Chapter 13: Running Towards The Alley Together
"MAMA! Come here!" Maria screams her lungs out. "I think Sarah just hit her head hard!" Maria looks at me, her eyes popping out in disbelief.
"What Maria?" Mama comes running behind her and when her eyes land on me, her mouth hangs open and she drops the seeds that were in her gloved hands.
"Mama, do you see what I am seeing?" whispers Maria to mama, loud enough for my ears but mama seems dazed at her view. "Look how engrossed they are with each other. They don't even notice the world around them."
"The teacher kept complaining about their horrible fights in the class for three weeks and last time she complained… I think it was three days ago." mama scratches the back of her head.
"She always called him a brat and now look she is calling him by his name... No way! Did you hear that? She nicknamed him too! She called him D!" Maria utters in disbelief.
"She never stood near him whenever we visited the Adams. The visit always ended up being spoiled by one of their pranks on each other." mama blinks her eyes at her view.
"She always bad mouth about the kid. During our breakfast, lunch, dinner and every other family times together!"
"You guys know that we can hear you?" I ask, grabbing their attention. "You're embarrassing me in front of him." I smile nervously at him, trying to cover up the abruptness of my family.
"It's fine Sari, my mom did the same when you visited my home yesterday." he waves me off.
"DID YOU JUST CALL HER SARI?!" Maria comes from behind and accuses a finger at him with her mouth falling down almost to the ground "No, wait! You also said SHE VISITED YOUR HOME!" Maria shakes her head in utter disbelief.
"Let's go play somewhere else D!" I tug his hand and stand up from the ground and yank him out of the house while I feel my family's eyes burning on my back.
"But I wanted to see your mother's chickens too!" He said with slight despair in his tone.
"We can see them some other time, it's not like we're never going to see each other ever again." and he smiles at me, nodding his head in agreement.
The day at school was also weird for both of us. The whole class went silent when the kids saw us talking and laughing together even the teacher was afraid of us. She thought we were up to some new kind of prank but she as well as the other kids finally believed on our friendship on the third day when they found our behavior still the same towards each other.
It's not like we stopped playing pranks on each other but our pranks were not off-limits like they used to be. They were more fun than before but less scary. Soon we became the best-est friends and now we just wouldn't prank on each other but we would prank on other people together and together we were scarier than anyone could even imagine.
"They are coming shhh!" he whispers in my ear and I giggle, thinking about the worst-case scenarios as we hid behind the bushes.
"Charlie your mother is always being a wall between our plans!" the kid huffs out a breath of frustration and the fat kid rakes his finger through his hair who apparently seemed annoyed.
"I can't refuse her, she is… just very sensitive." utters the fat guy.
"Let's forget about it and sit at our pond." says the other thin boy and both I and brat snort at his statement.
"We'll see whose pond it is today," I say in a hushed voice, looking at the front through the bushes.
"You think the string we tide is strong enough?" brat asks, looking at me.
"Yes, I checked it. Let's hope our plan works fine."
We tied one end of a thin wire to a tree near the pond and the other end is with us. The wire lies on the ground, we covered it with dirt so that our target can't see it. The plan is that when the three of the kids who were the reason behind our friendship, however, they still needed to learn their lesson for almost attacking an innocent girl.
Yes, I admit that I'm not exactly an innocent child before you start accusing but a very evil one. And I kind of like being evil, suits me best. But it was still wrong of them to stand three against one and also to claim the pond!
So when the kids will reach to the edge of the pond, that we have lined, we'll pull up the string in our hands.
"Okay, they are near! Hold the string tight and on the count of three pull it and keep a firm hold," he says with excitement and I nod. We both grip the wire tightly.
"1… 2…. "
"3 PULL!!" and we both pulled the wire. The wire flew just a little above the ground level and halted in mid-air. The three kids were nearing the pond before they could even notice the string they hit the wire just above their ankle and strike down into the pond and a sound of splash echoes.
Brat and I high five on our victory and walk towards them.
"This is for claiming the pond by illegal means." says brat, pointing towards them in the pond. The three of them are drenched in water and working to cure their breaths of the sudden collision with water. Before they get out and drench us too, we both ran out of the place with our hands entwined together.
"That was fun!" he says to me with a smile on his face when we stop at a place which is far from their reach, we are panting hard from running this far.
"We should do it again!" I exclaim with excitement.
"Yes but maybe next time with someone else." he winks at me.
~~~
"Come on hurry up! The customers are waiting!" Shouts the manager at me. I'm all irked, right now my boss/manager/Samuel is making me work an extra hour without a penny to pay for it, to teach me a lesson about 'not to barge into others house in the middle of the night' and I… well, I'm paying my punishment. He knows I can't say anything to him in front of so many people as he is my so-called BOSS so I've to keep this up unfortunately but I'll certainly get him after this.
I know that I considered working for him an extra hour for free but... There is always a difference between what you think and what you do!
As the hour passed, I heave a sigh of relief and went back to my locker to get my things. I bid my goodbye to everyone on the staff except for my boss because you know the reason, I'm pissed at him. I thought he wouldn't mean what he said but he actually made me work! Well maybe I deserved that bit of a punishment but he didn't have to make me do it to actually make me realize.
I entered my house and went straight to my room after refreshing up I came downstairs and passed some of my time talking with Aunt Anna. She's a busy woman who works as an editor in a well-known magazine, no wonder she always has so many books and papers around the living room. She tells me about her interests, her likes, and dislikes and it was good knowing her, it felt like I can somehow help her release tension this way. She never fails to tell me every time that it felt good seeing someone from the town after a long time.
Later someone called on her telephone and I picked it up and it was my mother, we talked for like an hour or two with of course Maria interrupting and pissing me off by telling me to stay away from the forbidden things that apparently happens a lot in the city.
