Speak Out

When Thanks took form of flesh and dwelt among us

What is it like to stare and stare and stare at these strings of words - a whole bunch of them like a concert full of people, grapes, rice. They all look soo intimidating that I couldn't focus on one line of them and read out. I brought my eyelids to slits and tried to say the word out loud.

Nimr. Tiger in Arabic.

It wasn't much of a surprise, when I couldn't hear myself.

The class was in a state of uproar , each group in their own little worlds of giggles and shrieks. I watched them a bit and then tried to get the book opened in front of me.

The three Alpha , Beta, Gamma, philosophy gals were in a silent discussion amongst themselves; Lana and Cassie playing the Aamina Super Cena; Zaynab and Layla singing the Elle me dit in sync.

Our Arabic teacher tried her best to get all of our attention, and finally succumbed to her seat with hands balancing head, the trademark symbol of surrender. I craned my neck toward the back and surprisingly its just me who realized the teacher was frustrated.

A yawn burst out of me. Could I sleep right now? When I looked at the clock there was 30 minutes to go and then finally ICT Labs!

Trying once more to decode the words before me, with one hand I scratched the dandruff and little clotted boils. It's my one hobby that I did religiously like how the gals did their manicures. To me, it was the most relaxing sortof massage and scratching all in one combo. Cats get to scratch and get awwws from people but humans don't get the same, eh I can't care less. Disgusted faces or not, nothing could disturb my relaxed head.

As I tried more to focus on the bunch of words, while humming to myself, the more my mind wandered off to yesternights.

Last weekend when me and mama were waiting near the shopping complex, many people walked on by the walking path. But what caught my attention was this funny lanky dude. It felt like any moment now his baggy denim jeans would come tumbling down!
He might have felt my stare so he looked up but I pivoted my head mechanically the opposite direction. When I thought he walked forward at a safe distance, my eyes walked on their accord to his back, slightly antsy of this dire situation. I had never seen anyone going to that level of baggy-ness before!
Without any warning, he looked back and this time I resisted the urge to look the opposite way. It might have only last few nanoseconds but I couldn't help wonder if he'd pass by once more. To carry the stare and make the filmized moment come to reality.

Could this be how soul mates are found? Where the lady saves the day by saving the knight's baggy pants from slipping away?

A hand swiped my pouch into my peripheral vision, breaking my train of thought.

I resisted the urge to hmph out.

The owner's bushy eyebrows scrounged to look at me as if I were her new question toy. When I say question toy, I mean it truly without fibbing. Each lesson she chooses her victim to pepper them with endless questions to the point they find her annoying. I saw her having a faint trace of mustache sketched with perspiration as she zipped my pouch open and close. I had an urge to rip off my pouch from her measly hands but then the thought of us being the social pariahs of the class did make me reconsider.

That is Roo and I for our class. Social pariahs.

"You won't look in through your pencil case, Zeffles?" Roo's asked in a Machiavellian air.

"Did you steal something and hide it in my pouch?" The last thing I would want is to be the class- stealer.

"Could be, think later! Look right now!", her baby chin fumbled about in excitement underneath her pudgy face.