ASRAN SERIES- ACROSS THE BORDER

Chapter -35

The song they heard was very familiar to them. So Sussan and Brenda looked at one another in surprise.

“Are they here? I didn’t know we would get to meet them so soon,” Brenda exclaimed.

“Neither did I!” David said and came out of the hiding.

He saw that Sommer was playing the music and walking in the front while other people behind him were dancing and singing joyfully matching to the music. He then signaled Sussan and Brenda to come out of their hiding to meet them.

When Brenda saw her mother happily hopping and shouting merrifully, she immediately ran towards her as something broke inside her. Her heart felt relieved as she finally found a person she could lean on.

"Mom, I am sorry! I was only trying to save Robert, so I had no choice but to leave you behind. I am sorry! I am so sorry! I did not act properly and missed to fulfill my responsibilities as a daughter and left you all alone in the desert to protect yourself. I don’t deserve to be your daughter," Brenda sobbed and hugged her mother, Cathy.

Cathy glanced at her once and then pushed her away at once. She even hit Brenda’s head with the musical instrument that she was holding in her hands.

"When did I even ask you to take responsibility as my daughter? You ran away from your home without informing your husband. Then you ran away from me, when I was taking an afternoon nap. So, don't even try to put the blame on me now.” Cathay shouted at her daughter, Brenda.

All the happiness on her face disappeared in a fraction of a moment.

“Mom, when did I try to blame you for anything. I know all those are my mistakes and I will do my best to rectify everything,” Brenda tried to explain to her but Cathy was not in the mood to listen to her daughter.

“Did you think that your husband will not blame me for how you are behaving now? Also, I never asked you to accompany me in the first place in this spiritual journey. It was you, who joined me forcefully and now spoiled my adventure," Cathy complained and walked away from her daughter, Brenda.

Brend blinked her eyes and then looked at her mother with a twitching eyes. She could not understand what her mother was saying. She had never thought that she was imposing on her mother by being with her.

‘Spiritual journey? Does she have short term memory loss? They were evicted from their home and got kicked out of their country. They are now homeless and my mother is thinking that she was on a spiritual journey to attain eternal bliss?’ She wondered.

Meanwhile, Cathy just ignored her clueless daughter, Brenda and dashed towards Sussan with open arms. She hugged Sussan and then looked at her face with beaming happiness. She then held her shoulder with one hand and rubbed her head with the other hand.

"You have been through a lot and face so much trouble because of my daughter. Don’t you worry from now on, we will find a way to send you to Asran and talk to my old man who is resting over there. He would have attained salvation and definitely have some solutions to all our problems.” Cathy told Sussan.

Sussan smiled at her but did not say anything to Cathy. To be precise, she did not know how to explain to the old lady that the trouble they were facing until now was thrown on them by the council of the Asran star.

As Cathy noticed her sad smile, she pressed her hands and said, “I know that it might be chaotic even over there or else there would be no way we would have received that decree."

“You knew about that too?” Sussan widened her eyes and asked Cathy in a surprised tone.

“Everyone knows about that. It’s not a secret anymore in our community. I am astonished that you were not aware of it even though you are the most prominent figure in our society,” Cathy exclaimed while glancing at her amazed.

“I did not know until Brenda informed me a while ago,” Sussan said in a low voice.

“I am not surprised about that. I am sure, David must have hidden it from you as he knew how hot tempered you were. He did make a lot of sacrifices to get you safely out of the country without any harm. But…” Cathy stopped speaking and looked in the direction of David with doubtful eyes.

Before they left the border, she had seen him abandon Elly in an alley. She still could not figure out why he did that. Until now, he had always acted as a loving husband and a caring father to the kids.

As she could not make any conclusion, she just shook her head and cleared those thoughts. ‘He might have tried to hide her in the alley to protect her from the militants who were hunting for them,’ She thought and decided to not tell Sussan about her doubts.

But something inside her heart said that there was more to it that did not meet their eyes. When Sussan noticed Cathy’s scrutinizing gaze at David, she could not stop herself from asking,

“But what, Cathy? Am I missing something more which I should have known? Why do I feel like I am not aware of so many things? I think I have become ignorant after not working in the field for so many years. After my kids were born, I had almost taken an early retirement and I am regretting it now.”

After hearing what Sussan said, Cathy let out a deep breath and told her, “Sussan, don’t push the blame on yourself for what others choose to do. You have always stuck to the truth and worked on the prosperity of our planet. I am confident that you will figure out everything soon and save us.”

“I hope so too,” Sussan mumbled and walked near David who was talking to Sommer about their plan to survive in the desert.

The whole of their Asran system consists of sixty eight planets and some of them were only filled with vile creatures. Whenever the time for any creatures in their planet is over, they would be sent to Asran and never to return to their planet of origin.

Every planet has a different lifespan and on their planet Asper, the people usually live for more than 500 years of Asper life and a 100 years of Asran life.

Once the number of years of their planet’s life was over, they would be sent to Asran to spend the next hundreds of years trying to achieve salvation. When they enter Asran, everyone’s soul has the same value and achieves equitability to them. 

When their whole lifespan is over then their soul will turn to Asran dust, which is magical and also priceless. The Asran’s dust contains the soul and the blessings of all the creatures in the whole of the Asran system.

Cathy continued to tell the story to the kids who sat around her. They listened to her quietly about the story of how Asran’s dust was formed. 

“For every century a person chosen by the Asran king would get the chance to go visit Asran. They would be allowed to get some amount of Asran’s dust to their planets.” Cathy told them.

“Then who was chosen for this century, grandma Cathy?” One of the kids asked her while the other looked at her with curiosity.

“Her…” Cathy pointed her fingers at Sussan and told her.

“She is a brave woman. She had proved to be one of the kind and caring hearts in the whole of our planet. If you are also truthful and be like her then you could also be chosen one day when you are grown up,” Cathy announced proudly.

All the kids ran near Sussan and suddenly hugged her. Sussan was astounded because of their sudden reaction and looked at Cathy with questioning eyes.

“Oh! I am just telling them about our history and they came to know that you are the one who was chosen to bring Asran’s dust from the Asran star. So they are very happy about it as they finally see a hope in you.” Cathy explained to her.

David glared at Cathy while Brenda hurriedly said, “Mom, Sussan is not using the old method to go to Asran. You know it’s too unstable and has not been used for several thousands of years now.”