THE EGG AMID CAULIFLOWERS

That morning I was dressed and was about to leave for work when my wife called out to me saying “See what I found amongst cauliflowers delivered this day.” It was a Friday and the firm USER NEEDS which handled all kinds of deliveries, had as usual, delivered grocery and vegetables ordered by us. I saw what she showed me. It looked like a metal sculpture.  

My wife said “It’s well over a kg in weight.”

I studied the object but couldn’t make out what it was. It looked like an egg started by Faberge and grew to be the start of a pyramid with carved steps on the outside. And there were arrows marked on the egg’s surface besides strange writing.  I told my wife “This is surely a museum piece .It somehow looks incomplete to me.  Dr.Garg who lives on the 10^th floor is a specialist in antiquary  and an authority on historical records. He may be able to throw some light on it.”

“He will surely laugh seeing this piece. May be this is a discarded aircraft part fallen from the sky into a van carrying cauliflower, and has come in alongside our order for that vegetable! It is getting late for you.”

As I left I said “It isn’t an aircraft part. It is an incomplete complicated sculpture.”

The same evening I took the piece - I will refer to it as an egg since at start it looked like one - to Dr.Garg. He pulled out a magnifier, switched on a powerful light and studied it. He said “It doesn’t look ancient. It is an intriguing sculpture no doubt. I don’t recognize the writing on it, as it isn‘t in cuneiform.”

I thanked Dr.Garg and returned. I studied it for 2 days and noticed it weighed more when sunlight fell on it. I assumed it could be some part intended to absorb sunlight. I asked an acquaintance who worked in the solar energy field, but he couldn’t tell me what it was. He said “This is funny. How can the piece weigh more just because it has absorbed sun-light?” He laughed saying “In these days when we’re short on time most times, we don’t use sculptures absorbing sunlight to grow in weight! And nobody has time to inscribe like this on toys.” As he thought it was a toy, I felt he wouldn’t go into the possible use of the egg, and broke further talk. I felt like an idiot!

My brother is an orthopaedician, and has his own practice. I took the egg to him and had it X-rayed. The egg wasn’t transparent to X-rays.

My neighbour’s son is a metallurgy student in a professional college. I asked him about the egg I had. He said “It could even be of tungsten but if it is, it wouldn’t be possible to inscribe all those characters on it. May be it is an alloy. If a piece of metal from this is made available we could perhaps chemically analyse it.” I abandoned thoughts of going his way.

My wife said “Why do you think you have got to run about with the egg as you call it? It isn’t a piece from a pyramid! If it were, I would’ve strongly advised you to throw it away as it may carry curses. You take things to heart seriously and make a mountain out of a molehill. Throw that lump of metal into our waste bin for later sale as scrap, and be trouble free.” I was in no mood to listen to her advice.

The following Friday, Razack, the man from USER NEEDS came as usual with supplies. I asked him about the egg which had come with the cauliflowers. He said “I was on leave last Friday. I’ll speak to Peter who came in my place. It may take time as he has been assigned other duties now.”

Following on, Peter came to see me hours later, the same day. I asked him about the egg delivered to us with cauliflowers. He said “Sir, I was told a packet containing 2 metal parts were to be delivered by USER NEEDS to a party. It so happened that one of the parts went missing. I understand it was mixed up with items delivered to you.”

“Okay. Who consigned the package?”

“I don’t know. Whoever it was, had complained that one of the parts wasn’t received by the addressee.”

I asked “To whom was the one part delivered?”

“Again that’s known only to the office. They won’t reveal details to anyone including employees like me.”

“How did you know there was a complaint about a part missing from a package?”

“I was consulted about the complaint as I usually deliver packages.  I told them the fact: There’s someone inside who steals from packages for despatch.”

“Why should someone bother to steal this piece?”

“Whoever had taken it had probably felt it was valuable, thinking say it was silver or gold.  Finding no value in the theft, the metal object had probably been discarded amidst cauliflowers.”

 Drawing out the egg from a cupboard I said “I’m putting this in this yellow plastic bag and will leave it here. I’m curious to know what it is. Let the person who had launched the missing complaint collect this bag from me. Here is my card. He can call me to say when he could come.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll keep the office informed.”

It wasn’t till Tuesday that we noticed the yellow plastic bag containing the egg was missing. I questioned security and they said that no unauthorized person had been allowed in the premises. I called USER NEEDS and spoke to Peter. His voice sounded different and he spoke with a stutter. He said he had never been to see me!  

What was the egg? Why did someone take it from my home? Two days later I got an SMS: ‘I have taken the yellow plastic bag with the piece in it. It is the 3D code which can be read only when the two parts are fitted together on the spaceship. Humans on earth can never understand our language and codes. That’s why I considered it safe to send the two parts by courier to my associate. I am on my way out of the country and hopefully will be out of this planet as well, together with Rapunzel. Don’t be harsh on Razack for telling me about his talk with you mentioning his substitute Peter. I turned Peter temporarily for convenience! Sorry! I also apologize for using the key to your apartment. Of course a little bird had told me where the key would be found and your timings. The secrecy is because we are aliens and our plans shouldn’t go awry. Please don’t go searching at USER NEEDS for the consignor of the two pieces or of the addressee or you will be in serious trouble. This is a threat. And you have been warned! ‘Peter’ Alien’. I knew my security had been compromised! The key to our apartment door had always been left under the door mat outside the entrance since we moved in some years ago. This was an open secret and we had lost nothing so far. I wondered who the ‘little bird’ could be!  I took the threat seriously and decided to forget about the egg. The only evidence I had of the mystery object found in our home were the photographs I had made.

END