Suddenly, someone knocked at the door. Reji stood to open it. "Ah, it's you! How much does it cost?" Reji asked.
The boy said, "800 rupees! It's actually fresh from Wayanad, classic skinning and washing of meat, brother!"
Reji looked closely at the meat. "750!" Reji bargained with a smile.
"800, brother. It really took some extra work and time. Basically, this banned meat is really hard to even locate in the forest, not a specific place or den! Not everywhere!"
Reji looked at the boy. "Okay, just this once!" he said. He handed the money to the boy.
"Thanks, brother. Sure you'll enjoy this!" the boy smiled warmly and left.
Reji closed the door.
"Did he just… disappear?" Driti asked him, confused.
"Ah, shit, here we go again!" Reji said, going near Theodore's table. Then he wrapped reality with his bare hands and removed the inaccessibly infinite layers of stacked dimensional reality like a curtain!
There was Theodore, sitting in the midst of the cosmos, stars, and luminous cosmic bodies, eternally silent. Theodore smiled, sitting cross-legged in space-time while consuming potato curry and roti.
"I ain't moving my ass if it's loan sharks! Tell 'em I got disintegrated! Also! Did they leave!?" Theodore asked hesitantly.
"Nah, that was just the boy, Rajiv. He came with Nilgiri Tahr. You step out and help me cook this, already!" Reji said seriously."Oh…" Driti said, watching Reji work with his bare hands.
Theodore stepped out from space and covered the inaccessibly infinite dimensional layers back to the room in a span! He looked at Driti and gave a weak smile.
"I just wanted to take some cool air; it's actually hot here! Hehe!" he said hesitatingly, excusing himself so Driti wouldn't understand that he was hiding from debt. But she acknowledged why he hid and couldn't help but smile internally.
In the kitchen, Theodore chopped onions and spinach and washed vegetables. Meanwhile, Reji slowly cut the meat, adding vinegar, turmeric powder, ginger paste, chili powder, and meat masala to blend and cook it by steaming!
Driti approached the kitchen. "Um… do you want any help?"Hearing this, Reji said, "No, we can handle this.""Wait! Cut these cashews!" Theodore said.
Reji looked at Theodore and asked in his thoughts, "Bro, why are you making her do that?"
Theodore turned to Reji and replied in his thoughts, "'Cause I thought, why should she sit idle if she doesn't want to!"
Driti placed the plate of cashews back. "It's done." She smiled at Theodore.
He made a poker face. "Um… nice. So fast!" He smiled a little.Driti felt a calmness wash over her.
Driti felt a calmness wash over her."Reji, the extra meat, the fridge is damn full, bro! I bought a lot of other stuff! It will stink if we don't keep it in the lower layers."
Driti approached Theodore and asked him, "Give me that. I will store it!"
Theodore was piqued. "Where are you gonna store all this meat?"
"Tch, give me!" She insisted. Listening to her without knowing what she would do, Theodore handed her the meat box. She then opened the kitchen drawer and put it there. She closed the drawer!
"What? Driti, you don't keep meat there—"
He opened the drawer to see a wide expansion of cold, freezing atmosphere and upgraded space!
"You did what?" Theodore asked.
"Oh, I just created a twelfth-dimensional infinite storage of ice! You can keep anything there, from one-dimensional constructs to twelfth-dimensional constructs!" she admitted.It was a win for Theodore, as each dimension is an inaccessibly infinite layer higher than its preceding lower layer of dimensionality.
"Great!" Theodore said with an expressionless smile.
"Wait!" Theodore turned to Driti, eyes wide with a sudden spark of chaotic genius. "Is this storage… forever?"
Driti met his gaze, calm and certain."Yes. I can keep it there forever." Theodore's poker face twitched into a grin.
"Then, convert this whole almirah into an infinite twelfth-dimensional physicality-based freezer for me."Driti blinked. "All of it?"
"Yes, please." He nodded quickly.
"Do the drawers too. Make 'em stretch through inaccessible dimensional layers. Each slot cold enough to humble the Big Bang. We're done playing by electric company rules."
Driti looked at him and said, "Done. Enjoy."
Theodore placed the meat box into one drawer and sighed in cosmic relief."I love practicality."
Theodore, Reji, and Driti cooked the Tahr meat elegantly. Although it was Reji's masterpiece, both Driti and Theodore helped him.
They allocated a table for food. A water jar was kept in the middle, along with plates and vessels containing fried and other varieties of dishes. They sat in a triangle.
"Damn, Reji cooked a goat for us!" Theodore said, serving Driti.
"It's Nilgiri Tahr, idiot! That costs 800 rupees!" Reji spoke afterward.
"I've heard of this only in my mortal life, but I never thought I would be able to have it in the afterlife." She said softly.
They began to eat. Meanwhile, Driti stared at her food in wonder. She put her hands in the rice and looked up.
Theodore asked her, "Hey, what's the matter?"
She looked at him and smiled, shaking her head.
"For twenty years, all I did was just exist in that manor. You freed me. It's… really something I don't know how to digest."
Theodore looked at her, then at Reji. Reji nodded at Theodore, smiling.
Theodore replied, "It's nothing big. Just because you are a soul doesn't mean you deserve to be exorcised. Try slowly. Have lunch peacefully." Theodore reassured her.
"Theo is right. Have the food, Driti. You can trust us." Reji added with a light smile.
After twenty years, she was having something to eat. She tasted the food; her eyes widened and tears ran down her cheeks.
"So… tasty…" she murmured.In her excitement, she glowed like a star.
"Bro, why is she glowing?" Reji asked in confusion.
"Ah! Again. Whenever she's extremely happy, she will glow like she kissed a neutron star."
Theodore said sleepily, but his lips curved into a silent smile as he noticed her tears.
Theodore smiled in his mind, watching Driti eat like a child who just saw chocolate.
The lunch was over. Theodore washed the plates and cleaned the kitchen.
She looked at him cleaning it. Back then, she had only seen a ghost hunter with a cold exterior, but the duality of his existence, how he did completely insane things but also mundane tasks, became clear.