DAY 0: We boarded our British Airlines A-101 from IGIA, preferring it over Air India, the sole reason beeing UG's obsession with air-hostesses. The plane left the Indian soil and UG dozed
off(almost synchronously), while a sudden surge rose from within me, I could sense the adventure coming, waiting for the maze to unfurl and reveal something as glorious as
'The Triwizard Cup'-or even more.Skipping the journey details- We landed at the JFK airport at 3:00 PM the same day and took a cab to a cheap downtown hotel. Our cabby, a sardarji
struck up a conversation about American politics, he seemed to be angry upon some local minister on how he discriminated the Indians, "I tell you these western ministers.."
"Abbey yaar, See this!!" This came from UG as we passed the concrete jungle of Manhattan. He had said the same four words all along, whenever he saw something worthy of my
observation.
DAY 1: Well, the good thing was that our jetlag actually helped us, so that we actually slept at night and were up by 7:00, the next day. Deciding not to waste time, already limited, we took a ferry to The Liberty Island. The first day was futile, yielding nothing more than establishment of absolutely no relation between Einstein or Newton and The Statue Of Liberty . That night, UG made an interesting point, "Probably, it has nothing to do with the statue, in Newton's time it wasn't even there, though there might be something to do with'the island' ". I broke from a dejected slumber and gave it a thought. After all, he could have reformed the puzzle in the 300yr. hellspan but not the location of the clue, which might have as much to do with The Statue as Saddam Hussain with Gautam Gambhir(in short, not much).
DAY 2: The next day, we were out on the 'Treasure Island' and by afternoon, sweating in the sun, fretting upon our mission and cursing Newton, still clueless. I decided for a disconap in the cool tree shade expecting Einstein to return in my dreams, while UG was too happy to go checking out 'blondes and brunettes'. I don't know, but after what seemed a considerable span, my eyelids decided to move and drifted apart lazily- as a sun rose carelessly between two spectacular mountains, my eyeball(not the sun) witnessed the world again.I saw a woodpecker perched on a tree bathing in the filtered sunlight. Then, I saw......I saw!!!!! I held my breath and my heart skipped a beat, I could not believe the grotesque sight in front of me, it was right there. Was the bird a messenger of gods???
--No time to think--!!
I ran for UG and found him involved in a deep converstaion with a blonde. I dragged him forcefully and brought him to the spot,after a short search though. At first, he threw me a 'killer look', followed by a quzzical one and then, he saw...He saw!!!! He jumped like a monkey, we both did, drained in sweat and drowned with excitement.
There lied our answer, right in front of us, what was it doing out there. A tree, 'An Apple Tree', a loner among pines and maples, it was surely not by nature's mistake. Newton must have planted it with a purpose more important than protecting the environment. Avoiding many eyes, we started digging the cool grassy sand with our hands, drawing heaps of it before UG struck something close to solid. We took out the box, refilled the void we had created and removed our a**es from the island as soon as possible. Back at the hotel, I opened the box, took out the old parchment that lay inside, worn by the misery of time, still as precious as a DeBeers. I opened it, held my breath for the second time in a day, and read the etched words:
'WATER STEMS IN YEBB'
'Close the letter I lit' (IGNORE THIS)
The other side was this:
PS:IGNORE THIS means ignore it.
PPS:Hints at midnight(without them its absurd).
PPPS:Blur Intended.
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