My Scratch Pad

:: complete and incomplete thoughts, daydreams and illusions ::

Penmanship

I remember cringing in disgust whenever I chance upon the test paper of one of the boys in my class.

I hated checking the boys' test papers. They were always so messy. More than once, I wondered, how hard was it to find a good pen--One that didn't blot ink all over a page, one that didn't lose its ink halfway through a sentence, one that didn't leave marks on your fingers when you accidentally touch the page on the part that's got something written on it? And then after that, I wondered, how hard was it to have good penmanship anyhow? Didn't we all go to the same school, and weren't we all taught the same alphabet by the same teachers? Didn't we all follow the same dotted lines in the same books?

I avoided a lot of test papers, just so I wouldn't be so annoyed with the bad penmanship. It hurts my eyes, I'd tell whoever was my seatmate then, just so he/she'd exchange papers with me, and I wouldn't have to read illegible handwriting.

In high school, I once got sick and was confined in the hospital for a week. On the 3rd day, my seatmate John came to visit me, and he brought with him some study notes. Quite thoughtful, really. And I would've been immensely glad, except for the fact that his handwriting just, well, to put it simply, it just made my head ache even more. Of course, I didn't say anything, on account of his being really nice and all, but his notes ended up being re-written by my little sis, who, I'm sorry to say, had better penmanship, despite her being only in the second grade.

I went back to school the following week and told him thanks. I didn't say anything about how I got my little sis to re-write the notes, just so I could read them. He just smiled, and told me there was no need for me to say thanks.

The following week, I got sick again, and although I wasn't in the hospital, he visited me at home. He brought some notes again even though I'd only been absent from school for one day. I was really groggy and frankly, the last thing I wanted was to strain my eyes, reading all about how the Mexican War of Independence put a stop to the Spanish trading ships that sailed between Acapulco and Manila. He left them on the table beside my bed.

When I woke up, I saw his notes, folded neatly, sitting on top of my desk, and I asked my sister to write them down again for me.

She picked it up, scanned it and looked at me. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Just, copy it, okay?" I said, still feeling like crap.

She looked at it again and then shook her head. "I don't want to," she said.

"Why not?" I asked, feeling annoyed. She'd already copied the notes before anyway, and she was really smart. There was no way she'd back out because the words were too complicated, or whatever other reason I just couldn't think of at the moment.

"Maybe you can just read it when you get better," she said, and put down the piece of paper. She walked out of my room before I could say anything else. I fell asleep again.

That night, I woke up with a start. My fever was gone, and I was feeling much, much better. I looked at the clock and when I realized I still had time to study some, I right away went to my desk to look for my notes. The first thing I got was the one John had dropped off earlier. I unfolded the piece of paper and groaned at the messy handwriting. "Kara!" I shouted my sister's name.

"Ssshhh!!" I heard my mom hissing from the other room. "Your sister's sleeping," she said.

I groaned again and figured I didn't have a choice. I brought the sheet closer to the desk lamp, and squinted my eyes to read it.

Dear Kristine,

We didn't have too many important notes today, but I'll be sure to give them to you in case you miss more days of school. And next time, I'll make sure to print it out from my computer, so Kara wouldn't have to re-write everything.

I hope you feel better soon. School's just not the same without you in it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I miss you.

-John

I felt a tingling sensation down my spine, and I know it wasn't because I felt cold from the fever. I looked at his letter again, and read the last line over and over. And after that I read his name over and over. It didn't matter how messy his handwriting was. I didn't even notice that the "h" and "n" looked like the same letter such that his name seemed to be spelled as "Jonn". All I noticed was the fact that he said that he missed me. And that, was worth straining my eyes for.

by: distantorigin at 06:31 | link | comments

Family Heirloom / Relic

Stylus in hand, Rah begins drawing circles in the air. The tip of the stylus emits a light, and yellow circles float in mid-air.

His father sees his drawing, and shakes his head.

