E TREE......................................... LEAF SIXTEEN

White

No one can tell me that was totally accidental. Someone was messing with my dreams. But how can that be possible. It was around three in the morning when I woke up after hearing that voice again. (What am I talking about? Hear? No, it was a dream!) It felt like a chill even though it was the end of July. And why on earth it had to today? We are supposed to work on a Mind Map today. A real one. And the one in white? What does that mean? Obviously the one place I’m going to be today is school and our uniforms are white so everyone will be wearing white. 

I was so distracted that when Cher arrived at school, I didn’t realize she was just a feet away from me until she gave a tap on my back. 

“What are thinking so much about on a morning like this? You are like already lost your fight. What’s up?” Cher asked what’s wrong as if she was asking me to go to the bathroom with her.

It would be a betrayal for our friendship if I don’t tell her what I saw but I was so confused that I couldn’t decide whether to tell her or not. Which one in white is a threat? But before, I could tell her, Nish came in saying, 

“Hey, you are still here? We have office duty this week. Better get going before Mrs. Veene come scolding. Hurry!”

We went hurriedly to the Head Mistress’s office. Each class of the school is given a week to clean and maintain Head Mistress’s office. This week, it was our turn. While cleaning, I peered into Ms. Cleanor’s cubicle but she was not there. I thought of telling her if I could get a chance about my dream. 

E TREE......................................... LEAF FIFTEEN

The Dream

“I will not… Not today…. Yes, when the time is right… not today… But be warned girl. You are making a serious mistake. You’ll never come back.” And the two hands that tortured me left for good. 

That was the dream I’ve been having for the last two weeks. All I ever see is two hands, very white, choking me to death with the same words in a shrill voice. I’m a light sleeper most of the people say because, I dream a lot. But I never see the same dream twice but this one was way out of my hand. I told Cher about my dream. She didn’t pay much attention first but when I was having the same dream repeatedly for the seventh time, she told me to go to Ms. Cleanor. 

Ms. Cleanor did not ask me back anything but she wanted me to forget what I saw and continue my normal routine. I wanted to ask her what if I see it again, but for some reason I skipped that part.

“You should have asked her. I’m not surprised she didn’t take you seriously, must be something not unusual though.” Cher replied when I told her about my meeting with Ms. Cleanor.

“You know what? Dreams are dreams. Reality is far more interesting than a stupid dream Ish. Common, cheer up. We’ll miss the Basket Ball match if we don’t go now.” 

E TREE......................................... LEAF FOURTEEN

Friends & Foes

“I wonder when we are actually going to get to fight…” Yaarah said while we were all having lunch during the interval after a tiresome training session one day. 

“Yeah, me too. We’ve been practicing for like 3 months and Cleanor won’t allow us to fight actually. I mean common we are all improving aren’t we? And…. We are pretty much through the basic battle techniques now. She ought to let us fight by now.” said Kale who was sitting with us. She was pointedly looking at the next table where another set of girls from our class sat there. 

“Oh no… no, no, no… No you are not Kale!” Cher suddenly cried out loud so that even the other tables could hear. 

“Why? What happened?” I asked Cher. She was looking half amused, half annoyed. Kale gave her a frown look. “I’m not telling them. It’s your business” Cher replied Kale for her look.

We all stared at Kale who was struggling to tell something. She finally looked at Cher for help who immediately started to tell us what Kale thought.

“She wants to punch and crack some teeth out of Blona. It’s been on her mind ever since they were kids some kid revenge thing. By the way, Blona and Kale are from the same neighbourhood.” Cher was smiling and Kale was red on the face like a cherry.

“It’s not like that, she keep beating me from everything I do. And she got into White Lotus just like I did and add to that she is a Rage just like me.” 

“Funny how that happens right? Anyways, you’ll need to drop that grudge right here Kale because we are on the same side now. And sooner or later, we have to face a real fight and the other side can use such grudges against us. That’s what Ms. Cleanor said isn’t it?” what Yaarah said was true. Sooner or later we will face a real fight. 

E TREE......................................... LEAF THIRTEEN

Mind Maps

“Either I’m mad or she is going insane” Cher forgot that we are still listening to Ms. Cleanor. “Or maybe I have a hearing problem…” After a moment Cher muttered. Apparently many girls thought likewise. 

“Your powers are not only to benefit those around you but to vanquish evil and fight it.” Ms. Cleanor’s voice echoed ignoring the horrified faces of others present. 