Without knowing the passage of time it's almost sleep time for the city and right now, I'm standing in front of a house beside a large trunk tree and the one who guesses it right I'll pay them a check of….. not even a single penny.
Because common, the place where I'm standing is easy for even a kid to guess it, right. Anyways let's get working.
Clack!
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Clack!
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Clack!
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"Ouch!"
"10 points! I just hit the head again!" I squeal with joy.
"What the-" he muttered halfway.
Thwack!
"Owww!" he falls down on his back, on his balcony, gripping his right eye.
"And this is for making me work without a pay!" I pump my fist in the air as I just won 20 points. Well, I did win because an eye wasn't an easy shot.
"You have to be joking right now." his words strained with pain, he was on his knees while still gripping the eye.
"No joking. I'm here to avenge myself. Now come down, we have some errands to run." I say adamantly, my hands on my hips
"GO HOME!!" and he went inside again, shutting his door behind rather forcefully that made me flinch.
Well, in the end, I did win.
whether it was my pouting face he just couldn't resist or was it my beautiful sing-song voice that couldn't keep him away. It didn't really matter because later he did come out and reasons it with for the sake of his grandma and neighborhood whom he didn't want to wake, completely denying my charm which actually brought him out.
Now he is on a verge to kill me, I'm running on the sidewalk towards the same alley while he is chasing after me to catch me.
As we reach the alley we both are out of our breaths. We both didn't hail a cab this time because he oh-so-wanted-to-kill-me. I plop down on the floor, leaning my back against the wall while my lungs struggle to catch some air and he does the same, sitting opposite of me.
"If I had known, hiring you would be such a waste I would have rejected you in the beginning," he says between his breaths.
"It's just the second day." I roll my eyes. "Besides if I'm still going to work an extra hour without the pay, why don't I continue to abuse you?"
"If only it wasn't for Anna." he heaves a sigh.
We stayed laying our backs against the wall in the corner of the alley waiting for something to happen in front of the building but nothing happened, just the same truck passing in and out of the building. We waited for an hour but it was useless again.
"Okay, we should head home now," I call, standing up on my toes.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to say that." he looks up at me with amazed brows.
"just sitting here for another hour won't help," I say shrugging, he gets up and follows me until we head out and towards the pavement. We walk silently side by side until he speaks up.
"About this guy, its like… he doesn't want to be found out…." He speaks hesitantly. "You're even afraid to go visit the company and ask for him…. Afraid if he would run away, knowing you are there." I just listen to his words. No matter what, this person is very observant and his words always feel so right every time he says something. "Six years is a long time for a person to stay hidden and from the clues, I've understood… it seems like you're chasing a water reflection. You can see it but you can't touch it, if you touch, it will disappear." He looks at me and I look down on the pavement as we walk.
I gasp slightly. Why is he making me feel like this? So guilty of myself? so afraid of myself? Why do I question myself after this long time?
I already knew all that he said but I can't stop myself, I can't stop running after the reflection not until it takes me with it to the world where it disappears.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." I didn't even know that I was crying until he speaks it out. He doesn't touch me anywhere to calm me like a normal person in the city would when they see a girl crying. He holds on to my sleeve and I look at his fingers holding a small part of my sleeve and it makes me want to cry even harder now.
I remember how I used to hold his sleeve, I remember the feeling of the soft fabric of his shirt when I held it as we ran for our secret place together. It came all rushing to me, now of all time like it all happened yesterday.
Just looking at this small gesture, it provides comfort to me and saddens me at the same time.
Does he care for me enough to respect my words? Anyone would have taken advantage at this moment. They would have hugged me, soothed me by touching and right now I really want him to do that, not just stare at me with concern in his eyes. I didn't know my tears would give me such mixed feelings but seeing his gesture just now, I can't help myself from not wanting to ask questions. I wanted to ask him why is he being so nice to me from the start, he doesn't even know me yet, why is he being so nice and caring?
I wanted him to ask me about my past but he didn't, he was being too nice not asking me and I don't want him to be nice. But instead of asking questions, I bring my hand to his hand that was holding my sleeve and press it thankfully a little, passing the unspoken words that I'm alright and he not need to worry.
A hesitant smile appears on his face and he nods at me. I close my eyes and push back my tears inside.
"It's the second time you broke your own rule," he says, diverting the subject and I'm thankful for that. "I mean, admit it I'm just too good." I nudge on his shoulder and he takes my hand and smiles at me before making me move with him.
"It's you now! who really did break the rule."
"Well spare me. You got to break the rule twice and I can't even do that once? That's just not fair."
"I made the rule so I get to decide who breaks it." I stick my tongue out at him and take my hand away from his grasp and he looks at me in utter disbelief. "And when was the first time I break my rule?"
"When you bruised me. Remember?" he says, pointing to his face.
"Oh... But then I also dragged you with your ear. You forgot that."
"Then it makes it thrice... But again you just nudged my shoulder."
"Hey, when did I do that?"
"Little miss village girl you're becoming naughty. Getting all handsy, are we?" He winks at me.
"No! We have to maintain the distance." I say, backing away a little while he laughs heartily.
And so we reach my home talking, teasing and biting each other along the way. I stand at the door frame of my house, looking at his retreating figure, fading away slowly but I know he's going to turn back soon and look at me.
He turns and looks back at me before he could wave at me, my hand was already in the air and waving at him. I can see his widespread grin on his face. He too knew I would be there standing, ready to wave back at him.
He waves at me and moves back in his direction, kicking a stone along the way while his hands in his pockets.
He is such a kid.
I look at my hand which I was waving at him and smile. A gesture which is a promise; that we'll meet again soon. Our friendship gesture.
Guess we are friends now. Right?