IT was June 5, 2025. Sunny was attending the funeral ceremony of a total stranger, Mr. Bruce Wayne in Sydney, Australia. “After the funeral ceremony, Sir would like to meet you, Mr Gupta,” said the secretary of the Prime Minister of Australia, from the other end of the phone line.
“Yeah,” said Sunny.
Sunny always wanted to visit Australia someday. He liked this country for its geographical beauty,government policies and sports loving people. But even in his wildest dream, he never imagined being invited by the Australian Prime Minister himself. Though Australia had 23% of the world’s uranium deposits and was the world’s second largest producer of uranium after Canada, it had always refrained from producing any nuclear weapon. And this had always made Sunny admire this country even more. But in the last seven years, many things changed over the world dramatically and this led Australia to produce its own nuclear weapons, though majority of its countrymen were still against it.
After half an hour, Sunny bid farewell to the Wayne family and got into the official car sent to him from the Prime Minister’s office.Sunny was extremely tired by now. He had spent last five days in three different continents. He closed his eyes. But then he heard the voice of the officer sitting next to the driver. “Oho! It has started to rain.” This made him smile a bit. Actually it was rain that had brought him up here in Australia.
Five days ago, when he woke up, it was raining heavily outside.
“What a start to Sunday!” he shouted at the clouds and switched on his TV set.
''''Welcome to the second semifinal match of the T-20 world cup between England and India here at Sydney, Australia. It’s 1st June today and the team winning here will play in the final with Australia in Adelaide on 4th June. It’s a bright day here and the stadium is full with people cheering for their team. As far this match is concerned, England has won the toss and elected to bat first.”''
“Good lord! There’s a match today,” exclaimed Sunny. Though he was a student of biotechnology at a premium institute of the country, he always secretly desired to be a cricketer.
Sunny, a boy in his initial 20s, lived with his father near the Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India. His father, a forest officer, was currently enjoying holidays at his elder brother’s place in Italy. His elder brother, Sagar, worked as a geophysicist in the Italian Geophysical Institute.As he was alone at home, he cleaned his house, got himself neatly dressed and prepared his breakfast. He always preferred cleanliness to most things. And when he was back in front of the TV again, England’s inning was over and they had made 287/2 in 20 overs.
“Going to be tough for India,” he said to himself as he placed his body comfortably on chair.But suddenly he heard a crashing sound in his garden. He ran outside to see what had happened.Rain had stopped by now and the sky was finally clear. But the sight that met his eyes made his heart sink.
“God! Why don’t you like me resting?”
His garden wall was lying in ruins.It looked as if it had fallen under its own weight due to heavy rain that made the soil extremely soft. He went nearer it, picked a broken piece of brick and threw at the hole developed at the base of the wall in irritation.
“Clinck…”
His heart missed a beat at the sound. He went nearer and saw a big steel box lying there. With his full
might, he took the box out and opened it up.
“Whoa! A body!”
There was a body wrapped in clothes with dried leaves filling the rest of the remaining volume of the box. Placed on the chest of the body was again a small metal box. Sunny opened the box hoping something valuable would be lying inside it. To his amazement, there were a few newspaper cuttings and a letter. He closed the box containing the body and brought the small one to his room. He gave a momentary glance at the TV screen, which read 89/3 in 5 overs. Then he began reading the letter.
((((
I am writing this letter in the hope that it would be read and read before 4th of June 2025.
I’m Bruce Wayne. I lived and worked with the Sutherland Astronomical Society in Sutherland Shire, Sydney, Australia. My favorite past time was playing with time and my greatest desire was to build a time machine.
Finally after working for at least 17 years in my basement, on 1st June 2025 I succeeded in inventing a time machine. I decided to make it public after testing it myself.
That night I was watching a cricket match between India and England,which India won by 1 wicket with one ball still remaining. After dinner, I went to my machine and decided to use it to know the outcome of the final match. I got inside it and typed the destination date, time and location on the mini-computer attached to it. The LCD flashed:
DATE: 05/06/2025 TIME: 09.00 LOCATION: Sydney
Then I pressed the transportation key and the engine started. I felt like I was moving through a narrow tunnel at the speed of light. Soon I saw myself standing in my basement. I went outside to my garden and picked up the newspaper lying beside the door. The front page was full of photographs showing blood, bodies and destruction. The title read:
'TEMBLOR IN ADELAIDE: MILLIONS DEAD IN NUCLEAR BLASTS'
I went through the newspaper quickly. At 6.32 am on 4th of June there was an earthquake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale with the epicenter in Adelaide. And then following the quake, after half an hour, there were a series of three nuclear blasts. The highly equipped rescuing teams from various nations were there. But not even a single living soul was to be found. It was feared that due to the quake some sort of accident took place in the national atomic centre triggering the blasts.
