I stayed awake late in the night, my thoughts oscillating between the rooftop revelations and figuring out the solution to the problems my friends would face when they returned.

Vaishali was slumbering peacefully when I returned. So much for thinking that she would actually worry about me. But I was a true friend and that's what friends do... ' worry about friends'.

I had sorted out the problems they might face on this side of the time portal, using pouts and pleads. Rudra had agreed although reluctantly to escort them safely to Amer and see them through all obstacles they might have otherwise faced.

'We' minus the distracting edition of Rudra had planned it all out for the smooth transition of my friends. After the confessions, it had been quite difficult to keep him focused especially where Anil was concerned. It was in the name of Vaishali's would be discomforts, that he agreed to some of my suggestions which would have made Anil's life comfortable too in parallel.

All that was left was to smoothen out the difficulties they would be facing once they reached back. My Will and my disappearance could raise accusatory questions against them. There was no way that Rudra would let me go back to solve it and no way that Mr Jaiswani would ever let me travel back.

After several brain wrecking ideas, I was suddenly struck with the idea whose brilliance seemed to be foolproof to me at least at this moment of my life. Then again you couldn't guarantee the certainty of life itself.

With that great thought in my mind, I hugged my friend as if for the last time and went back to sleep.

I was woken up quite early by none other than Rudra as he knocked persistently on the door calling my name softly.

I woke up grumbling at being disturbed so rudely early in the morning. I opened the door and looked at him with blurry eyes wishing to strangle him. All that changed as I met the new Rudra who smiled from ear to ear and hugged me tightly.

" I missed you," he said softly.

Before I could respond.

"I missed you too jijosa(brother in law)" I heard Vaishali giggle from the bed with her eyes closed dramatically with her hands.

I scowled at her even though she couldn't see me.

"Can I open my eyes now."

"Yes, Vaishali kindly do so."

I turned towards Rudra with urgency in my tone and said " Can you send Anil here before he goes down for breakfast?".

Wrong question. I saw Rudra frown down at me. I cussed at my brain for not being able to form a proper safe sentence.

"I mean ... I want to meet him and Vaishali to discuss the situation they would face when they reach back home. I was trying to figure out the solution to the problem which might arise due to my absence. "

I said in a pacifying tone while slowly patting his chest as we do with a child who was on the verge of throwing a tantrum.

He looked down at me quietly as if trying to read my mind.

"I will be there too. I might add some important input to your solution."

I quickly nodded my head giving up. I had no solution to that kind of jealousy.

After finishing their morning ablutions, everyone gathered in my room. Each of them had a different set of expressions on their face. Vaishali looked teary-eyed, Anil was sombre and Rudra... well, he was keeping an eye on Anil which I found sweet but irritating at the same time.

His dog guarding a bone attitude was not what I wanted to deal with during the last hours I was going to spend with my friends. The other three girls had been decent enough not to disturb us and had left us after making excuses as soon as they saw everyone looking solemn. Unlike Rudra they gave us space.

Since nobody uttered anything, I thought it best to start on my own instead of wasting time.

"The journey from here to that room in Amer fort is being taken care of by Rudra sa... but what happens after that is the difficult part."

"Difficult?" asked Anil.

"I mean... people will ask you where I have vanished to? I would have suggested that both of you deny ever being with me. But then there might be some CCTV footage of us visiting the fort... so what about going straight off to Mr Jaswani saying that I vanished and both of you couldn't find me."

"Mr Jaswani would not accept this excuse Lekha. He is quite sharp," said Anil.

I could see from my peripheral vision that Rudra couldn't follow what I was talking about but the moment Anil said something he started scowling at him. I rolled my eyes mentally at that. I could understand that he felt left out but then he had invited himself to this meeting and I didn't have time to accommodate him and his feelings.

"Hmm that will be a problem," I said ignoring Rudra's antics. I couldn't afford to lose concentration. The problem with the CCTV camera had come to me in the morning and didn't suit the plans I had thought of.

"Can we divulge our time travelling thing to him? I don't want the whole world knowing about the portal or it's going to be a catastrophe. Plus, will he believe you."

"He will think we murdered you," said Vaishali looking a bit frightened.

"Hmm... I have an idea. What if you show him the pictures I had taken of the fort? I don't think he would be able to deny that evidence. I have the pictures here with me" I got up to take the pictures out from the bag I had brought with me.

I remembered that I had never shown them to Rudra because of all the drama that had unfolded.

"Rudra sa do you want to see the pictures I took at the fort when I was with you"

I saw his eyes twinkle as he nodded and take a sly look from the corner of eyes at Anil. It was quite childish of him but only I noticed as I was looking directly at him. I got great satisfaction on seeing the wonderment on his face as he looked at the pictures.

"They are better than the portraits of the royal family "he exclaimed.

Then he took two out from them and kept it aside. One of them was his photograph that I had taken on the terrace of the fort and another was mine. He gave me back the rest.

"I think you should tell him that I vanished from the premises while you were looking elsewhere. Vaishali you tell him that I had been acting odd for a while. Say I was talking about time travel and had shown these photographs to you. Nobody will actually be able to figure out the portal."

