End The LightCatcher

  Chapter 10

  Quentin

 

  A famous American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Once you make a decision, the entire universe conspires to make it happen.” Just as quickly as End had put his focused mind into taking his first baby steps of agreeing to participate in life, a miracle came in the form of Quentin.

  One nice warm afternoon where the sunset was just right and the recruits were polishing their shoes, Quentin slammed his huge military duffle bag on the floor of the bunk, next to End’s bed. End looked up. The first thing He noticed about Quentin was his smile, and second, his large forehead. His smile was the smile of an eternal optimist. From the duffle bag, end could deduce that Quentin came from the City of Eagles. Quentin wiped the sweat off his tremendous forehead as Beef walked by bare-chested with his dog tag and sized him up. Well, Quentin “sized-him-up” back as well and decided in an instance that he would never in the eternity of time like Beef. Storm clouds brewed in the sky as Quentin and Beef smiled at each other. Beef finally walked off unsure of the weather that Quentin brought and Quentin walked over to extend a handshake to End, as he was now occupying the bunk next to his.

  “Sorry I am late buddy, my name is Quentin.”

  “My name is End. Nice to meet you.”

  As the days went by, the two became inseparable buddies. Quentin told End everything about himself, how he had came from another military school in the City of Eagles, and how he was sent here as sort of an exchange student. His delay was caused by the fact that he messed up some paperwork because he was really bad with paperwork.

  “But here I am,” said Quentin.

  In the bunk, Beef began circling around End and Quentin like the great white shark. He saw how goofy Quentin was and formulated an opinion that Quentin was yet another soft fruit that was ripe for the picking. Instinct took over, as Beef found a perfect moment to attack Quentin from a blind spot. End saw it coming, and put his body in front of Quentin.

  But Quentin had no need for protection. In less moves than a single move checkmate, he shook Beef’s hand, floored him, and picked him up again all with only his handshake. The motion matched one made by an Aikido master. Beef was tossed about like a ragged doll even before the process of thought had begun in his brain.

  “Well hello, my name is Quentin, nice to meet you too Beef,” said Quentin, as he maintained his strong handshake that was sending shockwaves of pain into Beef’s arm. Patrick, Guile Wayne, Ed John and Mickey all came forth but Beef motioned for them to stand back. To regain some pride, he took a sudden swing at Quentin once more. Quentin intercepted the fist and turned Beef’s fist to his own face. Beef gave himself a punch, something he never thought was humanly possible. Beef fell to the ground, and stared at his gang with anger.

  “Well, what are you guys waiting for?”

  Mickey was first. He threw strong punches at Quentin.

  “Woah! Look at the power on that one!” said Guile Wayne.

  But Quentin was not little in his own stature either. He dodged Mickey’s fist and gave him one in the face. That fist shut Guile up as Mickey fell to the ground, out cold in a single-punch knock out.

  Wayne and Ed John ran away to hide.

  Patrick stepped forward and approached Quentin with much more caution. They began to exchange Wing Chun punches, amazed that the other also knew this ancient fist fighting method. Patrick was much harder to put down because he was more cunning and quick witted. But in terms of cunning, Quentin was also second to none. Patrick fell to the ground after making only one mistake in his fist exchanges.

  Just then, Arnold entered the room. “Room!” shouted someone, as everyone stood upright, and by their bed at attention. Arnold glared at the fighting trio with fierce looking eyes.

  What followed was intensive area cleaning after tiring sessions of full day training. Beef and gang were assigned to clean another unit, while End and Quentin were assigned to clean the whole of Raven Company from head to toe.

  “If I so much as inhale one spec of dust, I am going to mop the floor with the two of you, do you hear me?”

  “Yes Arnold!” shouted both End and Quentin.

  “Recruit End, you will be in charge of showing Recruit Quentin everything there is to know about the ILC so far.”

  “Yes Arnold!”

  It was during this time, that End and Quentin got to know each other better. Quentin was a person who simply could not stop talking about his love for movies and photography. He was also some sort of a geek and loved having all sorts of strange and funny gadgets to add on to the viewfinder to “improve lives” as so he claimed.

  “Want to see something cool?” he said one day as they were doing some cleaning. The device was something he had bought at the famous old army market known “Bitch Road”. The device had the words “Scandust” imprinted on it and looked like a small square biscuit in the shape of a computer micro-processor.

  “They say you can find anything at Bitch road. From small pocket-knives to bazookas. This device I got, helps soldiers to clean large areas so that they could slack off when they are punished. Watch this.”

  Quentin attached the device to his viewfinder, and he shot a flat plane of light across the floor. All the dust particles were lifted off the ground, and Quentin simply walked over to collect them. End watched in astonishment.

  “It also comes in auto-mode, where you just do nothing. I thought I might buy one for my future buddy whoever he might be. So there you go.” Quentin handed one to End.

