30 June, 2010
I stared at a bug trying to grasp the limitations of the world by crashing on the glass window over and over again to get out of the classroom. Mr. Liu scribbled the last points of the day's topic, and luckily that was the last class of the day. A few minutes later, he asked about our homework copies.
"What?! I hadn't given any homework from Mr. Lowe's book?"
"No, sir", some rare species of student community who sat in the first bench, answered in unison.
"Okay then, you guys have to do double homework."
The students gasped loudly in disgust.
"Do the first exercise full and in the second exercise do till question I. The graphs to the equations are given at the back but you should sketch out the graphs on your own".
I noted that down in my diary, not that I was going to do it anyways. Mr. Liu looked at the grumpy students with a faint smile and sadness on his face.
"You guys seem really unhappy with the homework thing. So, to make up for it…"
He bended down his long wooden lecturer desk to bring up a guitar. As he began strumming a bit, the students cheered heavily.
"Remember Mr. Lowe's romanticism I had told you about", Mr. Liu said,"One of his songs, that was probably written for one of his wives, somehow seems to exist. Although I composed the music, the lyrics are all his".
He began strumming the guitar as well as singing the lyrics.
"While you live, shine. Have no grief at all. Life exists for only a short while. And time demands his due", he sung in his terrible voice but still as typical students we smiled and cheered and metaphorically licked his ass.
After the school, the boys and me walked in the park as usual.
"Mr. Liu is kinda a genius, you know. He won an Olympiad m we salute when he was really young", Seth said.
"Well, I took birth when I was really young. Take that, Liu", Tyler retorted with his weak sarcasm.
'He must be a lazy guy, then,"I said,"I mean to be so talented but ending up as a high school teacher".
"Not only that, he is a bloody liar as well", Seth proclaimed.
"Why?", I asked.
"Those were the lyrics to Seikilos Epitaph, the oldest musical composition in the world. He just made that up that it was Lowe's lyrics", Seth said.
"Are you sure?", Tyler asked.
"Why dint you guys google this? Huh? Do it now".
I got a text message from Rose.
'We are in danger, handsome boy. Save us, our hero!'.
I squirmed really hard at the text message. Sometimes, Rose can act all motherly and bubbly, which somehow, I hated. The other guys in her class might dream about this shit.
Mom and dad would be home anytime so I rushed home on my cycle as soon as I saw my message.
As usual, it was evening, the end of the month and I, in my sisters room staring at a note floating on a pool of blood on the table. Perfect.
'There and after' was written on it. I looked at the note for a but and then realised that there was something else written at the back of the note.
'Don't forget to wipe off the blood this time, little cunt'.
Sometimes, I wish I could slap Emily so hard that her mouth gets dislocated form her face.
Anyways,the words were pretty standard as always and could easily be found in literally any book. I just took out Mr. Lowe's graph book and began to go through it. And bang! Found it on the fifth page itself.
The atmosphere had refracted the setting sun's light as orangish pink. The vast, thick clouds hung there in the sky as heavy ships slowly sailing away into a tsunami of stars and galaxies.
Upon reaching the warehouse/scroid system, I opened Lowe's book. Why will someone, who can write such beautiful songs, take up something as dull and mathematics? Maybe, music is a kind of maths as well; the calculation of the sounds of various instruments and human voices strung together to create a melody that transcends language.
As I opened the page, my peripheral vision caught the vision of a certain silhouette walking in the woods, over fallen dried leaves. I walked towards it and realised that it was the Sam tall guy who was talking to Rose the other day. He held a book as well, reading through the lines. His head turned towards me and a sense of familiarity struck him.
"Hi", I greeted awkwardly.
He spotted me with a book as well. We both immediately got the matter. We began talking and taking a round around the Scroid system. He introduced himself as Shawn.
"My father and uncle have been turning into Chinese words for a while now. But I am really surprised to know that Lily and Rose go through the same".
"Yeah, but they mostly convert into simple English words. Like today, they are converted into 'there's and 'after' ".
"That's great", he said and smiled but a thin shade of sadness hung on his face.
"Don't worry, I won't tell Rose that you were here", I said.
"Me being here won't affect her in a negative way. I know she still likes her".
"You know what", my voice became a bit aggressive,"Maybe she doesn't. Maybe, it's you who is not able to move on".
"I like people who use 'Maybe' in their sentence but still speak it with so much confidence", he said. I was taken aback a little.
"She has moved on, Shawn".
"Sure, you would know better", he smirked and walked away.