Coming Back

An unusual smile on Newton Sharma's face while entering his lab meant it was his day today. Finally he had succeeded in his experiment. The research and the hard work he had been doing in this bedroom cum laboratory for the last five years had finally paid off.

Yes, his name was Newton Sharma, however weird it may seem but the rocket scientist Madhav Sharma and mathematician Aarti Sharma found this to be the best name for their child. He had grown up in an atmosphere of science all around him. Since his parents used to be away most of the time, he was left to be cared by his grandmother. A spiritual lady Yashodhara Sharma often told her grandson religious and spiritual stories. Thus Newton’s curiosity in spirituality grew. Newton Sharma had grown up to an extraordinary scholar. He had degrees in psychology, engineering and religious literatures much before he even turned thirty.

After he lost his parents and grandmother he was living alone. A lot of wealth had been left back for him by his late parents so that he could just enjoy himself and live in peace. But he had spent his the next five years on a research and working on something was almost impossible. Newton had believed that the human soul had tremendous powers. It could be taken out of the human body and could be relieved of stress and pain for a time being. He thought that he could work on this technology so that the people suffering from pains due to various diseases and accidents could have their souls out of their suffering bodies and stay in peace for the time till the body healed.

This was against the law of nature or something very insane and impossible said his seniors and colleagues. They even made fun of him. Everyone thought that he was building a castle in the air. He was so obsessed with this idea that he left his research centre and started to work at his home. Due to this his bedroom became his laboratory.

It had been five years since he was working on this soul extracting program and also he was working on its reverse so that the soul could be sent back to the body once the body had healed. On the table were huge heaps of papers and research materials. Also an old fashioned oil lamp which his father had given him stood on the corner stand illuminating the corner desk where he had kept the research and working procedure for bringing the soul back to the body. There were two machines like cages in the middle of the room which he had made to try the soul extraction program on animals like cats and rats.

Today since he knew he was successful he took his cat and attached some wires to her. The two cages were just to ensure that the animal or its soul does not run away. The living body would be attached by those three red and two yellow colored wires and a kind of metal cap would be put on the head and whereas the soul in the cage would not have been attached with anything because soul didn’t have any physical mass or body, so it would be free in the other cage.

Newton smiled looking at the cat and started his work. Some keys on the keyboards and some voice commands to the machine and it all started. The cat's soul too like cat had got scared of the experiment and with all its force it tried to come out. Newton got sacred and tried to call her name and calm her down but the soul didn't stop. The cage broke and the cat's soul started to run around in fear. Newton could not get what was happening.

The things and the papers on the desk began to fall in the way as if the cat was running on it and yes the cat's soul was running on it. Suddenly the soul jumped on the corner table pushing the stand where the lamp was kept and the oil lamp fell on the desk breaking out and setting fire to the papers on the desk. Newton cried out loud as he saw that because that papers and materials were the only way to bring the soul back to the body. Now having lost the research on bringing back the soul to the body, Newton got crazy and started to cry and throw the books and machines on the floor.

He was very depressed and almost fell on the floor. Crawling on his knees he went to the other side of the room where there was a small bed. A body laid on the bed with a white cloth over it. As he removed the cloth over the body, he cried out loudly at his loss. On the bed was his own living body with three red and two yellow wires attached on his chest and a metal cap on his head. He realized now that neither he could go back into his body nor could anyone know about his success which was impossible for any other scientist on this planet.

He also knew that some or the other day someone would find his body over here and after cremation even his soul would cease to exist. Thus that would be a strange end of his life.

Newton sat down resting his back to the bed and the cat's soul which was running so wildly before had calmed down and came by his side. Newton took the cat on his lap and smiled. He gave out a look to both the bodies in the room one of the cat and the other of his own. He accepted the fact that now there was no coming back.