Episode 5: A Tall Tail

After playing a few rounds with Emily and treating her to ice-cream (which I paid for because I was late, why does she always do this) I started walking back home alone. The sun is no longer to be seen at the horizon at the end of the street. That is, if this street even has an end. It goes on and on into other streets, becoming wider by the 30 miles so. The street I’m walking in is a small one, no white line in the middle your everyday neighborhood one or two cars every 3 minutes before and after rush hours. The wind blows softly as some leaves pass by the sidewalk. They seem to be coming from a plant hanging over the sidewalk from Ms. Bernart, who is retired and turned her whole front yard into a garden for cats. Although only 3 cats come over to her place for food, not the garden.

After eating they leave to find their next victim to fall for their absolute cuteness. There is nothing better in this neighborhood than to watch cute cats beg for table scraps. I happen to be one of those victims on a daily basis. I remember the first time I gave this cute little kitten a box of animal crackers on my way home from kindergarten. After the bus dropped me off, I had to walk a little to get home. That’s when I met the kitten at a stop sign.

It saw or smelled that I had food and it started to follow me, making a lot of noise along the way. I only gave it the animal crackers so it would stop following me. Back then this kid bullied me at this certain spot down the road and I didn’t want him to do the little kitten any harm. I’ve seen movies before where bullies harm the pets or animals associated with the victims of the bullies. I still don’t understand why they do that. Why do people have to traumatize others? Do they enjoy it? Is it because bullying produces a certain chemical in our brains that’s highly addictive? Or is it because this is somethings that’s supposed to happen? That bullying is part of the code we live by in order to maintain stability in de world?

My father once told me that sometimes things happen for the greater good and nothing can be done to stop it. That bad things must happen so we live happily. Without the bad things, we humans would not appreciate the good things, because there then wouldn’t be any good either. One cannot exist without the other.

Oh well, I guess that’s one of the things they associate with the saying “that’s life”. However I do not accept bullying to be one of things to be necessary when it comes to the growth of children. It hinders the emotional well-being of a child, both the bully and the victim. The bully when growing up becomes a victim of their own wrongdoings and the person who received the bullying either gains from the experience and grows stronger or doesn’t and carry the trauma for the rest of their lives.

Sigh, thinking about all this is making me more tired than walking. Maybe I should just listen to some music to calm myself. I grab for my phone and earpiece, connect the earpiece to my phone and then put them in my ears to enjoy the music Emily gave to me 2 weeks ago. It’s from her favorite game, “OPUS: The Day We Found Earth”. It’s a game created by and independent game studio in Taiwan called SIGONO. I remember Emily crying when she finished the game. She said she was sad but happy at the same time. I still haven’t played the sequel, “OPUS: Rocket of Whispers”. The trailer on Youtube sure looks nice.

After walking for 10 minutes, only 5 minutes left until I reach home, I notice this shadow like figure in the distance right behind the streetlight. It looks pretty tall and is wearing the clothes that look like the Chrome browser incognito tab logo. I didn’t know people still dressed like that. I walk past it, but when I reach home, I see it again. This time it’s standing at the house next to the house across mine. Leaning against the fence of that house, the person lights up a cigarette. I see her face. It’s a woman. But why would a woman dress like that? Must be a good reason. Suddenly the front door of that house opens and Mr. Capelle invites the lady over.

This seems highly suspicious to me, but then again it’s none of my business. I walk to my home, close the door and lock it behind me, take my shoes off and go to the kitchen where everyone else seems to be. I guess I’m just in time for dinner.

Saturday, another weekend. I used to hate weekends and vacations, because I would spend all that time at home. We never went out on vacations as a family. Never been a part of the family tradition. But now that I have friends, I get to spend some of my time away from the toxic people I live with. But I don’t feel like thinking about this again. Let me call Alexis and ask her how Zander is doing. I could call Zander to ask him, but he told me that it’s not a good idea to call during the weekends since his folks use the telephone all day for work. They work from home during the weekends. So, let’s see, Alexis,…ah, okay. I suddenly hear a phone ringtone coming from outside my room window, which is right above the front door. I walk towards my window and lean over the ledge to see who’s standing there. It’s Alexis of course.

‘Hey, can you open the door for me please?’ She sounded kind of serious. I walk downstairs and open the door. ‘Hey Collin’, she says.

‘Hey Alexis, I was calling you to ask you about Zander, how he’s doing’.

‘How should I know?’, she says in an agitated way.

‘Well, you live right next to him’, I said. ‘Didn’t you pay him a visit yet?’

‘No, not after what he said, can I come in? I don’t want to discuss this while standing at your front door’.

‘Oh, yeah, sorry, come on in then’. We go to the room next to my room, which is empty. I don’t take anyone into my room. I’m just not like that. I also find it kind of disturbing to have a girl in a boy's room. Except for Emily, she's my best friend, so it's different I think.

I wonder what's up with Alexis. She looks like she's about to cry, but she also looks angry and disappointed too.

'Okay Alexis, what happened?'

'Do you know anything about Zander his injury?'

'Is that it?'

Alexis then replied: 'Yes and no, it's complicated, but I'll try to explain it to you'.

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