Friday, May 18, 2007
imagination
i think it's nice how blogger sorted itself out. i'm such a loyalist i think.. nothing means more to me than loyalty, anything i can think of anyway. yup. loyalty's a big thing with me.
anywho, marks back today, little teensy disappointed with maths, sure i could've done much better if i'd studied properly but i'm satisfied. exhilarated with english though! whoohoo thank goodness i did well for my compo, think i'll type it up so jie can see all the way from china. (got 22.5/30 for it btw
Imagination"Sarah, are you listening to me?" demaned the usually patient Ms Lydia. Sarah snapped out of her daydreaming and flashed a guilty look at her favourite teacher.
"Sorry miss," she mumbled to her lap. Ms Lydia gave her a firm look and continued with her mathematics lesson on basic algebra. Appearing seeming focused to the class, Ms Lydia allowed herself to wonder about the ten year old Sarah Bryant. She had known, as the girl's form teacher that Sarah came from a 'troubled family', that her mother had died last year from breast cancer and that the girl and her little brother were living with her aunt. Ms Lydia gleefully imagined that her father was a good-for-nothing bum that took off withanother woman before the children were born, that would be quite fitting for quiet Sarah's traumatc past. she glanced at the doe-eyed girl, whose thoughts were clearly elsewhere again.
Sarah looked out her classroom window, the friendly porthole that was her gateway to her imagination. The birds were singing a cheerful tune outside in the maple tree, past the plastic playground, past the green fence of her school. Sarah pretended they were singing to her, a special song that woul erase her past and make her future brighter somehow. She let her innocent heart soar with the upbeat, uplifting meoldy of the birds, and dance in green pastures with calm water, and plenty of daisies for a daisy chain crown. She played with the little woodland animals and lay in the tall green grass that surrounded her, a secure, protective barrier. Above her the blu sky painted white castles in the clouds for her, and the yellow sun beamed and told her she was wonderful. A soft breeze kissed her cheek and enveloped her in an embrace, whispering words of peace and protection. Sarah felt happy, carefree, loved.
But with a slip of her hand, Sarah's pencil fell to the floor, shattering er window of imagination and just like that, her utopia was lost. Sarah fell abruptly back into her clasroom, her spirit once again inhabiting her body, which was sitting in a chair, her hand supporting her head, her brown eyes fixed on something outside. With a jerk, Sarah was reminded of everything that happened, reality tumbled down like a cascading waterfall onto her small shoulders and they sagged, burdened with the weight of her world.
Almost in tears, Sarah quickly exused herself and ran to the bathroom. Locking herself in a cubicle with a clang, she sat down and cried as her past washed upon her as the surf breaks onto the shore. Her mother killing herself from an overdose, thrusting into Sarah's small hands her five year old brother. Her father abandoned the family a year before that after abusing them, and now a cold-hearted, reluctant aunt who had the warmth of a snowman.
Sarah stayed there until her hot tears cooled, until the bell signalling the end of school rang piercingly, echoing noisily through the corridors. The class was empty when she returned, save forMs Lydia.
"Are you all right Sarah?" she asked gently, her eyes exuding compassion and care.
Sarah so wanted to tell her everything, she burned to let it all out, to be cared for, but she could not. She could not allow herself to imagine that Ms Lydia cared, just in case she did not, so Sarah replied, "I had a really bad stomach ache," took her bag and left.
Ms Lydia watched Sarah leave the school gate, a small hunched figure walking slowly out, amongst the other laughing, running children, carrying much much more on her shoulders than her backpack, with haunting eyes of one who had seen too much.
9:12 pm