“Evil has many forms. There are evil people around you and your society. There’s evil inside everyone. At some point of life only, you’ll realize that particular part within you. It’s not easy to become a Mind’s Eye unless you defeat the darkness within you. Mark my words girls, to harness your potentials there will be thousands of obstacles and most of those obstacles will be from your evil side. It’s our task to prepare you for that.

Mind’s Eyes in the past have divulged certain methods to defeat your darkness as well as prepare yourselves against your enemies. The most effective ones are game plans derived to train your minds’ powers to battle. They are like games but planned and executed inside your mind.”

Absorbed by this new piece of information, everyone turned to face the stage where a transparent screen kicked into life showing what looked like a flat ground, more like a meadow but with less grass. There were two groups of tiny people on either side formed into what looked like two triangles. Ms. Cleanor spoke “Upper view, Squad 1” and the screen moved to show the overhead view of one triangle. 

E TREE......................................... LEAF TWELVE

A New Beginning

“I’m a Mind’s Eye. I’m not a Mind’s Eye. I’m a Mind’s Eye. I’m not a Mind’s Eye……..” Whenever I felt I doubtful about myself I kept chanting that to myself. I’m still not used to the idea of being a Mind’s Eye with full powers. And add to that, I learn in a school where Mind’s Eyes are trained to use their powers. Sounds fantastic, hah? Nope! Not to me though. Even with powers I was behind my studies and we were strictly prohibited to use our powers in exams. (Poor Cher!) When we got to know our last term results in 6ht Standard, I was the 11th in my class out of 44 and Cher was 5th. I was a bit relieved actually but not my parents. They were neither pissed nor satisfied but confused because they didn’t know whether to blame me or not. Of course they can’t blame me because I managed all that by myself with all the extra pains and aches from my Mind’s Eye ice braking.

When we were graduated to our 7th standard, our class was divided. Gladly Cher and Yaarah were in my class. We were put in A class this time with a whole new set of students. My 7th standard was the year that marked a great deal of a change in my whole life. Even though we were total strangers, my classmates got along well together. Our class teacher was Mrs. Veene. She was a real nice person to all of us. Soon after we were put into class A we found out something special about our class. That was everyone in the class was known to be best at their Mind’s Eye powers. It was like we were graded according to our powers. 

“You know what?” Cher started to whisper in my ear. “This class has the strangest minds I’ve read. Not to mention, I can’t read four minds out of the fifty and all the other minds are so powerful that I can’t keep reading them. I think it’s because of the training. You know, it’s a bit hard to read yours now than earlier because you are constantly training your mind now. I thought with the training, I’ll be able to expand my reading area. I mean, now I can read everyone within 10m or so but I can’t keep up reading for a long time. I can read none Mind’s Eyes for a longer time now though.”

E TREE......................................... LEAF ELEVEN

The Painful  Truth

“How’s everything at school, honey?” My mom was back from our first parents’ meeting. I thought she was going to kill me for getting only 43 for Maths. However she was not but she was in one of her “I’m worried about you” moods.

“Ummm…. Okay. Why? How was the meeting?” I asked without real consideration. 

“Oh! It was okay. Mrs. Anjaa seems lovely. But there were some surprising things. For example, all the teachers knew who I was and they seemed so glad to meet me. I was treated like the President’s mother.” There was a pause.

“And I asked you about your special diet from your class teacher and she seemed positively unaware about it. You told me that your school wanted you to follow that diet Ish. So how come Mrs. Anjaa doesn’t know it?”  My mom was curious, suspicious and worried now. But still I couldn’t tell her what I was because she’ll think I’m going crazy. I had to lie.

“Mrs. Anjaa doesn’t know mom. It was the Doc at the sick bay assigned me the diet.” But she was still not convinced. I could tell by looking at her expression. God protect me now. 

There were times I actually thought of telling mom and dad about myself but they were not fantasy people. As every parent does, they wanted me to concentrate hard on my studies. But it was a bit difficult for me to keep up with my studies with Mind’s Eye training. Each time I discover a power within me, I collapse and it weakens my body. I had to endure great deal of pain when I use my powers. I sometimes felt lonely because I was different from others and I could not tell my feelings to my parents. All I knew was that, from now on, I had to be more careful. I was glad to return to school after a month’s vacation spent miserable at home.

E TREE......................................... LEAF TEN

Collapse

“Wow! I never knew that there are actually people who can send Blue fire. Just imagine!” Cher kept jabbering as usual after our training session and this time it was a bit more because now we know about most of the Mind’s Eye powers and what they are called. 