I ran directly to my machine with the newspaper. Typed the destination date, time and location quickly and pressed the transportation key.It felt like ages when the engine of the machine stopped. I was nearly suffocating. Nothing was visible outside the machine. It was totally dark. Suddenly a message flashed on the LCD screen:
ERROR
I pressed some keys to check the present date, time and location. It answered:
DATE: 01/06/1975 TIME: 22.00 LOCATION: India
I panicked on seeing this but I controlled myself and typed a new destination date,time and location, and then pressed the transportation key.
Nothing happened.
But then the engine started, and soon fumes started coming out. I ran out of it and saved my life. That night I saw my dreams turn to ashes.
When I woke up in the morning, I found myself in an Indian forest. I walked day and night in a particular direction looking for a human being.After struggling for five days, I saw a hut. My legs were badly hurt and had become infected. The man living there tried a lot to help me. He wanted to take me to the nearest city in his bullock cart. But I knew my end was near so I refused to go anywhere and started learning his language.
After 15 days, my condition worsened, I was aware that the destiny of my country lay with me. So, I wrote this letter and put some cuttings of the newspaper in a box and asked him to bury it with me after my death.
Now, if you have got this letter before June 4, 2025 then I request you to
PLEASE SAVE AUSTRALIA.
Bruce Wayne
))
Tears came into his eyes when Sunny finished the letter. He could feel the turmoil that Bruce went through before his death. But suddenly he was distracted by the cheering sound coming from his TV set. It flashed:
'INDIA WINS THE MATCH''
The commentator was shouting madly.
''''What a superb match! With 9 wickets gone I never thought India would come back. But they won the match with even one ball remaining. I'am sure the man of the match would be…''''
Sunny got to his feet immediately and ran to his laptop in the next room.He checked and booked the next flight to Italy, which was after two hours.Then he went to the box containing the body with his camera and took several photographs of the body from various angles.He packed his bags and took the letter, newspaper clippings and his camera with him. He then dragged the box containing the body to his room and said: “Mr Bruce Wayne, I am going to complete your last wish. I am going to save Australia.”
It was 2nd of June. Sunny was in the Italian Geophysical Institute with his brother. He explained to the members of the institute everything he had learnt yesterday and showed them the letter, cuttings and the photographs he had taken. But they found it hard to believe that someone could make a Time Machine at all.
The scientists called up the Sutherland Astronomical Society of Australia. From there, they learnt that Bruce Wayne was certainly their employee. They then took his phone number and called his house. His brother confirmed that Bruce was missing when they woke up this morning.
In the meantime, Sagar, Sunny’s brother, checked the geophysical conditions of Adelaide and was shocked to see that there really was tension between two fault lines and it had increased to a shocking level.They immediately informed the Seismologic Centre of Australia as well as the higher officials of Australian government and convinced them.
On 3rd of June, the entire region surrounding Adelaide was evacuated and the nuclear weapons, under very tight security, were moved to
Melbourne.
On the 4th of June, an earthquake shook Adelaide at 6:32 am but there was minimum damage and not even a single living body was hurt.On the same day, Sunny came back to India with his father and by evening two officers from the Australian Embassy met him at his place. By then, Bruce Wayne and Sunny Gupta were household names in Australia and the rest of the world. They wished to take Bruce’s body for burial in Australia. And they also invited Sunny as a National Guest of Honour to Australia.
So, on 5th of June, by 09.00, Sunny was there at the house of the proud Wayne family, giving their son a final goodbye.
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"Mr Gupta, we have reached the PM office." Sunny opened his eyes slowly and went inside with the officer. Soon he was facing the Prime Minister himself.
"I don’t know how to express my gratitude towards you."
"Sir, I feel myself obliged in having fulfilled Mr Wayne’s last wish and I would be extremely happy if you try to fulfill my only wish."
"Tell me, young man."
"NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT…"
The Prime Minister smiled at him in a fatherly fashion.
"I will try my best, my boy. I will."
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