“Haha, Damon get out of that tree”, said Malika. She was trying to climb up branches, but slipped on one of them. A boy with brown eyes glinted in the dusk light laughed at her. “It’s been 10 years Malika, and you still can’t catch up with me?”. Damon was the boy, and he was sitting on his haunches on a tree house he once built when he was 6. His friendship with Malika was as old as the tree house, and she finally got up to sit at the same level as he was.
“Aren’t you afraid this thing’s gonna fall?”, said Malika , nervously adjusting herself on the tree’s platform. “No, I think my dad has got that covered. Look, carbon reinforced wood”, Damon grinned whilst bouncing up and down. “You know how he’s like with me”.
“So..”, Malika interrupted the silence, as they were previously observing the sun taking refuge behind the dark evening clouds”…you said you wanted to tell me something?”. Damon sighed. This was the original reason why Malika came. It was one of the reasons they bonded so well. Damon had a scientist-cum-inventor for a dad, whilst Malika had an ear for stories. It has been going on since he was 7.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving for high school already”, said Malika under her breath, as Damon gathered himself to talk about his father. It was never easy, as his father’s inventions were most of the time, beyond what common sense can absorb. Even with Malika, whom Damon has had the pleasure of divulging craziness for the past 10 years, he still felt like he needed time to compose himself. He welcomed the distraction ‘though, thinking he wasn’t ready. “You know Malika, the only friend I have is you. And that fact, doesn’t really make me look forward to high school anymore than you do”, said Damon. “But we don’t have to go”.
Malika felt like she was caught off guard. “What? C’mon, Damon. You’re not still afraid of girls or what you call the ‘female species’ are you? You’re almost 16!” “I’m not afraid, you dimwit. Don’t make me sound like I’m biologically inept at handling myself in adolescence”, snapped Damon. “My father used to tell me stories you know..”.”About girls?”, giggled Malika, but was immediately cut short. “..about my mother.”
Everything went quiet. Damon’s mother was a taboo topic. She was a schizophrenic, and has many times attempted to murder her own husband. Even worse, she once tried to abort her baby with a butter knife. Damon never knew his mother personally, seeing as to how she was detained to an asylum immediately after giving birth to him. “..it’s a pleasant story I guess. The truth is, my dad loves her. I was on the way to our basement once, and I saw him by the gramophone, singing to her picture on his desk”.
Malika looked disconcerted, but placed a hand on Damon’s back to comfort him anyways. “…so my father hasn’t told me what it is. But I snuck into his basement, and I discovered that he’s invented some sort of portal”. When the sky turned red, Damon finally told the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment