2.
‘’Hello?’’
I had just woken up from a
phone call in the middle of the night. I had no idea what time it was.
‘’Yeah, it’s me,’’ I heard
Charli reply on the other side of the line.
‘’Jesus fucking Christ,’’ I
rubbed my eyes, ‘’do you have any idea what time it is?’’
‘’No, do you?’’ she said in an
amused tone.
‘’Come on,’’ I sighed. I
clicked on a lamp and looked on the clock that read three ten, ‘’you’re a
bastard.’’
‘’Yeah. Want to keep this
bastard company?’’
‘’No.’’
I had hung up and rolled over.
The phone rang again. I ignored it. I did so for the next three minutes, before
I couldn’t bear the noise of it and picked up angrily.
‘’What?!’’ I screamed into the
phone.
‘’Hey, it’s me,’’ she said in
a relaxed voice.
‘’Yeah, what do you want?’’ I
was laying in bed with my eyes closed.
‘’Keep me company, will you?’’
‘’Charli. Fuck off, will
you?’’ I said in a pseudo-happy voice, mimicking hers.
I’m usually a nice person, but
there are reasons for that. One being, me getting enough sleep. Especially when
I know I have to work the next day.
‘’Oh, come on, K. You’re already
awake. You’re not going back to sleep anyway,’’ she said.
That’s true. Once someone
wakes me up, I have difficulties getting back to sleep. I rubbed my eyes in
frustration, but eventually got up.
‘’With you in a minute,’’ I
said shortly. I went off to make some coffee. Coffee was a real lifesaver for
me. Whenever I lacked sleep, it would temporarily lift my mood. I didn’t feel
like getting angry at Charli, I was sure there might have been a good reason
for her calling me, so I tried to prepare myself for whatever she had to say.
That being said, by having a clear mind that was ready to take her complex
gibberish.
‘’I’m back,’’ I said, as I sat
on my bed sipping on the hot coffee. The room was completely dark, except for
one lamp. I could see a plate on the table with leftovers from last night. I
stared at the table, while listening to Charli.
‘’Hey,’’ she answered.
‘’Hi. What is it? Why are you
calling me?’’
‘’I can’t sleep.’’
‘’Yeah, neither can I. Thanks
to you.’’
‘’But I can’t work either.’’
‘’What do you mean?’’
I heard an annoyed growl.
‘’It’s just… I’m so extremely
upset and annoyed. I’m trying to write, but the words just won’t come out.
Well, they are, but it’s all just a mess. It’s nonsensical and stupid. I hate
the characters I’m writing. They’re so cliché and besides that, I have a
feeling that every dialogue I’m giving them, is something I’ve subconsciously
stolen from another writer. I don’t know, K. Even the writing itself feels like
shit. I keep wanting to say a billion things at the same time, but my
hands…They’re just so slow, for fucks sake. Because of that I eventually end up
with a billion things I can’t say, because it’s all just a big mess in my head,
that I can’t put into words.’’
I was silent as she was
raging. I could hear her breathing heavily. Her voice became higher than usual
and her breathing faster, whenever she was upset. Her eyes would also grow in
size, or so it seemed to me, and every muscle on her face would turn upside
down.
‘’You done yet?’’ I asked.
‘’No.’’
I chuckled.
‘’No, you know what it is?’’
she said, ‘’I’m just a failure of a writer. I get so annoyed at it. I don’t get
any pleasure out of it. I have the feeling that I have these brilliant ideas,
but I just can’t put them into words, because god made me into this impatient
little shit that I am. You know what? I hate it, I don’t want to be a writer
anymore. And you know what? It’s your loss, K.’’
I frowned. ‘’What? My loss?’’
I was very confused.
‘’Yeah, you. K, the human.
Part of humanity. Your loss for never reading any of my ideas. They’ll be
locked away in my head and I’ll take it with me into the grave. Okay?’’
‘’Okay.’’
‘’Good,’’ she said. Good,
didn’t really mean good, I figured. I suppose logic transcends Charli. She
sounded like one of those angry pups, who made cute barking noises at
strangers. It’s cute in a way, but it also made me feel useless. I didn’t know
what to say or how to solve her issues and quite frankly, I was also too tired
to go too deep into it.
‘’Hey, lighten up,’’ I tried.
‘’No.’’
‘’Oh.’’
‘’Yeah.’’
‘’Okay.’’
I took a few sips from my
coffee.
‘’What are you drinking?’’ she
asked.
‘’Nothing special. Just some
coffee.’’
‘’Do you have to work
tomorrow?’’
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Oh, sorry for waking you up
then.’’
I rolled my eyes. ‘’That’s
okay, you can call me anytime.’’
‘’Do you want to go back to
sleep, maybe?’’
‘’I can’t. You know that.’’
‘’Yes, sorry.’’
I shrugged. ‘’That’s okay.
I’ll survive tomorrow.’’
She was quiet.
‘’Anything in particular you
want to talk about, dear?’’ I asked.
‘’No, I just wanted to hear
your voice.’’
‘’Well, I’m here.’’
It was quiet again. I was just
patiently waiting, since I sensed more was coming.
‘’You know, I really am happy
you’re my friend,’’ she said.
‘’Yeah? Why so?’’
‘’You’re really patient. I
can’t imagine anyone else being this patient with me.’’
‘’I know. You’re lucky to have
me,’’ I said with a grin.
‘’You know damn well what I
mean. Don’t think so proudly of yourself, you bastard.’’ I could hear she was
chuckling. I felt warm again.
‘’You know what you need?’’ I
asked.
‘’What’s that?’’
‘’Get your mind off work. It’s
not going to happen and you know that, right?’’
She sighed. ‘’Yeah, but I just
don’t get why.’’
‘’I do,’’
‘’You do?’’
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Then tell me, because I can’t
seem to figure it out.’’
I took a few more sips from my
coffee until the cup became empty.
‘’Charli dear, you’re forcing
it,’’ I got up and started walking around the room to stretch my legs a bit. I
stopped in front of my window and looked out of it. The city streets were
empty, the streetlights were lit, but no person to be seen. I lived in the
suburbs of the city, among mostly adults who had young children. I could see
the playing field in the distance. During the day it was packed with children,
but during night the streets seemed to go through a complete change. Changing a
bright colorful crown for a black veil. The streets looked quite creepy at
night. The playing field seemed abandoned, it was hard imagining children
playing there. I turned away and went back to bed.
‘’You can’t force it.’’
‘’Force what?’’
‘’Force your love for
something.’’
‘’But I love writing, I truly
do.’’
‘’Well, that’s something I
really wonder. I actually think you don’t.’’
‘’Then why would I do it?’’
‘’I wonder whether you want to
write or whether you want to finish writing.’’
‘’Well…I don’t know. It’s
complex,’’ she sounded tired. Not from a lack of sleep, but like she felt
indifferent towards my words.
‘’No, love. You’re making it
complex. It’s very easy. Do you like the act of writing?’’
‘’Well. Not particularly,
no.’’
‘’Then what is it that you do
like about it?’’
‘’Just conveying my thoughts,
I suppose.’’
I scratched my head and
stretched. I couldn’t suppress any groans coming out of my mouth.
‘’Yeah. Exactly. Then why not
do that instead?’’
