Poiye
By A.S. Morrison
Copyright 2013 A.S. Morrison
Table of Contents
Ch. 1
Ch. 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
Ch. 7
Ch. 8
Ch. 9
Ch. 10
Ch. 11
Ch. 12
Ch. 13
Ch. 14
Ch. 15
Ch. 16
Ch. 17
Ch. 18
Ch. 1
The sky was beautiful that night. The stars were shining down like little diamonds from the heavens, and the dark blue sky transcended into black throughout my wide range of vision. The air was cool as the last of summer mixed with the first hints of fall. I looked to my left at the dazzle of city lights in the distance, wondering just how much more I would see of the sky if they all suddenly went out. My dad seemed to have the same thought, he caught my gaze in mutual understanding and together we looked back into the sky above. He was one for stargazing, we used to make it once a week out to that spot, but recently, with his ever growing need to be at work, we only made it once a month. It was alright though, even if we had to make it once a year at least we would have our time together.
My dad worked in the research department for some company I couldn’t pronounce the name of. His boss had to cut spending and ended up cutting several workers from that department. They kept my dad of course because he had been there the longest and had the most knowledge of the software they used. The only problem is that he had to figure things out with just a partner and not an entire team. He ended up getting paid a little more, but with much less time at home. As I looked at him in that one moment I could see past his wide brimmed glasses to the happiness it caused him to be out with me doing what we loved to do best.
A particularly cool breeze started up and I shivered, wishing I had brought a jacket along. I’m still so used to the summer I forgot it’s been getting colder at night. We had been out there on the side of the road for over two hours staring upwards. It was very relaxing; though I’m sure some would say boring. We both have an appreciation for any type of science, but most exclusively astronomy. Not that I like the others any less (well maybe chemistry) it’s just that it is the easiest that we can obverse. All we need is a clear night and we’re ready to go.
I lifted my head up from the windshield of my dad’s minivan and sat there for a while, listening hard. I heard something, a low humming of sorts from somewhere up above, I could tell it was moving, from the east with the lights from the city, to the west, but I could not see anything. I looked all around, following its movement closely, and then it was gone, as if never there. I craned my neck and looked in the direction it was heading, and saw nothing, not counting the stars and occasional satellite or high flying plane, but there was nothing closer, at least not that I could see.
I slowly put my head back onto the windshield and tried to forget about the noise, which was probably just a bug. It wouldn’t have been the first time something interesting happened while stargazing. Once when I was younger, I don’t remember how young exactly, we saw something that my dad was sure was a UFO. We definitely couldn’t identify whatever it was as it flew in circles in the sky for a few minutes before disappearing, but I seriously doubt it was aliens. I don’t believe for one minute that little green (or gray as my dad keeps correcting me) creatures come all the way from other galaxies just to hang out and freak people out and leave. I mean, I do believe in life on other planets, but more like plants or cute furry critters. I do humor my dad though, and when that story comes up I tell people just how strange a sighting that was all those years ago.
There was another time not too long ago when we saw the headlights of a car coming toward us, just to see it disappear. He is still claiming it was a ghost car, though I think it was just someone who turned off the road when we weren’t looking. Despite my father’s peculiarities I enjoy spending time with him, and it beats homework any day. Just then he leapt up as if hearing my thoughts.
“All right, you ready to go Bessie?” He asked, looking thoroughly rested, which was a shock considering he looked half dead when he got home a few hours before.
“Just about.” I said feeling slightly put out that it was time to go already. “Hey, did you hear anything a minute ago, I mean something strange?” I asked the question carefully, I didn’t want him thinking I was going insane.
“No, I don’t – wait, was it like a small explosion?”
‘”What? No.”
“Oh, well then no I didn’t hear anything.”
I dropped it there. My dad unlocked the car and I jumped in. I saw him open the trunk and put his jacket in, and then we pulled away. On the way home we talked about my school and his work, but I don’t really remember the details, the entire time I was thinking about that noise I heard and tried to find an explanation. I guess I’m a scientist already; I can’t stand to leave any question unresolved. I never did find an explanation that night, but the memory stuck with me.
The lights were on when we got home; my mother would never go to bed with us still out and about. Sure enough we found her sitting in her usual chair near the window, crocheting some sort of bag. She looked up at us expectantly when we came in. Lips pursed, graying hair in a tight and clumsily made bun. She looked about to rise, but thought better of it.
“That took a while.” She said, her voice faltering from its usual patient tone. She wasn’t really fond of going out after dark and was equally displeased when we did it.
“Yeah,” my dad started slowly, “we said we’d be back later.”
She turned to me now “It’s late and you have school tomorrow.”
“Maybe.”
“Your teacher called.”
I didn’t like the way she said that, something must be up. “Which one? I have several.”
“Your English teacher.”
“Oh, him.”
“Mr. Turner. And do you know what he said?”
“Maybe he –” She didn’t even let me finish my sarcastic answer.
“He says you’re failing.”
I felt a flash of anger. Why couldn’t he have told me first? Did he really have to call my mother? “Are you sure that’s what he said?”
“Elizabeth, why don’t you take all of your classes seriously?”
I hated it when she used my full name. “The other classes are easier for me, and besides, I probably just failed that last test. I’ll do better on the next one.”
“He said you’ve been teetering on the edge for a while now.”