"The Will..." started Anil. I gave him a glare to stop. I didn't want Vaishali to know what I had done in advance.

"I had a talk with Mr Jaswani before coming here and I think he will be able to take appropriate action in that regard. Every document that needed to be signed has been already signed by me" I said giving Anil 'the' look.

I again wondered why I had let Rudra join us, as he looked suspiciously between us. I let out a big sigh and tried to ignore him.

"Yesterday night I had another idea to help both of you. Remember we had gone to our milkman's village"

"Bhangarh?" asked Anil perking up Rudra's interest.

"That is our village," he said with pride.

"Exactly. You remember Vaishali that I had taken down the names of his ancestors too..." I paused for that dramatic pause as my audience looked eagerly at me.

"I will find that ancestor and hand him a box full of evidence which you can again collect from our milkman after you reach back and you can even take Mr Jaswani for added effect... and here is that key to the box which only you will possess" I said triumphantly.

"But... why didn't he give us the box when we visited" asked Anil.

"Because... we didn't ask for it... plus I will be giving instructions that this box is to be handed over to the person who comes with the key. What do you think? "

"Brilliant" exclaimed Anil and got up to shake my hand, but sat down again as he saw Rudra give him a deadly glare. While we had been trying to come up with ideas he had slowly manoeuvred himself to sit beside me on the bed where both Vaishali and I sat.

"Just keep the letters or whatever things you might feel are worthy of being called the evidence, but don't keep anything expensive" advised Anil.

"Why?" asked Vaishali.

"Because... nobody wants to steal paper... but might get greedy and try to steal the expensive items... and might end up destroying the whole box as a cover-up for the theft."

"Nobody in our village is that greedy. Everyone is quite well off and loyal to us" growled Rudra defensively.

"He is not talking about the present generation... he is talking about the later generations" I touched Rudra's arm to calm him down and it seemed to work.

"I will not put anything expensive, to prevent temptation and might just close the box in front of them to further emphasis that it contains nothing of value. I believe that that family is our best bet. Don't you remember how besotted the grandfather looked as he sang that song."

"Maharana Pratap ..." chimed in Vaishali but I pressed her hands down, to stop her from revealing anything further. I knew she might blurt out the fact that the chieftain of this village went out to help the brave Rajput warrior. I didn't want to interfere with history.

"Maharana Pratap?" asked Rudra looking at me.

"Yes ... he sang songs about the bravery of the Rajputs of Mewar especially about Maharana Pratap" I clarified trying to keep information to the minimum.

"Yes... he is a great ruler among us Rajputs" said Rudra in a proud voice.

I passed the key to Vaishali to keep it with her.

"Do change your clothes after you reach back"

"Anil please take care of my friend. She is going to be very lonely and this is going to be tough for her... with all the accusations she just might face" I said looking pointedly at Anil with pleading eyes as I held Vaishali's hand tight trying to control my tears.

Vaishali hugged me tight as we both cried hard unable to control our emotions further. I was never going to see my friend again.

"Ah! I forgot. I have written a letter to you and Mr Jaswani. Open yours only when you reach back. Alright"

"And my letter" smiled Anil earning him another glare from Rudra.

I smiled back at the troublemaker who had said it purposefully to irritate Rudra.

With our scheme in place, we all went down to have breakfast. Maasa seemed to have sensed my sadness of parting with my friends and also the finality of the situation. She pampered them with extra love that was in the shape of food. Now that all the guests had left she could follow her passion of overfeeding people with Vaishali and Anil as targets.

She made sure to pack some extra food in their side sling bags which again were a gift from her as they had arrived here empty-handed. She gifted Vaishali with a small gold necklace as a keepsake for having attended the wedding and to Anil, she gave a ring to wear on his finger. Both of them look towards me unable to understand what to do with it.

I smiled in assurance and gestured at them to keep it. The girls too came to say good-bye to them. It was quite a painful moment for Vaishali and me. I hugged her tight before I handed her over to Rudra to help her get inside the cart.

Anil too came forward to say his goodbyes and seemed to have forgotten the orthodox environment in his emotional state, as he moved to give me a hug. Rudra deftly intercepted him with a glare. Only Vaishali and I could understand what had happened, bringing smiles to our faces.

Rudra took a long look towards me and was just moving towards his horse that he seemed to remember something and came closer to me.

"Be ready for the rooftop rendezvous when I come back" he whispered in my ears and then giving a very mischievous smile marched to his horse.

Who would have thought that Rudra had this side to him as well? But it had the desired effect of minimizing my sadness.

As I saw the dust disperse on the horizon, I remembered that I had a very important task of maintaining my diary as evidence of my life in this time period. This was going to be interesting, but maybe not as interesting as the whispered promise made to me. That got me smiling in reminiscence.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus ends the story of Lekha but it can also be considered as the beginning of her new life.

Thanks, everyone for supporting me on this beautiful journey. Hope to meet you all soon with another story... another time :) <3 <3 <3

"So long farewell, I hate to say goodbye"