‘’I don’t know,’’ I could hear
her voice getting high again. A clicking sound could heard. I assumed it was
her lighter.
I also got triggered to also
roll a cigarette. I’m not a smoker, honestly, but from time to time I do smoke
to keep my mind alert. I especially did it a lot when I was in college and had
difficulties staying up to study for my exams. It caused me to be alert and
continue focusing on whatever I was doing on that moment.
‘’Give me a second,’’ I said,
‘’I’m also getting a cig.’’
I usually hid my tobacco away
from plain sight, so I could avoid it becoming a habit. It was hidden between a
few records under the table. I quickly rolled one. It was a trick I had learned
as a college student from one of my friends. It caused me to become a
semi-smoker later in life, but initially I just rolled them for other people,
because I thought it was a cool trick. Meditative perhaps.
I walked around looking for a
lighter, until I found a box of matches in the drawers.
‘’I’m back,’’ I said. I
inhaled. An explosion of relief rushing towards me and I closed my eyes for a
few seconds before exhaling.
‘’Talk to me,’’ I said.
‘’What?’’
‘’Talk to me. Convey whatever
thoughts you have. Why have a medium that frustrates you, when you can just
directly tell me? Besides, the world won’t hear about it anyway. It’s locked
away in your head. So, do I have to privilege to hear your thoughts?’’
She hesitated for a few
seconds. ‘’Well… It’s complex…’’
‘’Yeah, yeah. I know it’s
complex. You’ve mentioned that multiple times. Just tell me how your day was.
What did you do today?’’
‘’I can tell you tomorrow. At
the moment I’m quite tired.’’
‘’Yeah?’’ my voice echoed my
disappointment.
‘’I don’t really feel like
talking at the moment.’’
‘’Oh.’’
‘’I’ll catch you another
time.’’
‘’When is that?’’ I asked.
‘’I don’t know,’’ she took a
deep breath, ‘’I just feel like my soul got crushed again, K. Do you get that?
No, of course you don’t. You know why? Because for you everything is simple.
Cause, effect, solution. Rinse and repeat. Do you know how annoying that is for
me? It makes me feel like I’m some overdramatic puppet, who can’t control her
emotions. But then again, maybe the problem isn’t me, maybe the problem is me
dealing with soulless people like you.’’
‘’Oh, soulless?’’ I asked
curiously.
‘’Yeah, soulless. You’re like
a machine, just performing tasks, following a set of rules. Let me tell you
something about reality. That’s not how it works. You might want it to work
that way, because it’s convenient, but it’s not how reality works in the
slightest. It’s just you and people like you, who want to see it that way to
make their own comfortable lives even more effortless and comfortable. And you
know what the effect of it is?’’
‘’No, but I assume you’re
going to tell me regardless of my reply.’’ I said.
‘’It means that you’re just a
bunch of braindead zombies. Just following your daily tasks and completing
them. Make sure I connect you to a power outlet next time we meet, okay?’’
‘’Okay.’’
‘’Oh, besides that,’’ she
snarled, ‘’there’s nothing wrong with me being this passionate about writing.
Whether I’m good at it or not, I think it’s good that I at least experience
emotions. Maybe it just shows that I’m devoted to it.’’
‘’Probably. Passion is good, I
suppose.’’
‘’You know what else it
shows?’’ she continued her tornado of words.
‘’No.’’
‘’It means that I actually
care. I don’t want to settle for something I’m good at. I want to settle for
something I can become good at. And you know what?’’
‘’No, as I’ve been saying for
the last couple of minutes,’’ I said.
‘’It means I’m going to
continue writing. I think it’s impossible I can be this passionate about
something I have no talent in whatsoever. I know it’s somewhere inside of me, I
just need to become more patient and read a bit more to formulate my thoughts correctly,
right?’’ her mood had completely shifted in the last few sentences. I could
imagine the wide eyed theatrical movements she was making with her arms, as she
was telling me this. Her eyebrows raised high, while she had her fingers moving
around, to put emphasis on every word she was conveying to me.
‘’Yes,’’ I said and I yawned,
‘’makes perfect sense to me.’’
‘’Good,’’ she said. This time
good did really mean good from the sound of her bubbly voice, ‘’I’m going to
continue writing, if you don’t mind?’’
I was staring at the ashtray
next to the empty coffee mug.
‘’No, that’s okay.’’ I
replied.
She said she would catch me
the next day and shortly afterwards she hung up. I went back into bed and tried
to close my eyes, which was difficult seeing how I got derailed from my normal
sleeping pattern. I walked around for a bit and listened to some music.
Eventually, the most obvious method worked and I counted the amount of times I
inhaled. Soon enough, I was asleep.
We had decided to meet up the
next day at a local café. I was done with work rather early. It was in the late
afternoon, when I saw Charli sitting in the corner. Her hair was covering her
eyes, she was staring at a notebook and writing in it. She was wearing an
oversized red sweater, jeans and oversized boots. A black scarf was draped
around her neck. She looked up, when I called her name. Her face lit up.
I kissed her on the cheeks and
sat down myself next to her. The café was cozy, it was quite empty. A black cat
walked by and I stroked its back. Soft jazz music could be heard, but I was
more focused on the person in front of me.
She looked nice today, I was
rather happy to see her. She was as well, as far as I could tell.
‘’You’re looking good today,
aren’t you?’’ she said.
‘’Thank you. So are you,
dear,’’ I replied and I put my hand on hers. She was looking at it, but didn’t
move it. I tried moved my fingers over her hand, but she interrupted me by
quickly withdrawing her hand and grabbing the menu card in front of us. She
avoided my gaze and I played it off by asking her what she wanted to drink.
She ordered and Irish coffee
and I got myself a cup of tea. We gave our orders and waited in silence for the
waiter to bring it to us.
The waiter was a tall, skinny
guy, with black hair covering half of his face. I could see some tattoos on his
arms. He saw I was looking at him and responded me by giving me a flirtatious
smile. I responded by smiling back at him. I turned around to look at Charli.
She didn’t see any of it happening. I saw her mind was somewhere else.
She continued scribbling in
her notebook, her handwriting is unappealing to look at. She didn’t take the
time to write it properly, instead it was some alien alphabet that only she
understood. I was waiting as well and to pass time I offered her a cigarette.
She politely declined and got her own. She continued writing and I continued
reading. We remained quiet like that for a while, it felt natural.
I felt her eyes looking at me
after a while, I looked up and caught her eyes. I don’t know what it was, but I
felt I should’ve said something about it. She was forcing out a smile, but
refraining from saying anything. Like she had something on her mind, but was
too embarrassed to tell me. I don’t know why, but I didn’t ask her what was
wrong. Looking back on it, I regret it. She was probably waiting for some kind
of signal from my side, but seeing how she didn’t respond earlier to me touching
her, I didn’t want to get any closer. Maybe she had brought it upon herself.
Still, I still wish I had asked her what was wrong.
Instead I looked up, awkwardly
avoided her gaze, looked around the café and called the waiter again. He
happily walked up to me and asked me what I wanted to order. I replied I wanted
the same thing. He wrote it down on a piece of paper, I turned around expecting
him to leave, but instead saw he quickly passed the note underneath the tray,
before taking away my empty cup. I pretended I didn’t see it, I waited for him to
leave and then slipped my hand underneath the tray to grab the piece of paper.