  “I can’t afford it. I have no credit, remember?”

  “Nah, don’t worry about that! Take it! By the way, you told me you were having some difficulties with the Viewfinder?”

  In the days that followed, Quentin was like a gift from the heavens for End. Not only did he get into more fights with Beef to protect End, but the outcome too, was favorable as they would spent more time being punished together, and doing more area cleaning together. Quentin took this opportunity to explain to End more of the basic workings of the viewfinder. On one occasion, Quentin was teaching End how to shine their army boots with light energy.

  “The secret to shining your boots is found in the fine balance of kiwi and light.”

  “I suck at it. I have been doing it for hours, but my boots just don’t shine.”

  “The real trick here is patience. Watch.”

  Quentin applies a thin layer of black kiwi on the boot, and then adjusts the viewfinder to spray only a tiny bit of light on to it.

  “You can’t rush it, you have to do a little bit at a time, and slowly work your way into a shine. And just like every other talent or skill in this world, the more you do it, the better you become at it.”

  End continued polishing his boot, though no progress seemed to come.

  “Of course there was also the lazy and expensive method, where you go to Bitch Road and pay them too much money to basically wax the entire boot into a shiny Porsche for you.”

  “That’s much faster isn’t it?”

  “No. People who do that never learn anything about life.”

  “What’s there to learn?”

  “That the ending doesn’t matter. What matters is change.” Said Quentin.

  Quentin was one of those people in the world who had all sorts of grand philosophies in life. But End didn’t care about his philosophies. He was just happy to have a friend at long last.

  One day, both Quentin and End were at the Live firing range. Quentin had a perfect score, but saw that End was still struggling to hit a single target. As End sulked at a corner, Quentin came over to give him some advice.

  “If you haven’t already noticed, the viewfinder functions a lot like a camera. Select your micro lens kit from your VF.”

  “What is that?”

  Quentin showed End just what he meant with a few clicks on End’s VF. It was holographic projections of small little lenses that were the size of contact lenses. The small little contact lens size
d lens had markings like “35mm”, “70mm”, or “24-70mm” etc.

  “Which lens have you been using?”

  “I don’t know, I just used the ‘24-70’”

  “The default lens, I see. Therein lies the problem. You have got to understand that there are two types of lens, Primes and Zooms. Zooms give you a range, and Primes are fixed lenses. Because Zooms are much more versatile, they are not as good as Primes. Do you see everybody hurrying about as they change lenses while the target distance is changing?”

  “Yes. And I don’t why they are doing it.” Answered End.

  “They are doing it because that’s one of the things they are testing you on. To use a fix lens means to know exactly what your distance is. Just like life, when you know exactly where you are going, then you will have a better plan and much more confidence. If you use a variable lens with general distances, the accuracy is also very vague, and you will not be able to hit the target as much. It is kind of like a person just floating through life, randomly winning and losing his battles with no real plan or destiny set for himself.”

  A little complicated, but End finally understood the lens system a little, and a bit of Quentin’s philosophy.

  “Why can’t somebody just tell me this in the first place?”

  “You never asked anyone did you?” smiled Quentin, with a pat on End’s back. Quentin knew more about the silent character of End than End himself. For the rest of the day, End began hitting a few more targets. Although his accuracy improved to about 40%, he was still not in the passing range required. Nonetheless, End was happy with the score. Arnold looked at End’s success and felt happy. Quentin looked at Arnold, and did a little wink at Arnold. Arnold acknowledged that wink.

  Quentin was turning out to be a super friend that fell out of the sky. He motivated and coached End into taking on the F.A.Ts test stations with skill and courage despite the fact that if he fails this final attempt, he would be sent to the Sphere. In the evenings, while everyone else was playing with their portable video games or chatting, Quentin brought End down to the stations to practice. This night was crucial for End, as it was the final night before his final attempt.

  “What if I fail tomorrow?” asked End, “I guess it is going to happen.”

  “You won’t as long as I’m here.” Said Quentin.

  “If I fail I will face the Sphere.”

  “Hey! Will you quit that! Let’s do it, I will go through all the stations again with you. No sweat. Think positive!”

  Quentin and End walked over to the Shutter Speed run station. As it was already the after hours, only a single lamp post lit the stations.

  “The Shutter Speed run, works on the concept of a sudden tremendous amount of focus, and the explosion you let yourself have by releasing it. Watch.”

  Quentin stood at the start line. He took a deep breath, and kept very quiet.

  “You focus like this. Softly, quietly, and then…”

  There was a flash and Quentin had crossed the line in less than a second.

  “Understand so far?”

  End tried about fifty times, before he finally got it right.

  “Great!” said Quentin, “Now, I know you can pass your 2.4km run, so let’s go to the Standing Light jump.”

  At the Standing Light jump station. Quentin showed End how he could jump about four metres.

