June 12, 2010 (8:00pm)
Grounded
all throughout the weekends? What a waste! Chalano was bored. He turned off the
lights, and lay down on his bed. Everything was dark, except for the glow of
the streetlights outside their house. It was a quiet night. He began to drift
off to sleep.
Knock, knock! Rays of the sun were
shining through the windows. It was morning. Chalano left his bed, and opened
the door of his bedroom.
“Hey,”
Kim said as he stood outside the door. “Wanna
see a secret?”
Before
Chalano managed to figure out how Kim got into his house, Kim pulled him out of
his bedroom. “Wait! I cannot go out of the house today,” Chalano complained. “I’m
grounded.”
“Don’t
mind it. You can escape,” Kim said, and he led Chalano through the living room.
They
went to the balcony, quietly walked down the outdoor stairs, sprinted through
the wide garage, and climbed out of the huge gate.
As they
walked on the sidewalk outside, Chalano asked, “What is it?”
“It’s a
secret for now. I don’t want to tell you about it ahead of time because you
might just keep talking about it, and then somebody might overhear. No one is
supposed to know about it yet.”
“Hey,
who is always talkative …?”
“Oh,
shut up. Now, you’re being talkative.”
The
friends argued as they walked under the morning sun. They stopped arguing when
they reached Kim’s house.
Kim led
Chalano to a passage beside their small garage. Morning breezes were blowing on
them. It was just a narrow passage. It led to the back of Kim’s house. The
woods.
The
boys walked faster. They stepped on the thick, green grasses. They
passed by the huge trees.
“It’s
over here,” Kim said, and motioned to the thicker part of the woods ahead of
them.
Chalano
held his breath. He had never been to the woods with Kim before. It wasn’t just
because Kim had never seemed interested about the woods, but also because
Chalano had never wanted to go back to
the woods. Chalano wished that Kim didn’t discover something that Chalano had
known all along. Chalano didn’t know 4th Project Town geography
well, but he was certain that somewhere in the woods was the spot where he had
burned the dogs as a Coal gangster.
The air
became warmer. A bright light was shining from behind the thick leaves of the
trees before them. They kept walking to it.
It was
in the middle of an open area of the woods. A very huge, floating ball of fire.
It was bigger than Chalano and Kim. The wild flames were producing a sound that
was similar to “whoom-whoom-whoom”.
Chalano
carefully walked around it, maintaining safe distance from it. He caught a glimpse
of Kim’s figure, walking at the other side of the fire. But Kim was actually
behind him, following him. They had company.
“Who is
he?”
“What’s
he doing?”
The man
suddenly turned, and ran into the woods.
“He’s
running now, Kim.”
“Yes, I
can see him. But he wasn’t here when I saw this fire … What if he created this?”
“You
mean, he’s the arsonist?”
Kim
turned to Chalano, and asked, “What?! Did I say something like
that?”
“But he
seems guilty,” Chalano explained, ignoring Kim’s sarcasm.
“If he’s
the arsonist, then let’s catch him!”
The
friends ran after the man.
The man
was a very fast runner. They kept chasing him. All three of them got deeper,
and deeper into the thickest part of the woods. Kim brought out his mobile
phone. He was making a call as he ran. He didn’t see it. “Ouch!”
He
slipped from the rock that he had stumbled on, and fell down behind a tree. He
fell into a huge, deep hole that had lots of grasses. Kim couldn’t get out of
it. He couldn’t go back to Chalano, who had stopped chasing the man. “Keep
chasing him,” Kim shouted above him, still holding his mobile phone. “I’ll call
for help.”
I’m just a kid, what can I do? But
Chalano did as he was told. The man was farther ahead than before. The trees
were closer together, and their thick leaves kept most of the sunshine from
reaching the ground. The ground became uneven. Chalano stopped. He couldn’t see
the man anymore. They lost their suspect. He turned to go back.
Someone
grabbed his shirt, saying, “When you chased me, I ran.”
I t was
the man. He had gone behind Chalano. The man continued, “Now, it’s my turn to
chase you. But I won’t let you run.”
He threw
something at Chalano. Chalano was set on fire. Chalano touched the trees, and
rolled himself on the dry leaves on the ground, but he kept burning. Chalano
screamed, “Help! Kim! Mother!”
The man
calmly walked away, and Chalano’s view was blocked by the flames.
“Mother!
Help! Help!”
The
ground began to shake. Chalano abruptly sat up. “Mother!”
“It’s
okay, Chalano, it’s just a nightmare,” his mother hugged him.
They were
sitting on his bed. It was evening. He was still trembling. He could still see
the woods and the flames on his mind. It wasn’t real.
He left
his mother’s embrace. He was so ashamed of himself. Being such a scaredy cat
felt so embarrassing. She stood up.
“Just
don’t sleep in the same position that you were in when you got the nightmare,”
she instructed, getting back to her strict attitude.
She
walked out of the bedroom, and closed the door behind her. He looked at the
clock. 9:00pm.
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