Charli reacted to the noises I made, I asked her what she was writing to
distract her.
Her eyes drifted off to the
guy with the black hair, who was coming back to me with a cup of tea.
‘’Here you go,’’ he said in a
deep voice that didn’t match his slender appearance. I could see upon closer
look that he had a piercing in one ear. His eyes were brown and bright. He had
a warm smile, that only complemented his dark look in a contrasting fashion.
‘’Thank you,’’ I replied.
‘’Anything else I can get
you?’’ he asked.
I shook my head. Charli was
ignoring him and continued writing furiously in her notebook. I wanted the guy
to leave, I wanted to know why she was acting like this, but instead I simply
answered ‘’no, thank you’’.
He nodded friendly at me and
walked off. I took my cup of tea and continued reading the newspaper, every now
and then checking how Charli was doing. She was biting her nails and ticking
her pen every now and then. Then she’d write again. Rinse and repeat. We sat
like that for a while, I was trying to focus on my reading, but couldn’t keep
myself from checking how she was doing every minute.
‘’He’s still looking at you,’’
she suddenly said, after we had been sitting like this for another fifteen
minutes.
‘’Hm?’’ I raised an eyebrow.
‘’The guy, who brought you
tea,’’ she said. She sounded slightly annoyed, but also amused in a way, ‘’Who
else? Don’t act you like you didn’t notice.’’
I chuckled, ‘’Sure I did.
Can’t really care honestly.’’
‘’No?’’
‘’Not really, no.’’
I could see she wanted to say
something. Her mouth opened, but then closed.
‘’What’s wrong?’’ I asked her.
Her smile turned into a smirk.
‘’Nothing. I was just wondering, whether you’re going to hook up with him.’’
‘’Maybe.’’
‘’Maybe?’’ she repeated me.
She sounded irritated, but was still eagerly smiling. I wasn’t sure whether it
was, because she was genuinely happy or some kind of twitch. I now can guess it
was the latter.
‘’Yeah. Why not? He doesn’t
seem too ugly. Quite an easy catch,’’ I said in a careless manner.
She sighed and rolled her
eyes. Her hands reached towards her cigarettes and she lit another one.
‘’Lust is so disgusting,’’ she
said.
‘’Yeah, quite.’’
‘’Then why follow it?’’ she
asked me.
‘’I got no choice, I’m afraid,’’
I said. I could sense I sounded a bit indifferent. It wasn’t my intention
though, I was just quite tired and didn’t feel like having this type of
conversation. She could hear the slight indifference in my voice. Her face
turned sour at my response, but refrained from asking further upon seeing my
tired expression.
‘’We can discuss this another
time, if you want,’’ she said as she exhaled smoke.
‘’Sure,’’ I said.
I asked her whether she wanted
to leave. I was quite tired and wanted to go home. I stood up, but she didn’t
move. Instead she made gestures towards the guy behind me.
‘’What about him?’’
I looked and saw the guy had
noticed Charli was pointing at him. She waved with a big grin at him and he
waved back. I rolled my eyes at her and asked her to pack her stuff already.
‘’It’s a shame to let go of
such a catch, isn’t it?’’ she kept provoking me.
I was also slightly getting
annoyed at this point and asked her to stop it and get going.
Her smile turned into a frown,
but she got up and packed her stuff.
‘’You’re quite a bore,’’ she
said, as she was putting her coat on.
‘’Yes.’’
I asked her to wait outside,
as I still had to go to the bathroom. She looked at me intensely for a few
seconds.
‘’What?’’ I asked.
‘’Bathroom?’’ she asked.
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Sure, but I’m heading home.
I’m quite bored and you’re acting very tired. I think you’ll have more fun
hanging out with someone else,’’ she said while looking at the empty table in
front of her.
I shook my head and closed my
eyes for a few seconds.
‘’Sure,’’ I said in a static
voice, ‘’I’ll catch you later, I guess.’’
‘’Whatever,’’ she shrugged. I
gave her a quick hug, but I could feel she was trying to get away from me as
soon as possible. I looked at her face. She was looking at the ground and picking
her nails. She put another cig in her mouth, without lighting it, gave me an
almost invisible kiss on the cheek and took off, while still looking at the
ground.
I stood there for a while,
doubting whether I should go after her or just let her be, but I before I could
move, she had already walked out of the café in a quick pace. I didn’t follow
her for that reason. She really wanted to be away from me. That was fine by me,
I just wondered what was wrong.
I packed my stuff and headed
towards the toilet. The waiter was looking at me, but I ignored his gaze. The
last thing I wanted to do, was being kind to some stranger I didn’t
particularly care for.
I got inside and saw it empty.
I didn’t feel like going to the toilet, I just needed some water. My head was
hurting. From a lack of sleep, from an excess of Charli. I drank until I felt
my body cooling down and my head feeling better.
I looked up at the dirty
mirror. The reflection was staring back at me. A thirty something old woman
with long black hair, that clumsily was tied together in a lose braid. I never
wore make up, I disliked it. Two dark eyes were looking back at me. I was
already quite pale, but I was looking extra pale today. The lack of meat on my
body only enhanced the dead look I had today. Even the fact that I was wearing
all black today seemed to worsen the whole way I looked. Both my oversized
sweater and jeans were all black. I tried to straighten my back and brighten my
face, but quickly gave up when I saw how fake it looked.
I looked tired, underfed, pale
and irritated. Even I wanted to walk out on myself today. Definitely not the
type of person you’d want to hang out with on your free day. I could understand
Charli. Compared to her vibrant presence, I was a corpse. Character wise and
appearance wise I lacked any form of substance to make me an interesting
person. I took a few more sips from the water.
I felt quite lonely. I
disliked my reflection, I disliked my mood. Charli was gone, she probably
didn´t want to see me today anymore.
I remembered the face of the
waiter, who was looking at me today. He seemed quite easy going, flirtatious
even. I wonder if he minded keeping me company. From the looks of it, he
probably wouldn’t. Was it worth giving it a shot? I didn’t want to bother Charli.
She was acting odd today besides that. From the looks of it and the
provocation, I’d say she was jealous. That seemed so far-fetched though, I had
never seen her like anyone, love anyone or even have a slight crush on anyone.
The thought of it seemed quite humorous to me. Too absurd, to even consider it
at that moment. Besides that, I had a two sided perspective, when it came to
her behavior. Her arrogance especially. I disliked it. It was annoying, I could
see why people didn’t like her. She always had to be right. Sure, she was
listening and picking out the informative pieces from the conversation for her
own personal gain, but it was always just that. She seemed to lack a type of
personal investment in the other. The other person always had a functional
purpose to her; someone she could reflect her thoughts to, someone who would
listen to her flood of words, someone she could use as a source of information.
I knew I was part of that gang, some days in one way, the other days in another
way. That was quite all right in my opinion, as long as she didn’t overdo it
too much. With me she was quite subtle.
Still, a part of me enjoyed
her arrogance. She was reserving herself for those, who were worth her time and
effort. People she knew would benefit her. I was part of that. I was slightly
better off though. She loved me as a friend. Whether that was for her own sake,
because I gave her the conversations she wanted or whether it was because she
really loved me for me, didn’t matter. There was love and that was sufficient
knowledge. I was the only person she felt this close with. I knew that
eventually, once her mood had lifted, she’d come back to me. An arrogant
thought perhaps, but I knew she had no one else anyway. And somehow, I was glad
she didn’t.