Rah draws an X, and stomps to his room, a big black X floating above his head as he walks.

He sits on his chair, and claps his hand once. The lights on the ceiling of his room turn on. He claps his hand twice consecutively--the first clap louder than the second, and the lights on the walls of his room are on. In front of him, they create a figure of a man, holding a stylus, much like the one in Rah's hand, although slightly larger. He was looking at Rah, as if waiting for him to speak.

"Hmgak!" Rah said, and the man nodded. He began to move, drawing figures in the air, which Rah copied using his own stylus.

After an hour, several drawings were floating around the room; one of them blue, made of curvy lines. Rah looks at it intently, and turns again to the man, "Bshwa!" he says, and the man nods again. He disappears quickly, and what was once a child's room with a bed, a chair, and some discarded styluses piled on the floor, became an ocean, waves crashing, and some dolphins jumping in the distance. Rah smiles as he looks around, amazed at the sound of the water splashing. He walks towards the dolphins, and it is as if he's walking on water. He reaches out towards the creature, but before his hand touches it, he hears a loud humming. It was very low, but high enough for his ears to perk up, and make him turn his head the other way. Not too far away, he sees a big house, one large tube sticking out from it. He figured it must be the chimney--something he'd seen when he was looking at ancient habitats the day before. Although, he'd never seen a house with such a big chimney, or a house floating on water. It interests him more than the dolphins do, and he walks towards it, and sees that there were several people on it, walking about.

He sees someone resembling his father, holding onto a wooden circle, with spikes sticking out from it. He is turning it clockwise, and the house moves slightly to the right. Feeling his heart beat faster, he claps his hand three times, the first one loud, the second one soft, the third one loud again. And the man with the stylus appears again, and his room is his room again, with one bed on the corner, one chair in the middle of the floor.

Rah raises his hand, and hastily draws the house with the big chimney, and the man with the wooden circle beside it. The man with the stylus nods again, and around them several more houses appears, one exactly like the one Rah had just seen, the others, very similar to it. At the corner of the room, something caught Rah's eye, he walks to it, and is puzzled that it's something he recognizes. It's a VR-1654, and from what he knew, it was no house at all. He raises an eyebrow, and looks around at the other models around him. It seems that the big house wasn't a house like he'd originally thought, but an ancient form of the VR-1654--the vehicle his father uses when he has long trips to Neptune.

He jumps up and runs out of his room excitedly, he couldn't wait to tell his Dad about what he just saw. On the way, he passes by his grandfather's room. He notices to door open, and decides to tell him first about what he saw.

He sees his grandfather sitting on the chair in the middle of the room. The light at the ceiling was off, but the ones on the walls were forming his dog, Gop. Gop was jumping up and down, much to Rah's grandfather's amusement.. He's laughing when he notices his grandson's presence. He turns to him with inquisitive eyes.

Rah takes again his stylus, and draws the ancient VR-1654 in between him and his grandfather. Beside it, he draws a "?".

His grandfather smiles, nods, and stands up. He's chuckling as he walks towards a box in the corner of the room. The box contained his favorite things from when he was a boy. Some of them were family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation. He opens it, and sees immediately what he's looking for.

He picks up from inside the box, a bottle, with a miniature cruise ship inside. His grandfather told him that it had been a gift from his grandfather, and that he should keep it with him, as a reminder of their survival. He'd never understood what that meant, and he had a feeling his grandfather didn't either. But he was told to give it to his grandson when he felt it was time, and so give it to his grandson he did.

Rah took it, his eyes widening with awe and curiosity. It is the first time he's gotten his hands on an actual ancient relic, all the way from the 21st century. He looks at it closely, turns it over, and sees some symbols on the side. He shows it to his grandfather.

His grandfather looks at it, trying to recall what his grandfather had told him. What did "TYTNIC" mean?

END

by: distantorigin at 03:29 | link | comments