  “This station requires you to have fear.”

  “Fear?”

  “Yes. Imagine you were at the edge of a cliff, and a ball was rolling towards you. Your life depends on it, that you make the jump. When you accumulate sufficient fear, and you give yourself permission to live on, you will channel that fear into energy, and forget that it was ever fear. Only then can you make the jump. If you jump with fear alone, without the channeling, you will fall. If you jump without fear, you will not have enough energy to make the jump.”

  End looked confused.

  “Oops, I confused you. Maybe I can do it in another way.”

  Quentin kept very quiet for ten seconds. He seemed to be mediating to come up with a simpler explanation for End.

  “You are imaginative are you not?”

  “Yes I am.”

  “Do you have someone you love?”

  “Erm.”

  “Ok, focus on that person. Close your eyes. I need you to focus on that person.”

  End focused. In his mind, he saw ?.

  “Good. Now, steady yourself. Steady, and jump!”

  End jumped.

  “Wow.” Said Quentin.

  End opened his eyes, he jumped about a centimeter.

  “You don’t have sufficient fear. You hide your fears instead of embracing them or using them. You still believe that as long as you don’t participate in life, that fear does not exist.”

  “Are you a psychologist?”

  “I’m just telling you the truth. Alright, one more time. Sometimes we think of someone we love, but we think about the wrong things.”

  “What wrong things?”

  “You were too focused on your infatuation with her. Infatuation is the outside shell of why we are attracted to someone. What you need to think about is actually love. Love is something more internal.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “I mean. Think of her heart, not her looks.”

  “Who said I was thinking about her looks?”

  “Hey brother, I know you man.”

  “And who said she was pretty?”

  “Really? You want to go there? She is pretty for heaven’s sake. I bet she is.”

  “That’s not why I love her.”

  “Good. Then we can focus! Let’s just focus, man.”

  End closed his eyes.

  “Think about why you like her, and why you need to jump there to get her.”

  End closed his eyes. He saw the images of Dr Lecter threatening ?. He saw the images of ? hugging him. He remembered the promise he made to her.

  He jumped.

  “Hey!” said Quentin.

  “Is it bad?” asked End as he opened his eyes. He had passed.

  “It’s not bad. You passed.” He punched End on the shoulder with great happiness, “Alright moving on. We got no time!” said Quentin. Quentin walked End over to the emotional chin-ups.

  “You know I can’t do this one, Quentin,” said End.

  “You definitely can. And I bet you can do it tonight.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  “Why are you so optimistic.”

  “I am not. I know you can.”

  “What nonsense.”

  “Look, have you thought about what you need to get up? Explain it to me?”

  “I need to get lighter.”

  “Right. So what makes you lighter?”

  “Arnold says the emotional baggage is what’s weighing me down.”

  “Yup. By the way, are you happy that I am here helping?”

  “Of course. You know I am.”

  “You don’t mind my company do you?”

  “What are you talking about, you’re the best friend I have. You saved my life.”

  “I did. So I take it that you do value and appreciate my friendship?”

  “Of course I do. You know I do.”

  “Good. Look at yourself.”

  End realized that he had done one pull up.

  “Try it again.”

  End found himself as light as a feather, as he did ten pull-ups with ease.

  “What happened?”

  “Your mind. What you put in your head, determined what your body can do.”

  Quentin took a moment.

  “End, I just want to say thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “I thank you for your friendship. Friendship is something that is both hard to give, and hard to take. Both actions require tremendous skill and tact. I offered it, and you took it well, and that is why we became friends.”

  “You did everything.”
Said End.

  “No. I’ve been in and out of military institutions. So what if I am able to perform all these feats? In the end, you’re the first true friend I have.”

  End came down. Quentin extended a handshake.

  “I always believed that you have got to remember to thank the ones you appreciate. Otherwise, there may not be a chance in the future.”

  End shook Quentin’s hand.

  “Hey!” said ?.

  End looked around and saw her. She had brought a packet of “Essence of Guava” for him.

  “This is Quentin, and this is ?”

  Quentin heard her name, but was more interested in his friend’s respond to her.

  “Alright. I just came to pass you this.” Said ? as she ran back to wherever she was going.

  Quentin saw the look on both End and ?’s eyes.

  “Have you told her?”

  “Told her what?”

  “Just because an apple is red, doesn’t mean the apple knows it. You have to tell her how you feel, or she might run off with someone else.”

  End heard what Quentin just said loud and clear.

  “But how?”

  “You walk up. Say I love you. And come back.”

  “That simple?”

  “Ridiculously simple.”

  “Do I have to?”

  “Do you love her?”

  “Yes.”

  “How much?”

  “Oh, a lot. More than you can imagine.”

  “Then what do you stand to lose by telling her the truth?”

  “We have hugged and kissed once, doesn’t that count?”