I felt bad over today, I wish
I had treated her differently, but my former thoughts reassured me, that Charli
would eventually come back to me.
I looked at the mirror one
more time and then walked out of the bathroom. I walked past the waiter, who
kept looking at me. I ignored him and put on my coat, heading towards the door.
Behind me I could hear the clicking of shoes on the floor, trying to keep up
with me.
‘’Hey,’’ I heard his deep
voice calling for me.
I rolled my eyes and turned
around. He was grinning at me, moving away a lock of his black hair that was
dangling in front of his bright hazel eyes. He was quite young, somewhere
between twenty or twenty-three. He looked handsome, but I disliked his teeth.
They were slightly yellow and crooked. His eyes were always smiling at me, even
when his face was relaxed.
‘’I’m sorry to bother you
again,’’ he said.
‘’Excuse me?’’ I asked. My
tone was soft, polite, but distant.
He seemed to hesitate. Giggles
were escaping his broad smile, as he was biting his lower lip.
‘’The note? Have you…?’’ he
didn’t finish his sentence, but instead gestured to my pockets.
I was confused for a second,
but then got reminded of the note he had given me from earlier.
‘’Oh,’’ I said with a faint
smile, ‘’I’m sorry, no.’’ I shook my head, as I was trying to avoid his eyes,
that were undressing me, from what I could tell.
‘’That’s okay. If it’s an
excuse to tell me off, I understand,’’ he said with a sheepish smile, ‘’I just
wanted to make sure, you know?’’
He shrugged and then turned
around, leaving me standing there.
He didn’t look like the
nervous type. The tattoos, the obviously dyed hair, the deep and monotonous
voice would tell otherwise, but I could sense that approaching an older woman
was something he didn’t have much experience with. It was cute in a way, I
could even say I admired his guts. Especially after I saw how moody I looked
today. I hesitated for a second, but then stopped him. I was also curious about
what he had to say to me, I could use some positive energy.
‘’Wait,’’ I said. This made
him stop and turn around. His eyes were widened in surprise, ‘’let me take a
look.’’
I went through my pockets and
my bag, when I finally found the small piece of paper. He looked at me with an
eager look, waiting for my reaction.
I opened it and read the small
message:
You’re beautiful. Please tell me your name?
Damien
I looked up. He was gave me a
faint smile, looking at the floor and pushing away pieces of hair that kept
following in front of his slim face. I sniffed and chuckled. I didn’t believe
that was his real name. It would be too fitting for his appearance. I assumed
it was a name he had given himself as a teenager to match his dark image. It
might impress his classmates, but I had seen enough of their kind. It was one
step away from calling yourself Lord Of Darkness and only wearing t-shirts that
had skulls on them.
‘’I’m K,’’ I answered and I
shook his hand.
‘’K?’’ he asked, ‘’that’s
all?’’
‘’That’s all you need to
know,’’ I replied.
He blushed. Here come the wild
one night stand imaginations, I thought to myself. Not that I minded, though.
Spending my days with teenagers, it has happened quite a few times, that I
caught my male students looking at me, when I was busy checking their work. Me
looking back up was enough for them to have their eyes on their work again. Teenage
hormones eventually fade away, dumb attempts to approach me will be burned into
their memories forever.
‘’You’re made for a student
teacher affair, you know?’’ Charli would say, ‘’don’t tell me you didn’t at
least imagine it once.’’
‘’I didn’t imagine it even
once,’’ I replied.
‘’Ha, do you believe that?
You’re not blind. Being in a class of hormone driven students with a hot
teacher, who is single, is enough for them to fantasize over doing you for the
rest of the year,’’ she gave me a mischievous smile, but I rolled my eyes.
‘’I’m a dirty old woman,’’ I
joked, ‘’rotten fruit compared to the crème de la crème. I can’t compete
against sixteen year old girls. I’m getting grey hair, Charli.’’
‘’You might say rotten fruit. It’s
how you look at it. I’d rather say a glass of fine, old wine. It’s an acquired
taste, you shouldn’t deny your students anything delicate, dear teacher.’’
‘’Oh, stop it,’’ I pushed her
away.
She shrugged and continued her
book. I was waiting for her to say something, but she had dropped the
conversation. That conversation always gave me shivers. The thought of it made
me feel disgusted. I didn’t want to even think about it. It was wrong, period.
Damien reminded me of that
conversation, he wasn’t a teenager of course and certainly not one of my
students. Yet his mannerism caused the same sensation of an adult talking to
her apprentice. His awkward waiting, the way he looked up to me, even though he
was taller than I was, the way he constantly was smiling politely at me, trying
to gain my approval over an assignment.
Is your conscience at rest if once put to the test?
I suddenly had to think of a
song. That piece of lyrics always touched me. My conscience was always at rest.
So far, at least.
‘’Because you’ve never battled
anything that went against it,’’ Charli said, ‘’you don’t know who you are and
what you want, because you never had to,’’ her voice echoed in my head,
‘’you’re just a follower of your own simple linear reality. Life lives you, you
don’t live life. Eventually it doesn’t matter of course, but that’s it. It
doesn’t matter. Make what does matter, matter, before the end is near.’’
I don’t know why, but seeing
Damien at that moment caused me to realize the meaning behind that piece of
lyrics. Crystal clear, my conscience was being tested, as I could see.
‘’What is your norm, given to
yourself?’’ I could hear Charli asking, ‘’independently from the world. Who’s K
and what does she want?’’
What did I want? What did I
want when I had to choose between the unknown and the known? I couldn’t know
what I wanted when one of the two is unfamiliar. I wasn’t doing anything wrong
so far as I could see, he was an adult and me too. He approached me and I
simply responded. Yet, the associations he gave me, made me feel uneasy. I was
outside my comfort zone, but I could not say I didn’t enjoy it. I enjoyed the
thrills, the heartbeats that became faster when I imagined him laying next to
me. This slender, youthful, little boy, asking for my attention. What else to
say, but desire driving me towards the unknown? I was curious, I was lonely, I
felt wanted after being rejected. Most of all, I wanted to know what I wanted,
when I didn’t know what the wanted objected consisted out of. I could resolve
all of it, by asking a simple question.
‘’Are you free later?’’ I
asked, I stroked away the piece of hair from hanging in front of his face.
He grinned and nodded.
3.
‘’Hello?’’
‘’Yeah, it’s me again.’’
‘’Haha, yeah. I figured. Who
else could call me at this time?’’
‘’Callgirls. I can be one if
you like. I’m wearing red lingerie, my breasts are filled with desire for your
saggy old men’s body. I become hot at the thought of your beer belly rubbing
against my thighs. Oh, god please!,’’ I was laughing awkwardly hearing Charli
moan like a drunk cow.
It was one am. Damien had left
my place. He came over as soon as I asked him to, didn’t even hesitate to ask
me for more than just my name and entered my place. We didn’t waste any time
knowing each other. I knew from the look of his eyes, that he carried the same
shallow thoughts I did and we headed towards my bedroom. It didn’t take more
than ten minutes before we were done. It felt like a business meeting. I told
him what to do and he nodded before doing so, he asked told me what to do and I
followed his instructions. There was no intimacy involved, it was purely
pressing the right buttons to make them disable the system. Nothing more or
less from my side. He got dressed, I didn’t yet. He got up, gave me a kiss on
the cheek and told me he was glad meeting me. I didn’t respond, but instead
nodded. I remained in bed, waiting for him to leave, before I headed towards
the shower and washed away every drip of our lust away.