“Prior Demnar…. Prior Demnar…. You don’t mind me calling you by full name, do you?” Cher asked me sheepishly. That’s it! She knew how much I didn’t like being called like that. 

“One more time and I’ll assure you that I won’t help you with your Trumpet!” Cher was selected to our school brass band and her first instrument was a trumpet and she was lousy at playing it. 

“Okay, Okay… Listen, now that we know about what we are called, I think we should have nick names or something like that. It’s cool right? I mean everyone usually has a nick name. If I can’t call you Prior Demnar, can I call you P.D.? It’s ugly but simple… What do you say?” Cher was making fun of me but that’s normal for her. If she’s not laughing then there is some serious problem. Apart from our Mind’s Eye training sessions, my life at White Lotus could not have been any different. We had term tests and sports and all types of extracurricular activities. Most important of all, people stopped talking about me eventually. I became part of them. 

E TREE......................................... LEAF NINE

Names & Aims

“Welcome back girls. It’s a fine day to continue your training, now that you know what your powers are.” Ms Cleanor began our second lesson in training. She was wearing the same attire as she did on the other day. We sat scattered around the Camp aka Assembly Arena and while walking among us, Ms. Cleanor continued to preside.

“History is a divine source which carries most lessons one could learn. History itself is a lesson for those of us who discipline our minds. Your training will be incomplete without your knowledge about your ancestors and their stories. And I’m well aware that all of you know about those little stories by heart as they were told to you by your elders as children’s stories, so I’m not going to retell them and bore you. But we will consider the gist of those.” And then she began.

“You are familiar with the legend of Maya. She is believed to be our core element; the root to our generations. She was compassionate, loving, kind and generous and above all just and wise. She was gifted the powers of Mind’s Eye to make sure the continuity of goodness and humanity in the world. She disciplined her mind as she was told and she gained those powers. Because she was the first and the only one with all the powers, she was named Prior Demnar meaning the Prime invincible Mind’s Eye.

However the legend says that the ability to become a Mind’s Eye comes within the genes. So that would mean each and every one of you should have the same gene as Maya. But in a practical world, this cannot happen as you know genes divide and obviously they can mutate. So, with the advancement of technology and philosophy, we believe, the Prior Demnar gene was split and mutated. And according to science, we are a constantly evolving gene pool so random selection occurs. That’s why most of the time you don’t see Mind’s Eyes in every generation of your family.”

Okay, now that’s more like a science lesson which none of us understood. Excuse me, I thought this was about history. It was apparent by the looks on my fellow classmates that they were thinking the same. Ms. Cleanor noticed that too.

E TREE......................................... LEAF EIGHT

Prior Demnar

I could not help but melt in front of them like a baby. Shameful it was but I felt like my whole world was falling apart. People say crying is an act of cowardice too but what if it is a relief? Ms. Cleanor and Cher thought the same so let me relief myself for a minute or two and Ms. Cleanor came closer to me.

“I understand you my dear, but it’s nothing to be worrying of. If you do not have such fears then you won’t be human after all. You don’t have to be afraid to admit that you have fears and above all you should not bow your head before them. Just because you have experienced failures in the past, you cannot run away from your future expecting the same. I personally believe that there could be no other suitable person than you for these powers.”

E TREE......................................... LEAF SEVEN

The Choice & The Cause

“Let’s go this way.” Cher took me towards the giant Banyan Tree near our classes. Every girl I ran passed seemed to watch me like something they have never seen. I hated the idea of being centre of attraction. Not for this at least! 

We bumped into Mrs. Slenn who stood on our way out.

“You are to see Headmistress young lady. And I thoroughly forbid you to run like zebras in corridors! You are supposed to behave like ladies. Now come along. You too (she was nodding towards Cher) lady.”

Oh! This has to be something regarding my view. First, I was afraid I might not see any view because I was not a Mind’s Eye. Now because I saw one I’m getting all this. Why me?? Errr!!!!! Cher’s involved in all of this now because of me. I looked at her to say I’m sorry and her expression was…. Well… unacceptable at the moment because she was SMILING! With showing her very white teeth too! What’s so funny?

E TREE......................................... LEAF SIX

The View 

For better or for worse, I am a Mind’s Eye. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been called upon that stage. And I’m about to discover what my power is. Now that is not normal for a teenage girl. I had to admit I was all sweats when Ms. Cleanor called my name. 

