A Quarter Life

Noah

The nurse came, 'Excuse me, are you Mr. Ronald?'

He was suddenly distracted from the book, 'Yeah, it’s me.'

The nurse said hurriedly, 'Your test report came, please collect it from the counter.'

He went to the counter and collected the report. He didn’t eventually understand the report. He just stared at the report for a while.

He went to the doctor's room, 'Excuse me, may I come in?'

The doctor looked at the door, 'Ah Mr. Ronald, come in.'

He went in, and gave him the report.

The doctor examined the report for a while, 'Well, I must say you're a lucky man. You are still safe from the virus. So, it’s night time now. Can I tell my assistants to find you a room to sleep? Or you are going home?'

He laughed, 'Well, I have a car below. I think I'll sleep there.'

The doctor smiled, 'Well, as you please, Mr. Ronald.'

He went downstairs. The hospital seemed to be meaningless to him. The rush, the blood, the pain, the medicine, it was all a blunt.

He came down to his car. It was alone, separated in the garage. He went in, parked it in a better spot.

He locked the car, went to the back seat. It wasn’t so much space. But it was okay for a guy to stay as a hotel.

He took the manuscript. Why was he still reading the manuscript? His life was falling apart and he was reading another person's whole goddamn life.

“When I woke up in the morning, I wasn’t in hell, wasn’t in heaven either. I was in my bed, in my room.

I saw myself, covered in blanket, sleeping peacefully in my bed. So, was last night a dream?

I saw Reeve, in his bed, singing and reading a book.

I got up, Reeve saw me getting up, 'Aye mate, a very good morning to you!'

I frowned, 'What happened last night?'

Reeve was silent, 'What last night?'

I was sure, 'I can remember everything before getting unconscious, now you tell me, or I will report it to Sergeant.'

Reeve was convince, ''Aye bro, hold up. Alright, I am saying, why drag Serge in it?'

I knew he would open up, specially hearing about the Sergeant.

He started, 'So, I was taken by them, maybe for that painting, you know, I do a lot of insanity time to time...'

I knew it, 'Not this, I asked what and how the unconsciousness happened.'

He laughed, 'Oh, you mean the heavenly puff? Well, it has a new branch of story, mate.'

He got up from bed to tell me the story, 'You know, I have some sleeping problems, from a long time ago. But I am somewhat allergic to medication. My cousin works in a cigarette factory. So I used him. I supplied him some plastic coated chloroform. You know, it is inactive whine in plastic. But the plastic coating is quite thin and weak. So all it takes is a little pressing to unleash the doom of sleep. My cousin would insert the plastic coating in cigarette filters, specially made for me. I smoked these special ones a piece per day, while at bed. By one puff, I would be in dead sleep. So, the cigarette they lit up from me last night, it was the special one.'

I was surprised, and overwhelmed. How on earth, can a guy be, so much weird?

He slept again in the bed, 'Sleep some more, mate, now and this place is not the perfect one to test you soberness.'

I agreed with him. I fell asleep.

I woke up before the training session. Reeve was satisfied, convinced. He was wrong, wrong about one thing. The 'outstanding' was never different. They were the same, they were just struggling to cope up with us.

We went down to the grounds. The elite ones were already in the grounds.

He went to them, I followed him.

He said to them, 'I am sorry for yesterday night. But you were insisting on having the compensation.'

They laughed, 'Well, you are a man of different soul. But yeah, we had a sound sleep, thanks to that puff.'

He laughed also, 'Okay, I am also sorry for the painting. It was my stubbornness.'

They sighed, 'It’s no big deal. At least you are not stubborn now.'

The new training sessions were on battlefield combat and big machine maintenance.

We were divided into groups for this training. Me and Reeve, both reported for hand-to-hand combat.

Hand-to-hand combat was a combination of several things. Jumping across the wall, running like a predator, crawling underneath the obstacles and what not.

I was on my body strength, I always depended on that. But Reeve, he couldn’t be on that, his strengths were limited. So he reported back, and went to the maintenance group.

I knew he would be a good maintenance man-hunter. Who knew, maybe.

We had a tea-boy there. His name was Noah, although he didn’t have any boat.

Noah's job was to supply us and the Sergeant morning and evening green tea. The tea was very good. I would rather say, in my later life I had many green teas. They all tasted pathetic, dead to me. But Noah's tea, it was special. It had a magical aroma, to refresh the body, to bring back the motivation, to rage up the fire.

That training days of hand-to-hand combat, Noah would stay in the camp. We built him a kitchen, a miniature kitchen to be exact. He would provide us fresh tea two times a day.

Sometimes he would want to join in the training. Sergeant was fond of his teas, like us. So he didn’t refuse.

He always trained beside me. I would show him the steps. He hadn’t got immense strength. But he was okay. Moreover, he was curious, he was happy.

At night, me, Reeve and Noah would stay up late and gossip about the war. Reeve had plenty of books regarding machineries and arms variety. Noah would sometimes read them, and would try to memorize them sometimes. We would laugh at him, at times. It was really funny to see him memorize them.

One training day, Sergeant was feeling tired. So, we decided to train on our own. We decided to repeat the training of yesterday. The task was boring, but worth the sweat.

I called Noah. He came with me to the ground. He was still half asleep. I told him to go and wash his face.

He went away. I started my training.

Before the training, I wanted to meet Reeve. I had some sleeping problems then. I was wondering if he had any of those puffy cigarettes.

I went to the maintenance side. There were rifles, big machine guns, tanks and what not.

I saw a elite guy, the big puff guy there. I asked, 'Hey man, did you see Reeve?'

He said, 'Ah, Reeve? Well, Serge has put him on the tank testing. So he must be there.'

I was delighted. Tanks, they were my most favorite thing to ride those things. I remembered Sergeant say, 'The tanks are not for operation now, they will be active only during testing, and operated by only one, who will be good in testing.'

And then? Reeve was in charge for the tanks, I had heard the most delightful news of my camp life.

I looked and the tanks. A tank was moving in a small area. I was happy, I planned to say Reeve to give me a ride during one session.

I went to the washroom to wash hands and face. Someone was humming in the toilet, I couldn't recognize the tune.

I asked, 'Hey mate, isn’t this the happiest hour now, with this fun?'

The answer came, 'Aye mate, the happy flappy times are after the training, in the war zone, there would be fun, my fella.'

I knew the voice, it was Reeve.

I knocked the door, 'Reeve, is that you? Please come out.'

He slowly opened the door, 'Aye Charles, whassup?'

I was shocked. Who was operating the tanks then.

Suddenly we heard loud noises outside.

We went out. The ground was disastrous.

The tank fired at some spots, indiscriminately. Luckily, no one was killed.

We went to the tank, it was on the corner of the ground, it was fallen, tilted to the right.

Reeve reached the opening, and opened it after several attempts.

It was Noah, he was in that the whole time, out of curiosity.

His curiosity cost his own leg injury, some injury in the trainee, and the tank malfunction.

Sergeant wanted to put him in the prison. Reeve didn’t let him, he said, 'Curiosity is what you don’t learn. It’s in you by born.'

I learned from that day, never let curiosity overpower conscience.”