He has a story to tell to his
friends, I thought to myself, and I can function properly for the next few
weeks. Seemed like a decent deal, in my opinion.
Disabling lust to function
properly equaled to eating food to have energy. I needed it, I lacked any guilt
in that way. Yet, there couldn’t have been a worse time for Charli to call me
than today.
I didn’t feel like hearing her
talk to me post-coitus. Damien had left a few hours ago, but I hadn’t bothered
to clean my bedroom yet. I knew Charli couldn’t see me, but I felt quite naked.
Or rather exposed, I’d say.
‘’I need your help,’’ she
said.
‘’Oh? What is it?’’
‘’I wrote a poem. Do you want
to hear it?’’
‘’I’d love to.’’
‘’It’s the one I wrote this
afternoon, when we were sitting in the café together. Sorry, if I seemed a bit
grumpy for that reason. I suppose I got carried away in my emotions while
writing it. Either way, listen.’’
‘’I’m listening.’’
She scrapped her throat:
Have I lived too little?
Do I know too little?
Loved too little?
Too inexperienced perhaps?
Too inexperienced at least
Too emotional at most
To me life is always full of itself
It parades with pride
Too many emotions
Too many people
Too many impressions
Too many thoughts
Too many mood swings
Going from left to right
Not being able to catch my breath
Before I have to run again
To me life is also never enough
Never enough time
Never enough love
Never enough friends
Never enough philosophy
Never enough art
Going from left to right
Not being able to catch up
Because I am Achilles chasing a turtle
Sigh...
Silent solitude
Silent suffering
Silent suffocation
Silent salvation
Sigh...
She was quiet, waiting for my
response. I had listened carefully to what she was saying. I felt uneasy over
it.
‘’Well, that was a lovely
poem,’’ I said.
‘’Yeah? You think? It’s not
meant to be lovely.’’
‘’No, I know. That’s not what
I meant by that word. It’s just…I mean, it’s just a good poem. That’s all.’’
‘’That’s all?’’ she asked. She
sounded doubtful. Her eager tone dumbed down.
‘’Well, I don’t know. I like
it. I don’t see much wrong with it,’’ I replied.
I wasn’t too good with poetry.
She already knew that, but I never minded hearing her poems. Mainly, because it
was interesting to hear what went through her mind. This poem though made me
feel uneasy. I sounded bitter.
Never enough love. Solitude. Suffering.
These words. I didn’t know
what to do with them.
‘’I think I understand what it
means,’’ I started, trying to not lose her interest, ‘’but why did you write
it?’’
She avoided my second
question. ‘’Oh, do you? What does it mean?’’
‘’It’s about being bipolar, I
suppose. It’s about uncertainty. Not knowing what the right direction is in
life or what to use as a measure for the actions we choose. At least, if
there’s any choice involved to begin with.’’
She was quiet for a bit.
‘’Yeah,’’ she sounded
confused, ‘’that’s actually completely right.’’
I sniffed.
‘’How did you know?’’ she
asked.
‘’I think I just felt it as
well,’’ I replied.
We were both quiet for a few
seconds. I could hear a clicking sound from a lighter, I presumed.
‘’You know, K?’’ she started.
‘’What, love?’’ I asked.
‘’I’m quite tired of
thinking.’’
‘’Yeah, me too.’’
‘’ It's not fair that
I am like this when I spent so much time becoming intellectual and was strict
to myself in an attempt to escape this boredom. I expected liberation, instead
I only feel bored with the daily things. Isn’t the point of thought to solve
issues? To see truth? To become free of lies? Yet, I don’t feel that. I feel
bored. Trapped in that sense by the mediocrity of the world.’’
‘’You’re intellectual and
strict?’’ I said in a jokey way.
‘’Well, I’ve produced a lot of
art. Read a lot. I’d say so.’’
‘’You’re taking yourself too
seriously. Be a bit foolish. What does it matter?’’
I could hear her sigh.
‘’Nothing, I guess. It’s just
a way to pass time, reading and stuff. While I’m waiting for the death train to
come.’’
‘’Oh, well. What else to do,
but to just play around and see what happens? Just live and see what happens.’’
I heard her sniff, as if I had
said something silly. My heart sank and I wish I had something better as a
response.
‘’Sure,’’ I could hear her say
in an indifferent voice. I didn’t know what to say, but I didn’t have to. She
cut the conversation off and continued babbling about some songs she had been
listening to, that she had just discovered. I said yes, I nodded automatically,
even though she couldn’t see me, I acted polite and happy. My usual carefree,
friendly self, that Charli was used to. However, I could not wait for her to
stop talking to me, because I didn’t feel like myself that night. My chest felt
heavy and my mind blank. I felt nothing, too much of nothing. Was it guilt? Was
it disgust? I was uneasy, that certainly. But why? Was it because of what I did
today? Why should I, though? I just did what my body wanted of me. Lust is
meaningless. I don’t care for that guy, it was a cheap thrill that lasted for a
few minutes. I was confused. Charli was frustrated as well. I could tell from
her poem. I thought it was my arrogance, but I sensed that it was aimed at me.
The way she was writing it, the angry, introverted manner in which she was
ignoring me and the guy and her commentary on lust, made me feel uncomfortable.
For the first time in a long while, I didn’t want to talk to her. Not because I
didn’t love her, I was very certain of that, but because there was lack of
certainty in what I was doing and why I was doing it.
It was late, but I didn’t feel
like staying at home. I took a look at the clock and took the initiative to get
dressed. A pair of old jogging pants and a sweater would do. It was dark
outside and quiet. Exactly what I needed at this moment to put my mind off of
everything. I wore my coat and then closed the door behind my heading towards a
nearby park. I turned around before leaving and reopened the door to my
apartment. I looked for my tobacco and a bottle of booze. It was some left over
vodka, that was stuffed underneath my bed from I can’t remember when. This time
I definitively closed the door and headed out, with the bottle under my arm.
The park I was heading to wasn’t far away, a five minute walk at most. It was
quiet, because the neighborhood I lived in was packed with families.
Occasionally I would see a gang of teenagers hanging out, but it was rare. I
assumed, because they would get shushed away by the parents, who didn’t like
the sight of that kind of behavior in this child friendly environment. I would
usually agree. The rebellious behavior I’d see my students depict after school,
was something I normally couldn’t find myself in.
Things had always gone well
for me. I didn’t need to act like that, there was no one and nothing to rebel
against. Nor did I ever became so bored that I had to resort to an adrenaline
rush to get myself going for the next day. I had a nice family and a nice job.
