The
taxi stopped in front of me. I knew him. It was Sudin, John’s uncle. I was sure
about it. John was my friend but we were not too close but still I knew his
uncle because his uncle was the only one working as a taxi driver and taking
care of him. Sudin looked unhappy. As usual, he took me back home if there was
no bus. For a while, it was in silence then he told me what had actually
happened to John at the school.
***
John
had trudged across the entire length of the field and still, no one had asked
him to join their team. The Physical Education teacher was exasperated. He
needed the class to get into five teams to play the game but none of them would
take John as a team member. As the minutes ticked away, the mesomorph-body-type
teacher started berating the class for not cooperating. Standing in the
blistering hot sun with the teacher’s harsh words raining on them, the students
felt their dislike for John even more intense. John was left with no choice but
to stand apart from the class, as he always had, and subject himself to the
humiliation of burning hatred.
Back
in the classroom an hour later, angry voices filled the air as they were raised
in condemnation of the boy they sneeringly called ‘the tortoise’. It had never
been clear why they chose to dislike John very much but the very sight of his
pudgy body and stuttering voice had been enough to turn the class off from the
very first day he was introduced to them. Suddenly, the excited voice from the
class prankster, Jim rang out above the din. He had a plan to punish John! The
class began clustering excitedly around him.
The
next day dawned bright and early as the class boarded the bus for the field
trip to Kundasang Memorial Park. The class was in high spirits as they were
keeping the secret that they had planned right down into the details. The park
was a beautiful stretch of green, peppered by numerous tombstones dedicated to
the war heroes. John was hypnotised by the picturesque vista of the park as he
had lost in his own world ignoring his classmates’ sudden disappearance.
Some
time later, John made his way back to the bus. What greeted him was a lonely
bus, standing at the asphalt parking lot with not any single person in sight.
He found it was very odd. He thought only the teacher would not be there
because attending some arrangements at the park office. Where were his
classmates? There were no people on the bus, but engine was roaring and their
belongings were there. Suddenly, a sudden shiver and fear gripped him and John
began running about the park shouting for his classmates.
All
this time, hiding behind some shrubs, a hundred metres away was his delighted classmates.
They were so besieged by the success of their joke as they almost fell over
with laughter. Some even congratulated Jim for remembering that John had a
terrible fear ever of loneliness as his entire family was killed in a car
crash. Suddenly, someone shouted “Don’t run towards the road!”
John
was running helter-skelter in the direction of the road some eight hundred
metres away. The unbridled laughter now gave way to shocking silence as they
realised that John could not hear them. What they saw was unfolded like a movie
in slow motion as a container truck appeared on the road and John was running
towards it. None of them could ever forget the sickening scream that tore from John
or the screeching of brakes of the truck that attempted to stop itself from
crushing John’s body. It was a scene that indelibly imprinted in their memories
as they were struggling with the guilt of literally driven John into death.
John’s
uncle was very disappointed. How could John’s classmates do something like that
to an orphan? But what had gone let be by gone he said. Uncle Sudin then sent
me to the home safely. My regular experience taking a taxi became weird with
that confession of Uncle Sudin who had lost John in a tragic accident.
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