For the first time I noticed that my dad had vanished. He hated confrontation and usually avoided it if possible. “It’s still September, we only have like three grades. Only one test, so of course if I failed it I’m failing the class. I promise if I’m failing in January you can be worried.”
I went to my room before she could say anything else. Once there I closed the door behind me. She was right that I took some classes more seriously than others, but English was not my best subject, and Mr. Turner had strange teaching methods. Most involving monotonous lectures about things I really don’t care about. I could hear my parents talking from the living room; my dad was talking excitedly about something, probably something about his work. I looked around my room for the textbooks I needed the next day, my eyes glancing at the mess on the floor I still didn’t feel like picking up. The room was larger than the one I had for most of my life. The year before my brother got married and moved everything out, I moved in the second he was gone. He was very neat so I didn’t really have to do any cleaning. Though I’m sure he would have some int
eresting words for me if he saw what I’ve done with the place.
In just a few minutes I was in bed, alarm set and backpack packed. And then suddenly my mind wandered back to the sound I couldn’t place. I sat there for some time going over those five seconds again in my mind, still to no avail. I thought of wind currents and the way sound travels, but I wasn’t too schooled in either so I can’t say that I made any breakthroughs. Eventually I drifted off.
The next day wasn’t so bad, school was alright, but can tenth grade ever be considered great? I thought about asking Mr. Turner about my grade after class but by that point all I wanted to do was go to lunch. He had just finishing reciting poetry from China, which I’m sure would have seemed great if anybody else was reading them. I didn’t see my friends much, but I rarely did on B days. After lunch I sat in study hall contemplating if I should do homework, by the time I decided that I should the bell rang. After school I took my shift at the corner mini mart. It was my first job and not very exciting, or fun, or really memorable at all. Once that was over I wandered back home, taking the long way, I really couldn’t find a reason to get there faster. I spent the rest of the day being thankful that the next day would be Friday, making plans for the weekend kept me occupied for the rest of the day. The new homework I acquired sat in a pile next to the homework I still hadn’t done for the next day, which in turn was next to a partially started project for history. I still wasn’t sure what the assignment had been, but I think whatever I had started was close.
It’s not that I didn’t like learning, like I said I loved science, it’s just that I liked learning on my own time by my own terms. It was hard for me to listen to a teacher when I knew I could just find a book or go online and find the same information. And that was not always good for studying. One reason why I failed my English test was because when I heard what would be on it I looked it up online and got a whole overview, and learned a great deal. The only problem was that the test was much more condensed on specific topics. So basically I could tell exactly what a haiku was and even name some examples, but I did not know the specific ones that we had discussed while I daydreamed. I guess I always could have just looked at the syllabus, but I wasn’t sure what I did with it. Science classes were different, even Chemistry, which was what I was taking at the time. In science classes I actually want to listen and learn. And when I look online it’s actually to reinforce and not to learn for the first time. I suppose there really is no reason why I don’t do well in some classes, as a physicist would say: “It’s just the nature of things.”
Friday was a better day than Thursday. I sat with my friends at lunch and we discussed trivial things and occasionally threw food at each other, an overall good time. My time at the mini mart was even alright. We had some people get into a fight in the parking lot and I had to call the police, they scattered when they heard the sirens, it was pretty funny to see them suddenly realize what was happening and take flight. The highlight of my day.
Next thing I knew it was Saturday. I went to the mall with the same friends for lunch. We saw a movie, but I’ll bet none of us remembered any of it by the time we got home, it was pretty bad. Sunday came and went and then just like that weird sound from Wednesday night, the weekend was over before I realized what had happened. School on Monday meant English, which I was beginning to dread for fear of falling asleep and getting detention.
I didn’t see my dad much during this time, except for dinner and sporadically breakfast, he usually was in his room working. My mother was around, she would run errands during the day but other than that she was around the house somewhere. I don’t know how she managed without a job. I tried to imagine the life where I really didn’t have to be anywhere but I got bored and did some homework instead.
Soon the days were going by and the temperature outside was steadily declining. Every now and then a day would appear that reminded me of spring, but the knowledge that soon it would be cold everyday kept my excitement for warmth to a minimum. I began yearning for something to look forward to, something exciting to happen. I looked for it everywhere. If anything remotely interesting were to happen anywhere I think I would have been fine, my desires fulfilled, but nothing happened. Every day was practically the same, an endless cycle of events that directly mirrored the ones preceding. By the middle of October I was fed up with the monotony, wondering if there was anything I could do to have a more interesting existence in tenth grade. Extracurricular activities were my first stop on the road to excitement.
It just so happened that the next Friday was homecoming against our arch rival; that had to be exciting. Unfortunately the only exciting thing that happened was a huge fight in the fourth quarter. I didn’t understand football but I was sure there was a difference between it and wrestling. And I’m also certain that the score of 0-47 is only good in golf. With football struck off my list I tried a club, but that was harder to watch than that football game. I know the basics of chess, but often confused it with checkers. The chess club was not amused when I continually requested more kings. I can’t sing so glee club was out. I don’t need a stage to act so drama wouldn’t cut it. I can’t read fast enough for book club and the people who showed up for video game club scared me. Feeling defeated I went back to my jaded life. But I still did not rule out that something interesting could happen. If only I knew what I was wishing for.