It was tiring being a teacher, but I never lacked the initiative to get going
on a daily basis. I enjoyed teaching. It was easy and required little effort. I
taught math at a local secondary school. Math in itself was one of the easiest
things there was, teaching it didn’t require much skill either. Most of the
time I just gave the assignments to my students and they would sit and make
them. I allowed them to softly talk to each other and ask me questions when
they didn’t understand anything. It was a relaxing job, in which I didn’t have
to do much. Most of the time I was either making the assignments myself as a
puzzle or I was reading a book waiting for the next class to come in. The
students, who were good at it saw the self-evident principles and could repeat
them endlessly in the same structure demonstrated in the book. The students,
who weren’t, had difficulties seeing the principles in the first place. It was
a nuisance explaining it to them, but I’m quite patient, so I didn’t really
mind. At some point, though I did give up. Not because I ran out of patience,
but because I saw it was a death end. I would then wave it off as not important
and let them bring me some coffee to pass the time.
The tiring part however was
getting up in the morning and getting back. People might not suspect it from
me, but I´m rather lazy. At least, that´s how people tend to describe me. I
wouldn´t personally call it laziness, I just liked distributing my time to the
things that mattered the most to me. When I first started teaching I
experienced difficulties getting to school on time. Even though I am quite
slow, I am a very proper person. I´d never leave the house without first having
a proper breakfast, reading my paper and memorizing how I left my place. I´m a
very organized person, I like to believe that correlates to me teaching math,
although some might see it as a bit farfetched. Structures, principles,
rhythms, all that good stuff makes me feel good. I would say that the world
seems to be designed like a puzzle, in which we have to put the pieces in the
designated places. That´s how I would also describe the way I live life.
Morning are meant to be taken seriously. I can´t imagine myself going to school
without performing my morning ritual. The ritual itself isn´t anything special.
It´s the ordinary getting out of bed, showering, eating, paper reading every
man my age does to prepare himself for a long day of work. Just putting the
puzzle together, so I can leave worriless. Almost therapeutic, in a sense. It´s
quite funny though, I might describe myself as organized, but I doubt that´s
the word anyone would use to describe me. I can see why someone might call me
chaotic, my house does appear to look like a mess with books scattered all over
the place, unsolved formulas on pieces of paper laying on the floor and
ashtrays that leave trails of dust behind. Yet, I would feel uneasy if anything
of that was changed to appear conventionally tidy. It´s organized to me, I know
where everything is. There´s an algorithm behind all of it, that only I can
see. That´s an awesome feeling to have. That way, my home always feels like it
belongs to me and me alone. The only thing that does really cause me unease is
public transport.
Why public transport? It
constantly forced me to be aware of my environment, making sure I didn’t miss
my stop. This was especially annoying knowing I had to switch three times,
before I finally reached my destination. This caused me to becoming quite tense
throughout the journey. It did make coming home a lot more pleasant though,
like a relief. That’s one of the best feelings in the world, honestly. Home is
a feeling, I’ve learned, not a place. The rhythmic procedure continued when I
came home. Dinner, wine, records, reading, Charli. I had a love for music. The
lyrics didn’t speak to me, I just enjoyed the music. It triggered my sense of
rhythm. Charli often played rock music. That was quite all right, as long as
there was a nice hook to it. Rap music was probably the one I preferred the
most, because of that. Metal I disliked the most. It was just a cluster of
noise, that didn’t make much sense to me. I’ve once heard that metal was very
closely related to classical music. If you replaced the guitar by an orchestra,
you could suddenly see the similar structure between both genres. I find that
hard to believe. Classical music rarely touched me, mainly because it all
sounded the same to me. The opera pieces, the aria’s, the fugues and so on.
However, if it did touch me, I could listen to it endlessly. Then again, that
didn’t have anything to do with the genre. I just needed a good hook and I was
good to go. Unfortunately for me, Charli always had to bring her own records
with her. They mostly consisted out of agonized screaming of old rock stars,
who sound like they have sore throats from all the smoking and yelling they do.
‘’There’s a hook in there,’’
she’d say, ‘’you just can’t hear it, because you have your own predetermined
view on what rhythm should be.’’
She was right in a sense. It
took me a while to discover the melody of the songs she played, but eventually
I could catch myself humming it every now and then. Eventually it would lead to
me being able to sing along to it, when I couldn’t hear the difference between
the first and the last line in the beginning.
I still have to learn myself
to appreciate the lyrics of the songs though. They rarely touch me. I couldn’t
relate to their sentiments anyway. My parents often claimed I was born an
adult, whatever that means. I guess it has to do with me never showing any
teenage behavior. Always the same quiet, patient, rational K.
Both my parents were lovely
people. The only thing I have in common with Charli is that we’re both only
child. It’s different for me though. My parents were both easy going. My mother
was a stay at home mom, who spent most of her time reading books on
spirituality. She wasn’t the brightest woman. Her hair was too long for her age
and her clothes too baggy. She often talked to me about the books she read, she
would burn incense for me for good luck and read my astrology to look into my
future. I have to be honest, I did think it was all a bit stupid. I rarely said
anything about it, because she was sweet. I didn’t feel like forcing her to
change her mind, like she never changed mine. We just happily lived together,
listening to one another. I knew her lack of intelligence was something she was
aware of. She never went into discussion when I first started asking her about
her beliefs. She either avoided it and changed the topic or just shrugged and
smiled at me. She did once tell me that he books she read were something that
kept her busy, since it gave her some grip on life. Guidelines she could
mindlessly follow to be a good person. A ‘because’ to the ‘why’ life asks of
us, when we act a certain way. That was sufficient, I could relate to that and
didn’t ask any further afterwards. Her smile was saddening, because it was like
she was saying there was no other alternative to life anyway. I disagreed to
that, but never said so explicitly. I seemed unsuitable to continue pushing her
into a corner, so I then would change the topic to something we both enjoy
talking about. I was a good listening though, I still am. I’m not sure whether
she taught me that or whether it’s a character trait, but it is a trait I still
appreciate a lot to this day. She always listened to me, when I talked about
science and math, even though her eyes looked empty. I didn’t mind she didn’t
fully understand it, it was sweet that she was trying. My mom was always trying
to keep me content, so I could pursue those talents. I rarely had to help
around the house, she did everything to make me feel comfortable and happy. I
still think about her with a lot of warmth in my heart.
My father was a mathematician
as well. I resemble him a lot, although he lacked patience. I have heard from
my mom how he lost his patience over students who just wouldn’t get it. My
father was quite severe with his students. It was still in an era, where
teachers had authority and my father was sure as hell making good use of that.
I’ve heard him talk about the humility his students had to suffer over his
impatience. I’ve never seen it myself, but the stories were enough in
themselves to make sure I was cautious. I always answered his questions as
short as possible, I ate strictly at six o’ clock and my math homework was
always ready for him to check the night before I had to hand it in. He only got
angry at me once and that sure was the last time. It was when he had caught me
sneaking away to some girl I had a crush on, but lucky for me my mother talked
him out of it and today he just laughs it off as a silly incident of mine. He
easily jokes with me, but I always still sense some authority whenever he’s
talking. He has a loud and deep voice and always looks proper. As a kid I’ve
wondered how such a man could ever be attracted to someone like my mother, but
now that I have grown older, I’ve come to understand it better. Especially the
last few years with Charli showed me that compatibility can exist in opposites.
Talking to her about my
parents and things I didn’t understand in general, helped me a lot.
‘’Do you know what love is?’’
she once asked.
‘’Of course,’’ I replied,
‘’it’s a chemical reaction, in the brains that causes you to be attracted to
someone with the purpose of reproduction.’’
