I'm Friends with Mr. Breezy

The Chasing Winds

Another pack of students swarmed into these streets. These people didn’t leave school as hurried as I was, but I‘m pretty sure a lot of them were itching to hang around. If there’s something to know about me, it’s that I don’t enjoy sticking with other kids for the sake of boosting my personality. I am what I am, it just is. Sure, I don’t get someone to listen to my stories other than my pillowcases, but being alone proved to have its perks. One of them is not having to pretend being someone I’m not.

Most of the new arrivals were from my class. Didn’t spend time memorizing my classmates’ names this year but I did place remembrances for some of them. That was the girl with a very tight scrunchie- and thus have a very huge forehead- and that was the boy with an unusually large mole. Those dweebs were who I called uno, dos, and tres because they always stroll around forming a height ladder. The other boy is Ray, who I remember because of the notes he gave me. He didn’t seem to walk along with others, too. I guess that makes two of us. And of course, I wouldn’t forget the two girls who keep talking behind my back. Bronwyn and her mediator of a friend, Liza.

“You really rushed your way here, huh? You know, teachers don’t appreciate students who leave class without saying a bye,” Bronwyn said, condescending enough for me to avoid her glare. As I stared down, there was a particular envelope that was walking around as if it had legs. Breezy!

There was my suppressed reaction but was immediately ran over by a tap on my shoulder. It was Liza. “Hey, you sure you’re not deaf? You know, we’ve been trying to make a conversation with you for the past year. Me and Bronwyn are kind of getting tired,” she said. Well, if they would stop bothering me for a second, then maybe they’d waste less time talking to my bowed-down head. But I don’t have the time to be rude when this other nuisance is ruining my score.

“No, I’m not deaf. Just distracted by the winds today. Do you mind?” I gave a nod and made them scoot over so that I could catch my apparently mobile screenplay. Bronwyn however, decided that she’d even be less cooperative today.

“What if I say that we do mind? Maybe you’d stop running into nowhere and actually spend time talking. Where do you go anyway? We know your mom isn’t home for many hours,” she stressed. I don’t know what these girls’ businesses are with me, but as I am busy trying to get out of the conversation, my envelope joined in. This wind spirit raised it above the girls’ heads. I need to put my work in the mailbox.

I shove my body against the two to get past them. Now my attention’s solely on the runaway envelope. Mr. Breezy’s walking away with my work playfully- the kind of walk you’d do when you’re teaching a toddler how to walk. Despite my annoyance, I kept composed. If anybody sees me chasing a floating envelope, they’ll think it’s crazy. Not me crazy per se, but the situation. Come to think of it, yeah, they’ll think I’m crazy too. I power walked to advance, just to act a little natural. Finally, I grabbed the envelope and turned my back on him again.

"Oh, so you want to play a game, ay human? Good luck, for I command the winds!" He let out.

Bronwyn and Liza were gone, dropping the screenplay was easy, as it should be. I looked around, with no clue of where the wind spirit was. I guess that’s that. Time to go home.

Surprise, surprise. This Mr. Breezy is a persistent one. I didn’t even pass one block away and my envelope comes running back to my side again. The winds, they’re taunting me. I swoop with my hand but missed. I swoop again, following the sight of the envelope, circling around me like I’m a child of some kind reaching over for a toy. With my fury, I snatched it right into my arms and stomped back to the mailbox. When I reached the chute, the winds then covered my arm and pulled, hoisting the screenplay away from dropping.

The wind spirit’s cloudy face reappeared. “Give up?”

“What’s your problem?” I grunted. “Let me pass my work!”

“Can’t, I told the winds to pester you around, until you tell me the reason why that pile of papers in your hand is worth jumping over a bridge for,” he reasoned. What’s up with everybody today, trying to dip in with my life?

