INFILTRATION

A TRICK OR COINCIDENCE- PART II

I watched as she walked three paces. She must have noticed I wasn’t following because she turned round. “What are you waiting for? Come on.”

That was when I noticed a teacher walking towards me. I didn’t need to be told twice, I shrugged on my backpack and jogged after her.

As short as this girl was, she ran as fast as the wind. I almost couldn’t catch up with her. She didn’t stop running until she got out of the school compound, then she stopped and turned to me.

“Try to keep up, will you.”

I jogged past her and we didn’t stop until we got to the fields. There., we both lay flat on our backs. We were both quiet for awhile until she broke it.

She looked at me oddly. “Never heard of the saying before?”

I looked at her blankly, and she sighed and sat up.

“Where I come from, we say that when someone is lost in thought, like you were a few seconds ago.”

It seemed where she was from, the girls over there were very free, so free they could walk up to random strangers and strike up conversations with them. Here, they were more reserved and a little bit shy. Those that weren’t were few.

I sat up as well. “Where do you come from exactly?” I needed to know more about her.

She had this faraway look in her eyes before she looked away from me. “Far away. Very far away.”

I was about to ask her where ‘very far away’ was, when she continued speaking.

“I come from the East, a country where my father met my mother. They had a whirlwind romance and they had me. Father found out, but decided he wasn’t ready to become a dad, so he ran away.”

She sighed before she continued. “Having a child takes lots of money, which, from what mother told me, father had lots of. Unfortunately, mother didn’t. She looked at me and shook her head. “She had just started a job which had a strict rule of no pregnancy for the first year. When she began to show, they sacked her. Without money and a child on the way, she couldn’t cope. She did the next thing I believe any woman in her shoes would have done – look for the father of her child. It took years, and you can imagine how that was. The scrounging, living on charity and doing odd jobs.”

She sighed and continued talking. “When she finally found out where he was after fifteen years, he went and kicked the bucket.”

I looked at her blankly once more.

She saw the confused look on my face and nodded. “Right – you don’t understand my proverbs. I meant he died. The man you call old Danny Gap tooth is my father.”

“Oh, I see.” It was my turn to nod.

One day, I went to submit an assignment in the teacher’s staff room, and I overhead them speaking about the new freshman who also happened to be Old Danny Gap tooth’s bastard child. I had put two and two together and figured she was the one they were talking about. She was the only new student that had come in this year.

“My name’s Jinxabell by the way,” She said, without looking at me.

I smiled and laid flat on my back once more. “That’s an odd name. Can I call you Jinx?”

The sun had gone down and I was able to look at the sky where the clouds had begun to gather. I waited for her reply but she said nothing. Curious, I turned to look at her. She was staring fixated at the sky. Suddenly she turned to me. “Let me show you a trick.”

Her hands slowly rose in the air and she wove them back and forth, like she was a conductor in an orchestra. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes as if in concentration and began to mutter under her breath.

Something strange began to take place in the sky. It darkened considerably, and I thought it was going to rain, so when I felt wetness on my face, it wasn’t a surprise.

Little did I know I was in for a bigger surprise.

Little blocks of ice fell, at first in treacle’s, but in seconds, they were falling heavier. It became so cold, my teeth began to shake.

I turned to look at Jinxabell and noticed her eyes were tightly closed. Frown lines had appeared all over her forehead and she was muttering under her breath. The louder she muttered, the harder the ice flecks dropped.

A trick, or just plain coincidence?

Suddenly she opened her eyes, got up and the sky cleared.

She turned to look at me and smiled, but then it bled from her face as she swayed unsteadily on her feet. I rushed up so I could catch her and she fell into my arms. She was so small and fragile, she fit perfectly in my arms.

While her eyes were closed, I couldn’t help but notice how curly her lashes were, how long the tip of her nose was, and her lips –

I could not help myself. I found myself moving towards them, but just as my lips were a fraction of a distance from hers, her eyes opened, and I froze.

We stared at each other, me wondering what on earth caused me to act foolishly, and she probably regretting walking up to me in the first place.

Her eyes were so compelling, I stared into their depths until I felt an itch on my back and snapped out of it. I cursed myself inwardly and almost dropped her on the ground.

Turning away from her, I muttered. “You better stay away from me, I’m bad news.”

I picked up my backpack and, without a backward glance, walked off.

Of all the things you could think of, that came out of your mouth?

You really are stupid.

All the way home, the voice in my head mocked me, and I let it, because if I wasn’t stupid, I would have known the taste of her lips.