She shook her head. ‘’That is
what might be the scientific equivalent of the word ‘love’, but what is it
really? You’re giving a broad statement, that’s true for everyone, but what
does it mean for an individual? Do we think about creating offspring, when we
look at the person we love?’’
‘’No,’’ I replied, ‘’it’s not
something conscious. It’s the underlying motive, that we can’t control. But we
can deduce all love to it.’’
‘’It’s the underlying motive
yes, which may be true for everyone. Yet, that’s not interesting to me. I want
to know what the effect of it is. Not the reason behind it, but how it happens.
Which is why I’m asking you. What is love to you, K?’’
I shook my head, I didn’t know
what to answer. I had never felt anything I could describe as love. Sure, I had
girlfriends when I was younger, but they didn’t do much for me. Even after I
had sex with them, they didn’t do much for me as a person. They were nice
people, I quite enjoyed their company even, but I never felt the need to have
them present. Over time, I lost notice of them and eventually the last time I’d
hear from them was when they had broken up with me, because I had accidentally
been ignoring them for the last month.
I remained quiet. She sniffed.
‘’I’m not surprised you can’t
answer it. It’s an age old problem. No can seem to describe it. You want to
know why? Because it doesn’t let itself be described,’’ she said.
‘’What do you mean?’’
‘’It’s not the presence of something
we want, but lack of the absence. Do you know what I mean?’’
I shook my head. ‘’No, not
quite. Lack of absence sounds to me to be equal to presence. It’s a double
negative, that turns into a positive.’’
‘’Exactly. That’s the funny
part. It seems to be equal to each other, but it’s not the same.’’
‘’How so?’’ I was frowning,
‘’how can something seem to be equal, but not be the same? Equality indicates
similarity, in my opinion.’’
‘’Look, the most accurate
description I’ve heard of love is something that shows the difference between
those two seemingly similar notions,’’ she said blowing her hair out her eyes.
I moved her bangs away and she smiled at me.
‘’Which is?’’ I poured her a
drink as she was sitting in my chair. We were sitting in my room, the curtains
were drawn and I remember Charli was wearing a black oversized sweater. Her
hair was messy, but her skin was glowing. Her nails had some black nail polish
that was chipping away. Her pants were clumsily laying on the floor. She was
leaning against the table with a cig dangling from the corner of her mouth. I
could see she was thinking, trying to find the right words to formulate her
thoughts. I took a sip of my beer, while I patiently waited.
‘’There’s a dialogue of Plato,
in which several people are talking about love,’’ she started, ‘’‘’What is
love?’’ they wonder to themselves. You see, there were several replies. One of
them said it’s looking for your other half. Someone else distinguished between
sexual attraction and romantic attraction. Another person defined it as a god
that moves us towards virtues, and so on.
These were quite nice. One the replies is quite famously known and often
used in literature. It’s the one in which this guy named Aristophanes talks
about how people in primal times used to be exist in three sexes. All male, all
female and androgynous, meaning half male and half female. They had two faces
and bodies turned away from each other. For some reason they pissed of the
gods, as that usually happens and humanity was split into two pieces, forever
wandering around looking for their other half, which is why we feel complete
when we find the so called ‘one’. Anyhow, quite a fun story if you ask me, but
that’s all I’d call it. A funny satire. Can you imagine what those creatures
might have looked like? Cartwheeling around to move, sounds hilarious if you
ask me. That guy is a good joker, I’ll tell you that,’’ she was laughing and
lit her cig.
‘’The most interesting
definition however was the one that went against all of them, which was of
Socrates of course. Love is a demon. It doesn’t possess brilliance or
excellence. It’s the child of two gods. Contrivance, as the father and Poverty
as the mother. Being born on Aphrodite’s birthday party caused him to become a servant of her. A
follower of what’s good and beautiful. Thus it’s a spirit that has traits of
both of his parents. Moving away from a lack, towards obtaining the desired
object. Both are equally necessary though. Lack is necessary to spark the
movement, the wit is necessary to move towards the object. That movement is
what we call desire, or love. Moving away from a lack towards the loved one,
but never fully making it your own. Once it is your own, the desire is gone.
The opposite is also true. Knowing you don’t have a chance, might cause you to
give up all together. Thus again, the desire will burn out.’’
She was biting her lips in
deep thought. I didn’t understand what she meant.
I saw the park in the
distance, I walked over towards a swing and sat on it, slowly rocking myself
back and forward. The streetlights were illuminating parts of the area. There
was a bench in front of me and further ahead a small lake, if you even wanted
to call it a lake. More a big puddle, perhaps.
The area in front of me was an
open field, but behind me it was covered with trees. They casted a big shadow
on me, that made it hard for people to see me. I drank a few sips from the
bottle and felt how my throat burned. I rolled a cigarette and lit it. I drank
and smoked like that on my own in the dark. With my eyes closed I enjoyed the
silence and tried to erase every thought that came up to me. I could hear the
rustling of an animal in the trees. There was a cool breeze blowing and causing
wrinkles in the water. The streetlights were reflecting on the surface of the
water. The water saturated the light and gave it texture. Water at night
resembled black velvet, especially when the wind was teasing it to move so
delicately. The surface looked soft, like a big blanket. I stared at it for a
few minutes in thought. I thought over today. I sensed disorientation in myself
due to the events of today. Nothing had been said that, nothing seemed wrong
either at first glance, but nothing seemed right either. It was Charli of
course, but not only her. It was me as well, I wasn’t myself today. I
experienced distress and emotions I couldn’t fully place for the first time
today. The events of today felt like a blur. I couldn’t tell what was exactly
wrong and when that was the case, then how could I come to a solution? Maybe I
should talk to Charli, but what was there to talk about?
‘’Hey Charli, you were acting
jealous today.’’
That was the only conclusion I
could draw from today, but that’s not fully true either. She was the one, who
kept pushing me to talk to him even when I didn’t want to.
‘’Hey Charli, you were acting
jealous today and you were testing me to see my reaction.’’
That seemed more plausible,
but would she really admit to that? With her arrogance, she would either laugh
it off or roll her eyes at me. There could be a small chance this might be the
push she needed. An almost implausibly slight chance that I had to make a move
to see what she’d say. Then what, K?
If she admits to it, then
what? We either stay the way we are or we don’t stay the way we are. I enjoy
the way we are, although the prospect of us getting closer seems like a
undiscovered destination, that I’m not sure I want to explore. She moves me
very much, but she’s my closest friend, that I still want to keep distance
with. I can handle her, but just the slight prospect of us getting close is
enough for me to fall in a downward spiral of feelings, that I’m not prepared
to experience. She might not be either. I sighed and shook my head, almost as
if I wanted to shake off my thoughts.
All right K, you’re currently
thinking about unreal scenario’s that are most likely never going to happen and
if they do, I might not want them to happen. To think in depth about it, is
like building a house on clouds. There’s no realistic ground for me to continue
these thoughts. Facts first.
The past is in the past and is
something we can’t grasp. We can’t possess it, so we should let it go.