“No. This is none of your business. You’re a wind spirit, right? You go, do your business with the atmosphere or something. Leave me alone,” I calmly explained. It’s like my energy was drained from all this talking. “Please, there’s enough sabotage in my life, if you could just let me be,” I uttered. Suddenly, the winds in my arm weakened. I was able to lift it again and drop the screenplay. There was no exchange of looks between me and the wind spirit from that point on. Maybe the sight of my vulnerability is enough for him to step aside.

After the hassle, I resumed my walk home. There’s a long way between my school and my home, and it did take me half an hour to get here, but since I’ve finished and passed my work, I don’t think I have anything to look forward to at home. If anything, I’d prefer delaying myself just in case Mom made it home early. It’d be less interaction between the two of us.

After passing the school and a small block of houses, the sides of the roads were replaced with rice fields and mini-forests. The day’s still young- at this pace, I’d be home an hour before sunset. During these gaps of quietness when the only ones that can hear my thoughts are the trees and the mountain, I began to think about the scene with the spirit.

It was his fault that my envelope flew away. There was no question in that, he didn’t even give a try to hide it. Then he saved me and stayed. He said he wanted to know what was in my screenplay that was worth risking my life for. The truth is, I have no idea what came over me. I guess I lost sense of it all and chose to save that part of my future. Maybe, that made it easy to mail my work the second time. Well, also the third and fourth time.

That wind spirit sure is anything but natural, but at least I have a story to tell in the future. It will be about an extremely annoying cloud guy that commands the winds to pester people around. Out of all the places, why was he at the bridge? I turned to the Kalinga mountain and eyed the top. If the spirits are real, then where do they live?

“Hello again, human!” Mr. Breezy popped out of thin air. Out of surprise, I jumped away and took a breath.

“You’re still following me? You really are a creep!” I yelled.

“Woah, easy there human. Look, I came here to repeat my apology,” he said, which urged me to listen. “I’m sorry for telling the winds to push your papers away, I only meant it as fun.” He then saw my frown and forwarded his hand.

“But, things stopped being fun when you jumped for the papers so I caught you with a band of winds. I wasn’t planning for you to see me, but when I laid you down on the ground, you touched this amulet which caused me to show my material form.”

My frown disappeared, changing into a confused face. What is he trying to gain with this conversation? I bet he’s got nothing to do and thus deserves a piece of my ignorance. I faced front and stepped, but the spirit urged me to stay. His next words are demanding enough for me to cross my arms.

“Before you go, since you can see me, and since I still feel bad about my doing, maybe I could offer you my company? It seemed like you are alone all the time.” He said. I scratched my head, I don’t know how to respond to this. To be honest, still salty about the whole falling to my death thing.

“What are you planning?” I asked. It’s only right to ask what the spirit’s motives are, especially when he’s the annoying type.

“Nothing in mind. But I will say that I seek of why and when a human considers something so important that they will decide to jump over a bridge for that something,” he said, his eyes still lacking the malice that I failed to find earlier. I put a finger on my neck and pondered. I guess it will be an opportunity of a lifetime to talk to a supernatural being. And I figure he does deserve some credit for saving me and explaining what happened. Maybe I can hang out with Mr. Breezy after all.

“All right,” I sighed, still hesitant about this whole ordeal. “You can come home with me if you promised to behave.”

“Of course, human. Oh, about that, all humans have a name, right? I heard you call one another like that all the time. Can I know what’s yours?”

“No,” I answered. In defense, it was instinctive.

“But, how can we be friends if only one of us knows the other’s name?”

“Friends?” I responded. “I thought you were just going to keep me company?”

“Exactly. I thought humans call the ones they go along with as friends? Are you sure you’re a human? It seems like I know more than you do.” He smirked. Can’t believe a wind spirit is teaching me what friendship is.

“Fine, if it’d stop you from being annoying. We can be friends. My name’s Aliyanah.”  I said.

“And… You have to call me by my name, too. That’s the concept, right?” he happily questioned. I sighed in the realization of how ridiculous this was, a human being friends with a wind spirit.

“Alright,” I murmured defeated, then presented myself better for his sake. “Join me on my walk home, Mr. Breezy.”