again. Not until he had done it repeatedly was he able to move him from there.

Tejas took his pillow, laid on the floor and returned to his sleep as if he was never disturbed. But when he was awakened for the second time because the floor needed cleaning, he didn't grumble or complain like the caretaker had feared and expected.

Instead he sat on a chair, trying to keep his eyes open. His eyelids seemed to be glued and he kept sinking into his chair. When he finally opened his eyes, he was startled. He swayed and would've fallen down had the chair not been made of such sturdy material.

He tapped to see what it was made of. It neither had the damping sound of wood or plastic nor the sharp sonorous ring of metal. Whatever it was, he seemed to be very fond of it.

The caretaker, who was busy cleaning, heard "Buddy, what is this place?"

"What?" He thought he misheard.

"Whe-re-am-I?" Tejas spoke stressing every syllable.

The caretaker gave a short but suspicious look at him. "You've been here long enough to know that." He resumed his duties.

Tejas stood up and strolled to scrutinize the nooks and corners of the room, as if suddenly the room was an unknown territory to him. Empty shelves, ants gathering around bits of food and in a corner, rapidly changing photographs of Dr. and Dr. Raman. The pictures hovered on the hologram's platform.

He led his hand to the pictures. He could feel their cloth, their hair and also their skin. There was a fusion of excitement and horror on his face.

He had turned around to ask something when he discovered the view from the large window right next to it. He tried to take his head out and have a look, but an invisible barrier pushed his head back. Yet a gust of wind passed through it and blew his long hair that otherwise reached his eyes. "It looks beautiful!" his cheeks lifted in a smile.

The caretaker looked very perplexed at his sudden change of perspective for everything in the room. He had always heard him curse, taunt and insult but he never thought that the boy was capable of smiling. Even though his ears were attentive out of curiosity, he was of the sort who didn't like to meddle in other people's business.

When he was leaving, Tejas stopped him.

"Buddy, buddy! Can you atleast tell me my name?"

"Is this funny to you? ", his face was red in fury, "I am a busy man. I don't have time to waste, like you do." He made his exit in a hurry.

Before the door closed, Tejas slipped out of his room, partly to follow him. He was standing on a long corridor, brightly lit with sunlight. There were doors on one side and windows, like the one in his room, on the other side. Two guards were patrolling and Trish leaned at the edge of the window and faced the door of his room. She bolted as soon as she saw him.

"What's up, Tejas?" there was a hint of surprise in her tone. Tejas had never done this unless he was asked to.

"So, I am called Tejas here too," he looked relieved to know that.

She smiled thinking that he had said that for laughs and pointed on the wall- 'Dr Tejas Raman'.

"Raman?", he pondered for a while, "So this is Tejas Raman's house? This here?"

"No...I don't know...Maybe-" she wondered if that was true. Only the people who worked had places of their own since these were assigned by the government. So Tejas had no where else to go other than this room.

"What is this place then?" he asked again, hoping that she would finally help her.

The smile faded from her face. "You were not joking, right now?"

"No. Why is everyone saying that? Did I used to-"

A loud thud on his door interrupted him. No sooner had she slapped the door than a screen, lit up. She touched the emergency contact list and a request for establishing connection with Ms Dheera and Krish was sent. Krish was the first to be connected. But she did not look very happy when she was.

Her long strands of hair poured on her face and her bed looked like she had just come out of the CT scan.

"Tejas! Do you have—"

"—Something's wrong, sis. He's acting strange."

Krish zoomed in on him. He was tapping other walls in hopes of finding more hidden screens.

"What are you doing?" Krish asked.

"Am I somehow transported to a sci-fi novel?" He moved his hands in excitement as if unaware of what to do with them.

"Why are you doing this, Tej? This is not funny." Krish moved her hands and flipped the strands of grey hair. She too was panicking a little but there were was a lot of frustration in her cheeks and face. "Do you have any idea how hard it is more me right now to get proper sleep? But no! I get one holiday every two weeks. Every two weeks!" Two of her fingers almost covered her camera.

"I'm sorry, mam. That…that is really tough…but I...I don't seem to remember," he looked down at the ground rubbing his arm, "I don't remember a lot of things."

"WHAT?" the sisters screamed unanimously.