Everything changes and moves. So I should let anything that happened in the
past go. Damien is gone, he doesn’t exist at the moment. The sex we had is long
gone. The guilt I felt is gone. Charli isn’t here, her anger belongs to the
past. The shame I felt over hooking up with that guy is useless. Shame implies
regret over something that happened in the past. I can’t change it anyway, so I
might as well let go of it. Shame is a useless emotion. It worked destructive,
not productive. It’s never my intention to be ashamed before I do anything in
life, I just do it and then see what the outcome is. I don’t choose for myself
or the surroundings the have it bad, but if that subsequently has to be the
case, then it’s out of my control that I had caused it. The past is the past,
there is no changing it, I can’t control it, nor change it.
You have power over your mind, not the outside events. Realize this and
you will find strength.
I inhaled deeply one more time
before throwing away the remaining of my cigarette. I looked at the empty
bottle and noticed it was almost getting empty. It wasn’t that full to begin
with anyway. I emptied the last bits and threw it into a bush. My head felt
light, everything was all right. I covered my hair in the hoodie of my sweater
and put my hands into my pockets. I threw away the tobacco as well, I didn’t
want to turn it into a habit. My thoughts were enough to put me at ease. The
last thing I wanted in life, was to be dependent on something or someone for
that matter.
My thoughts about the past
also applied to the future. If I did ever experience hardship, I would want
myself to be able to carry it all on my own, without escaping to anything to
temporarily make the problem disappear. The thought of my own rationality eased
me.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it if you have to, with
the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
I slowly headed home, my
shoulders hanging low, singing a tune to myself, making a game out of skipping
the colored tiles on the road and jumping on the white ones instead. I looked
into the houses I walked passed. Most of them had their curtains drawn
unfortunately. I enjoyed seeing the houses of other people, I liked knowing
what type of people lived in which type of houses. I could confidently say that
my own apartment reflected myself quite well, but I was curious to see whether
that also applied to other people. From my own experience I knew that my
parents’ house very much reflected who they were. It had characteristics of the
both of them. It was extremely tidy and clean. My mother spent all her day
cleaning, ordering things into place, burning incense to make it smell nice. My
dad lacked any type of initiative to help. He worked, so he didn’t need to.
Biologically speaking, his testosterone levels were too high for any work like
that. I don’t think that makes any sense, but it’s what he told me.
‘’Real men work. Work that
involves real labor. Listen, K. You have your mother and she does all the work
that fits her character best, which happens to be something she also enjoyed. I
happen to not be that type of person, nor do I feel like I have to be. That’s
all right, right? Do you want to know why? Because we just follow what we are
good at,’’ he’d say while sitting in the garden smoking a pipe and blowing the
vanilla smelling smoke into the other direction, away from my ten year old
face. Even at that age I found that an idiotic statement. Now as an adult I can
confirm, that being a math teacher can be hard, but definitely does not involve
any type of labor. I could agree that it was tiring and that it’s hard to
balance the both of them, that being a paid job and housework, but I don’t think
it has anything to do with the type of person you are. I found the thought of
it funny that some people were inherently made to do housework. Even though his
thoughts weren’t very coherent, he didn’t say it to put me down. The very
opposite actually. There was some truth in what he said though, my mother did
in fact enjoy being the typical housewife and my dad did very much enjoy being
stereotypical fifties dad, with the neat hair, proper shirt and clean shoes.
Besides that, I just think he meant that everyone should do what they’re best
at and not be afraid to express that to the outside world. For them it happened
to be unfortunately that type of behavior that could be considered conservative
from an outsiders point of view, but from my upbringing I knew that my father
was anything, but that. He was severe, I was very careful with him, not to say
anything disrespectful and to only talk when he asked me something. Yet, it was
always the aim to make me a better person, to become someone I could be proud
of, even if it meant sometimes going through things I didn’t enjoy at that very
moment. Most people don’t bring their work home with them, but the authority he
had was inherent to his character, not something he only did because he was a
teacher. I chuckled, I wonder what he’d think if he saw me tonight.
‘’A good for nothing
alcoholic, who’s wasting her time on someone who has no future,’’ he’d say. A
quickly drawn conclusion, that had some truth to it. I shrugged the thought
off. He wasn’t here, so it didn’t matter.
I stopped jumping over the
tiles and instead slowed my pace. I could hear someone walking behind me. The
steps sounded like they were being dragged by a fat person, who couldn’t carry
their own body around properly.
My heart started racing and I
could feel my muscles were tightening. I pretended I didn’t notice the person
and refrained myself from turning around, so they couldn’t see my face. From
the back someone could easily mistake me for a guy, the hoodie and sweatpants
were big and gave me a broader appearance than I had in reality. My skinny
figure hid any sign of femininity as well. I’m glad they couldn’t see my hair,
that I had covered in my hoodie. If I played it off casually, I could just walk get home unharmed.
I made sure I didn’t suddenly quicken my pace to not draw any suspicion,
instead I slowly tried to walk a bit faster. My apartment was near, I just had
to walk another five minutes with this someone behind me without any idea what
he looked like.
I tried to breath normally and
not show any signs of fear, but I couldn’t stop myself from quickening my pace,
until at some point it was turning into running. I could hear the footsteps of
the person behind me coming closer. At this point I just gave up and just did
my best to shake off whatever it was that was chasing me. My head felt light, I
could barely catch my breath, the lighter that I was carrying in my pocket fell
out of it. Even though I was extremely tired and dizzy to some extent, I
somehow still manage to use the adrenaline rush to sprint the last minute away.
I breath heavily and felt how my hoodie fell of, exposing my braid. I turned
around to take a glance at whoever was behind me. Suddenly, I stopped running.
There was nothing. I slowed my pace, looked around with bewildered eyes, but
couldn’t hear anything, no footsteps, complete silence. I was panicking and
look a last glance before running away, even though I was quite certain that
there was no one there. I opened the door to my apartment, constantly looking
my behind. My hands were shaking as I was trying to open the door. I
accidentally let the key drop and muttered an angry ‘’fuck’’, before picking it
up and heading inside. I locked both locks of my door, ran towards me living
room, looked outside the window and saw there was nothing was there. Still
paranoid over what had happened, I drew all the curtains and turned all the
lights in my apartment on. Pacing back and forward I tried to figure out what
was going on, whether I was imaging it or it was real. I went to my bedroom and
sat on the bed for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, trying to calm my
nerves. I went to the kitchen and drank some water, before I was finally calm
enough to start thinking about what had happened. I was quite certain I had
heard someone, but when I turned around to see what was there, there was
nobody.
My mind was playing with me, I
was quite sure of that. I didn’t know what else to make of it. I took a few
deep breaths, before recomposing my
I felt there was something
that was quite off in the atmosphere, maybe it was inside of me, maybe it was
something external. The air felt heavier than usual, the same sensation I feel
when there’s a storm coming up, as it’s waiting patiently for the sun to warm
us with its last beams of light.
My soul was restless, like
there was a major brick resting on top of my chest. I felt nauseous and stared
in front of my not knowing what to do at this moment. I couldn’t call anyone, I
couldn’t explain what was wrong. All appeared to be fine, but nothing really
was. I stood up again, paced back and forward for a bit my head was empty, but
my eyes were at the verge of crying. The pressure moved from my chest to my
ears and then eventually to my head, causing a nauseating headache. My knees
were getting weak and I felt I was about to collapse, so I made my way towards
my bed, knowing that I would lose consciousness soon enough. I saw black, my
body felt the surface of my bed before I completely went into a black void of
unconsciousness.