  “It never counts until you lay down the law my friend, in a straightforward and upfront manner to sign, seal and deliver the message and finally lock that love down!” said an emotional Quentin.

  “Hey relax man, why are you so worked up?”

  “We don’t always remember to say I love you, until the opportunity is gone for good.” Repeated Quentin. End saw something in Quentin’s eyes. This pal had never led him astray. He knew what he had to do. End marched over to ?, just as ? was about to sit down at the bus stop. ? saw him coming from a distance and felt that there was something strange going on. End continued his determined march towards ?. ? began to sense something was not right, as End’s march seemed very stiff. End finally came right in front of ?. Then like all men who were indeed in front of the one person that they truly love in life, he froze. ? looked at End.

  “Yes?”

  End opened his mouth, but the words don’t come out. He stood there not saying a word. ? stood up, felt the forehead of End for any signs of fever. “Anyways, I am leaving the ILC soon.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “It’s nothing. I just wanted you to keep to your promise, and do your best in the ILC.”

  End was silenced.

  “What happened?”

  “I was fired. I have to find a job in the City. There should be opportunities there.”

  ? was sad, End could tell. ? sniffed a tear back.

  “We will keep in touch, some how.”

  End was at a loss. No communication devices were allowed in the ILC. Even though video games were given the leeway, communication devices were seen as a threat. A bus arrived.

  “Alright I have to go.”

  “Wait.”

  ? waited. She was expecting End to say something. But End was frozen in that moment. The moment dragged on in their hearts for a long time, but in reality only a second had passed. Nothing was said. And so, ? boarded the bus. From the back of the bus window, she waved goodbye to End. End did wave back but it was not with force or intention. End hated the way that people disappeared from his life after making a grand entrance. From a distance, Quentin sighed.

  At night, lying side by side in their respective beds, Quentin could tell that End was upset.

  “She meant that much to you, huh?”

  “There’s nothing I can do to help her. Here, I don’t have any credits, and I can’t just fly away with her somewhere. I wish I could take care of her but even in the real world, I never saved any money. Oh, my life is such a mess!”

  Quentin laid back in his bed. He looked at the ceiling.

  End looked at Quentin.

  “How about you?”

  “Me? What about me?”

  “Don’t you have anyone you are fond of?”

  Quentin was silent.

  “The trouble is. No.”

  “Oh.”

  The conversation was not meant to go this way. Quentin was supposed to have something profound to tell End.

  “I am sorry I have nothing profound to share with you at a time like this. Except maybe, you are lucky, that you love someone and someone loves you back.”

  “Does she love me back?”

  “Oh it’s obvious.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Yes really. I could tell from the way she looked at you. One look and I knew. I’m that smart, I’m Quentin.”

  “And how did you do that?”

  “I am a famous film director of course.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. Why do you think I came to the ILC?”

  “The ILC is a military school.”

  “Nonsense. I have done my homework on this Institute, and I know for a fact that it was never intended to be a military school.”

  “Then what was it designed to be in the first place?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “What?”

  “A film school,” replied Quentin, with a sparkle in his eye. “And I know for a fact that this institute has an old library somewhere and in this library lies the answers to everything.”

  “You really loved films, don’t you?”

  “You have no idea. I wanted to be a film director all my life, but I had to survive on something, so I got myself this job.”

  “How about your family?”

  Quentin was silent.

  “They are ok. Hey tell you what bud, I am really spent. Have a good rest, will you?”

  End could sense that Quentin never wanted to speak about his family. Quentin fell asleep, but End was still thinking about what he had said. End thought it was impossible. How could a cruel place like the ILC be a former film school? Maybe it was just wishful thinking from a film fanatic like Quentin.

  In the middle of the night, Beef sneaked up with as much stealth as he could muster to poke a secondary strike on Quentin. Beef was so happy that he managed to come up really close to Quentin without making a sound. Maybe one day he can be a commando of Light he told himself. Quentin was sleeping face down. Beef was thrilled. Just as he was about to grab Quentin by the throat, he saw the finger of Quentin rise up and position itself an inch away from his eyes. The finger was pointing directly at Beef’s forehead.

  “Walk away.”

  “Ok.” Said Beef as he turned in defeat to go back to his bed. Quentin opened his eyes to look at End. He had a gut feeling that End was still awake despite him looking completely asleep.

  “Hey.”

  “Yeah?” answered End.

  “Not asleep.”

  “Ever since Beef kept beating me up, I developed a new habit of half sleeping.”

  “Hey, I just remembered something. Tomorrow is Saturday, and we are all going back to the city to see our loved ones.”

  “Except me.”

  “Do you want me to help you pass anything to your parents?” asked Quentin.

  End did pause to think, but he didn’t take too long.

  “No.”

  “Not even a letter? If you write it now, I can help you deliver it.”

  “No.” said End and he slept.