“Klause, Ishnoya”

I stepped pass the white line. Every time when a student passes that line, it glows for a second and then comes back to normal. Later, I found out that it was a high tech device to identify and confirm students with finger print scanning, DNA probing, Retina identification, blood grouping and brain activity detectors within one tenth of a second. Obviously, it was an invention from the future foreseen by Ms. Cleanor. I guess Cher’s long term question about Ms. Cleanor was answered when she passed the line. 

“Stand on the X spot marked, Ishnoya and state clearly everything you see. Take your time if you need.” 

Ms. Cleanor’s voice was like a distant siren horn inside my head now. I was never a stage person in my life. Audience makes me break into sweats and shakes. This was no difference. I guess Ms. Cleanor felt that too. She took a deep breath and touched my right shoulder. For a minute, I thought she is falling asleep but then she opened her eyes with two quick blinks and stared at me. 

“I know I’m panicked!!!” My head was yelling at her. But she continued to stare and slowly told me to take a deep breath and forget everything else and gaze into the sky.

E TREE......................................... LEAF FIVE

Power Unleashed

“Did you see the notice on the Powerplay?” 

Cher ambushed me and Freya early in the morning on a shiny fine day from our second month at White Lotus. Powerplay is the main notice board displayed near the Headmistress’ Office. It only displays notices that are of utter importance to the whole school and so was this. 

“We are starting training out powers from 5th period onwards. Today is the first day and Head Mistress Cleanor herself is turning up to mentor us. I was always tuning into see what her power is and think of it, finally we can see it ourselves. Whoops! I almost forgot. There will be Power ID tests for everyone and you can find out what yours is Ish.” Said Cher.

“Yeah, I guess.” 

And all of a sudden I was not looking forward for the very moment I’ve been looking forward since I discovered that I have Mind’s Eye genes. What if it is something less useful? Less cool?? Or may be useless…. Or it could be dangerous. Or that I don’t have a power and these people are mistaken. My mind was suddenly busy throughout the whole morning session and I didn’t even feel the end of Interval bell. That was our call to line up at Assembly Arena aka at the moment when training is conducted, Camp.

E TREE......................................... LEAF FOUR

Student Registry- Modified Version

White Lotus was just another school for outsiders but for us it was not only about books and exams. From the very first day, we were taught to discipline ourselves by practicing concentration and peace in physical activity. I did not stay at hostel because my home was not that far from White Lotus and so did Cher. She became my best friend since our little conversation at the Assembly Arena but I got the chance to get friendly with others in my class too. One of the notable characters I found was Yaarah. She was a very domineering character who became our class monitor in the first term. I remember making a mental note not to get too close to her which turned out to be pretty lame afterwards because Yaarah turned out to be quite nice. Dino was another girl in my class who was so obsessed with films that whenever she watched a film, we were to listen to her review about it. 

E TREE......................................... LEAF THREE

The Past & The Future

I did not know how to react to the fact that I’m a Mind’s Eye. Imagining you in a legend is far different from actually being in the legends. With aroused curiosities we were lead out of the Assembly Arena to our classrooms. There were five classrooms and I was in the C class with my curly brown haired friend, Cher. I soon realized that I was not the only one left with tons of questions about Mind’s Eyes. To be one hundred percent true, all I knew about them was that Mind’s Eyes are humans who are extremely gifted with powers of mind and they were legendary. I never thought of seeking information about them beyond legends which now left me in a position of desperation. Just like my name, Cher seemed to understand me and suddenly start jabbering fast like we’ve been friends since kindergarten.

“Can I call you Ish?? I mean Ishnoya is quite hard….”

“to pronounce, I know” I completed the sentence with a smile.

I was used to being call Ish more often than my full first name. Feeling quite confident Cher continued.

E TREE............................................... LEAF TWO

White Lotus

“I was about three by the time I found out about Mind’s Eyes and it was my Grandmother who told me stories about them. She said that our mind is the most fascinating creation of Mother Nature and there is no match to it. She also told me that if we learn how to use it wisely, there will be miracles. Bearing that in mind, I went to my first school Life Light Junior School. There I did well enough to earn a scholarship for a good High School. Then, there was this school which was very famous for sharp minds. Every parent wanted to see their child inside those walls. It was called the White Lotus. Every year, it took only a handful of students from everywhere. I was one of the lucky students to earn a scholarship to it.

E TREE.......................................... LEAF ONE

Back To The Beginning

There is a certain way of things happen around here you that cannot change. But sometimes changes happen like possible impossibilities. You never know what your life might be or what your destiny might bring to you in order to make you happy or sad. Mine was such a dramatic one that I never thought I would actually write about it someday. Yet everything is possible if you just believe and though you don’t like, you have to.