LIFE AFTER DEATH.

FIRE MAN DUMP

‘’what the f**k,’’

Suresh appeared shocked as he scrolled through the pictures,

‘’Impressive right?’’

He looked at me, lips parted, ‘’his are… nice.’’ His hands grew shaky, ‘’he went with uh… water essence, the great beyond.’’

Before I could speak, Suresh went on, ‘’the… the water marks, the atmosphere is… is so ethereal and mystical.

The within also possesses the aura of danger and bizarre.’’ His eyes were squinted as he glanced at me, ‘’he greatly portrayed the beyond and brought it to life beautifully.’’

‘’he made me wanna go down there.’’ I said.

‘’this is amazing.’’ Suresh was completely blown away.

He began transferring the pictures, sending them through i********:. ‘’what’s your plan? The push is good, but you might wanna push it a little more.’’

‘’I need to up my game,’’ he took my left arm, ‘’thank you Peyton.’’

‘’you’re welcome,’’ I struggled to free myself from his hold, which was surprisingly firm.

‘’how did you get this?’’

‘’I have my ways.’’

We both exchanged devious smiles as the bell rang, notifying and sending us to the next and final class for the day.

*******

‘’For all we know, history is a mystery,’’ Mr Duran began his history class. I recalled his teaching because it sank deep into me, ‘’why did I say this? Well, listen. One of the few proofs we have that some of the historical events actually happened is excerpts, DNA remains, and theories, all which could be tampered with. Leaving behind the only valid reach, an eye-witness report. Were you there when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified? Or when the creation story was formulated? But sure, the bible said it happened, so maybe it did. I met a friend who survived 9/11. I had the opportunity to hear what he experienced physically, a truly horrid event. What I’m I trying to say, kids? The story that we know of might not be the original, if we don’t meet the originals or experience what they did by re-living it at the very least. You didn’t hear this from me.’’

The class raised a brief moment of murmurs and subtle laughter as Mr Duran concluded his speech.

I stood at the front of school and waited for Curly, so we could go for skating practice. I opened my w******p while at it and listened to a voice note my sister left, telling me random nonsense about her life so far, typical Frieda.

I recorded my own voice message, ‘’I told you Frie, Kehinde is a not a graduate, so now you know. Tell mom to not cook with her phone and keep telling me what Vivian tells her.’’ I sighed, ‘’yes, I have friends, some don’t use the door. I even attended a party and learning how to skate. Don’t tell mom.’’ I scoffed afterwards.

I watched my phone and saw that she’d listen to the voice recording and was speedily recording hers when Curly popped beside me.

‘’hey afro,’’

I put off my phone and slid it into my pants, ‘’took you long enough, lets__

Scott waved to me from afar and walked towards me. He had Anna walking beside him. I became concerned. Curly stood next to me, I hope the altercation yielded nothing serious, especially not after what I heard in the janitor’s closet.

‘’hey,’’ Scott approached me.

‘’hi,’’ I said, my voice not in the usual manner.

Anna raised a brow, that was her greeting.

‘’where are you off to?’’ he ignored the existence of Curly.

‘’off with me.’’ Curly stepped in.

‘’okay, they are dating,’’ Anna was smiling, ‘’hey, does Tess know?’’

‘’we are not dating.’’ I had to make things clear.

‘’okay, okay,’’ Anna sounded like she had retreated.

‘’off to where?’’ Scott asked, ‘’it doesn’t matter, can we hang out?’’ he turned to me.

‘’right now?’’ I had a thing I didn’t want either of them to be aware of.

He gestured closely at the both of us, ‘’fine, maybe tomorrow.’’ He turned to leave, ‘’have fun at your thing.’’

Curly’s expression loosened the moment Scott was out of sight.

‘’relax,’’ I persuaded,

‘’you don’t know him.’’ The brightness of the sun made him squint as he spoke.

To be frank, I didn’t really know anyone. The second I spotted Parish I became stressed; I didn’t know what annoyed me by the sight of him, maybe his sexuality, or his weird and pressing nature. Looking at Curly, I concluded that I wasn’t the only one.

‘’hey brother, can we talk?’’ Parish started, ‘’hey neighbour.’’

‘’hey Parish.’’ I let out lazily and without interest.

‘’we can talk at home, and lose the weird talk.’’

‘’should I rather talk now or…’’Parish threw at me a sharp stare.

‘’fine,’’ Curly moved to a distant direction, pulling Parish by the arm with him.

I could only see them converse from afar and not hear what they talked about. Not really minding, as I cared more about what Scott’s plans were for me, and how I wished I could have partaken of it. I opened my phone and continued my initial action.

‘’what!’’ I heard Frieda gasp, ‘’you went to a party? Tell me, did you… you know, have intimacy, like in gossip girls and the secret life of an American teenager.’’

I smiled and pressed the record button, ‘’I uh… I had myself kissed. You better not tell mummy.’’ I was walking into my own grave but it felt good to spill.

While excitedly waiting for her response, Curly joined me and we left for where he called ‘old fireman dump’. It sounded like a scary place.

******

The dump was like its name, a dump. The gate was already tampered with as the chain used to bind it had already been broken. As we entered the dump, I was greeted by a thick smell of rusted iron and some type of acid. There were mighty heaps of garbage stationed in several sections inside the dump. I caught a rat slipping past one dump heap and into another. I was a tad freaked out.

Curly led me through a passage between a low fence and welcomed me into a new arena. It wore a different face and administered a foreign feel. A large and empty pool material, sat at the middle of the space, with grass surrounding it. Inside the pool material, a perfectly curved metal feature was pitched inside. It also had several iron bar partitions placed inside for free-styles. There were wooden benches planted by the side, outside the pool material and skate boards lying around them. In the radical sense of a young adult, especially an American, I would say the place looked ‘cool’.

‘’welcome my friend, how is it?’’ Curly jumped inside the pool material and was fixated on me, watching my stance and trying to determine my thoughts about the place.

‘’it’s cool.’’

‘’it’s more than cool.’’

‘’it’s a dump,’’ I reminded him.

‘’exactly,’’

I scrutinized the place some more, ‘’so, what do we do now?’’

‘’we get the boards and begin training, comm’n.’’ He made a gesture, causing me to obey him.

I soon got into the pit of skating, now armed with a yellow and green skateboard. It appeared rusted and old, but from the patches, I could see what used to be patches of sponge bob square pants. Not long after we got to practicing, we heard female voices heading towards us. I and Curly froze and stared at the entrance, waiting to see who was on the other side.

The first voice rang, ‘’just relax, will you?’’

‘’nope, you better tell me now.’’

‘’you’ll know when you get there on Friday.’’

Soon enough, they were visible and very familiar. They were Melanie and Jojo.

‘’f**k,’’ I heard Curly release.