June 29, 2010 (2pm)
Chalano
walked through the forest. The sky was darker than it had been a few hours ago,
and cold, strong breezes blew on the grasses. Chalalno mumbled, “Where are you?”
Kim had
not gone home yet, and everyone was away. Chalano had sneaked into the woods. A
blue particle appeared in front of him. It kept growing, and it kept becoming
brighter until it turned yellow. It grew into a huge ball fire. Master silently
floated before Chalano.
Chalano’s
face bore no expression. The boy was still in a bit of shock. He stared at
Master, and mumbled, “Why did it not work?”
“Because
you ate tuna. Tuna is seafood. Seafood belongs with water. The water element
does not listen to anyone who eats seafood.”
Chalano grimaced in frustration. He asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about this before
today?”
“Today
is the first day that you ate tuna at noon. You never ate tuna in school
before. You always ate tuna at home, and just before you slept, which took away
its effect.”
“I
thought that you knew everything! Why didn’t you predict that I would eat tuna
at school today? Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I
know, but I don’t predict.”
“Yes,
you KNOW! Why didn’t you tell me that you were making me fight my old friend
and former leader, Cole? You knew that it was him, Master. I asked you knew who the
arsonist was. You knew that it was him, but you didn’t tell me. WHY?!”
“Because
you’re scared of him. If you knew from the beginning that the arsonist was
Cole, you could’ve locked yourself up in your home, refused to go to school,
and refused to talk to anyone. Many people have capabilities that they never
discover only because of their fears.”
“Stop
this crap,” Chalano angrily yelled. “My friend was murdered, all of my
schoolmates almost got burned, and Cole is at large, but you’re still being
philosophical about the whole thing! You are the only smart thing that I know
who’s a LOSER!”
Chalano
angrily walked out of the woods. He wanted to keep cursing at Master because he
was very mad, and he was very mad because he knew that Master was right.
(6pm)
Chalano
sat down on his favorite chair. His mother was in the kitchen, cooking. The day
had started just like any other day, but it ended like no other. He just couldn’t
figure out the order in which things had happened. The scenes in his memory
were like scattered photographs, all messed up and confusing.
After
Cole had escaped, and all of the students and faculty members had ran to
safety, Callon and other policemen rushed into the campus. Callon had taken
Chalano to an empty classroom, and left him there. Some moments later, Callon
had come back with another policeman. The policeman had asked Chalano lots of
questions. Callon had warned Chalano that the media would ask Chalano more
questions once he got out of the classroom. Callon had told him NEVER to reveal
to the press that he was connected to the arsonist. Chalano had obeyed Callon,
and he told the reporters only the things that he was allowed to say. After
that, Chalano had walked home, and dropped by the woods in search for Master.
Amidst
all of those scenes, the sight of John kept flashing across his mind picture.
Burning, dying … Chalano held his head, with his hands pressing on his temples.
The flames faded, and left John’s ashes on the ground. Chalano’s eyes filled
with tears. He squeezed his eyes shut. He just couldn’t get the sight of it out
of his head.
His
thoughts were brought back to the present when he heard an unfamiliar sound in
the kitchen. His mother was gone. Starting to panic, Chalano rushed to the
kitchen. It was a narrow kitchen with counters and closets. The sound was
coming from inside a huge pot on the stove. It was as if a living creature with
many legs was crawling inside it. He picked up a pot holder, and reached for
the pot. He lifted the lid. Crabs! His mother had been cooking crabs for
dinner. They crawled about with their many legs in the water at the bottom of
the pot. They began to panic as the water began to boil. Their eyes peered out
of their shells as if staring up at him. Pleading for help. Pleading for their lives.
They kept struggling to crawl out of the pot, but, every time one of them got
near the top, the others pulled their companion back down.
“Hey,
Charlie,” his mother said as she walked into the kitchen from the back of their
house. “We’re having crabs for dinner. Put the lid back down, please, because
they might escape. They might cut your finger if they escaped.”
“I’d
like to ask something,” Chalano said as he kept looking at the panicking crabs.
“Why do they keep pulling each other back to the boiling water?”
“That’s
the way crabs are. Other people have noticed that also. It’s the reason why
somebody came up with the term, ‘crab mentality.’ The term was inspired by the behavior
of crabs in a pot, but refers to humans in a society. Crab mentality is when
members of a society keep their fellow members from becoming better than the
rest. They ruin a scholar’s books, they make a pretty girl ugly, and they just
keep pulling each other back down instead of helping each other out, just like
the dying crabs.”
Chalano
put the lid back down. Just like the dying crabs, he thought. He and his mother
sat at the dining table for a while. The crabs stopped making noise, and they
were cooked. Later, as Chalano and his mother ate in silence, Chalano kept
thinking about it. Just like the dying crabs.
His mother
had heard the news about what happened at his school. She didn’t force her son
to talk about it because she could imagine how horrible it was for him. It was
the reason why she had cooked something special that night. She wanted to cheer
him up.
Chalano
broke the silence by asking, “Why did you cook them alive?”
She
carefully answered, “That’s how crabs are cooked. There’s no other way to cook
them. I can’t kill them as if they’re fishes, because their shells are too
hard.”
The
next question on Chalano’s mind was, Why did you buy them? But he kept his
mouth shut because he could get the feeling that she was getting upset.
She was
alarmed by her son’s question. She realized that she had made a bad idea for
dinner. Why did I cook them alive? He was right.
Mother
and son ate in silence again. Neither of them felt that the food was special as
both of them thought of the creatures’ bad fate. After everything that had happened
that day, Chalano was feeling numb. Also, watching his food die was so
unappetizing. But he ate the crabs because his mother cooked them for him. He
kept himself quiet so that she wouldn’t get mad at him again. She kept herself
quiet so that he wouldn’t leave her again.
That
night, she brought the plates to the sink to wash them as Chalano walked
upstairs to figure out if he could still manage to sleep. He used to dream that
there was no school in June. Due to what happened at school, their classes had
been cancelled. Happy? No.
He
walked into his dark bedroom, and sat down on his bed. He stared at the stars
that were twinkling in the evening sky outside his window. Just like the dying
crabs. He thought about it again. He was a bit relieved to know that somebody
else had come up with the term, “crab mentality.” It made him feel like he wasn’t
the only one. He had wanted to just forget about the gang. He had been trying
so hard to get back up from crime. He had actually made it as far as fourth
year. He had thought that he could move on. He had thought that he could
change. But he was wrong. Cole was coming back in his life, pulling him down,
pulling him down.
He had
lost a friend. Boys didn’t cry, but boys were humans. Humans cried. He kept
staring at the stars as tears rolled down his cheeks. He couldn’t shake off the
very bad feeling that Cole had left behind. He didn’t feel like writing about
the arson anymore. He didn’t feel like joining the writing contest. He was
just human. He was weak. The lonely boy quietly cried in the shadows of his
room, where no one could see.
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