Rex the Period and Silence

#10 A Bench to Sit

In the center of the city, lived a girl named Rex. She perceived the world as the endless labyrinth, the things that she would never understand and grasp. Studied abroad might be her one and only fault but she was too gutless to come back and too abashed to give up. Under the title of senior high, she strove her eyes to scan every Chinese word on the whiteboard and forced her brain to memories the war that she'd never joined. Every night, she wished for a genius brain so she didn't need to shed the tears because she failed to understand how the formulas worked and where the hell the "x" was hiding. The law and the division of property from civil education book had never been failed to give her sleep deprivation.

She studied hard but the red color had never left her finals report. It was her fourth year in Taiwan. After she studied one year of language center, she attended Taiwan's public senior high. Was it because she misconceived the language? If everything was written in Bahasa, would she get the perfect score? Under the night sky and above the rooftop's pavement she was staring at the night sky. She was looking at her shoes where her athlete's foot once was hidden.

The first year had always been the toughest. She had to put her feet in the shoes for 14 hours per day in one year. The language center school was started at eight o'clock but she had to wake up at 5.45 A.M. to get ready and the whistle would be blown 45 minutes later as the sign for the students who lived in the dorm to clean the dorm together. At 6.50 A.M they were forced to leave the dorm by closing the gate, if someone were caught staying inside after 7 o'clock, the student would be punished. That was how she sat on the wooden chair from 7 A.M to 8 P.M. And that's how she got the athlete's foot. It took her one year and a half, 20 bottles of baby powder, and 15 bottles of alcohol to bring her feet's reputation back. She had devoted herself and was devoting herself to learn the Chinese well, but in spite of the fact that her mind almost went crazy, she still wondered whether she would get into the university that year, or not. She gazed at the stars, she enjoyed it--or maybe not.

'Bbrr brrr' she took her phone and the message and a missed call from her friend, Yu-Lin was revealed. Yu-Lin asked her where she was. Deep down in her heart, she knew that her friend would scold her for not picking up her call. She climbed down the stairs, she should be happy or at least glad to meet her one and only friend who came from the same country, but the weary heart shown in every step she took. Her friend would ask where was she and what was she doing that she missed her phone call and she would fell into the endless silence as she couldn't reveal her hiding even to her best friend.

In that place, where there was no rooftop, though she didn't feel free, yet she regained the energy to back to the reality from it. Like a fragile canoe, she couldn't let the presence of other people drowned her shelter.

"What the hell were you doing?!" shouted Yu-Lin as soon as Rex appears. "Didn't you know how long did I wait for you?" Yu-Lin was a perfect girl. She was smart and clever. She didn't have to learn as hard as Rex yet she could get to any university in Taiwan. Yu-Lin was the only thing Rex had but Rex was just one of many friends Yu-Lin had. "Sorry for not telling you, I should have told you to go back first," Rex apologized. "Where is the carton?" Yu-Lin's question shook her really hard for she forgot about the task her friend asked for.

For a second, Rex world's collapsed. She knew that she was the one to blame. Yu-Lin asked Rex to buy her a carton, that morning and was going to finish her craft assignment that night, but the gate was closed and Rex didn't bring the carton out. "Did you forget?!" Yu-Lin sneered while shook her head and turned around, she headed to the dorm. What a useless person she was, she thought. She didn't know what to do, should she call the guardsman to open the gate? But she knew that the door wouldn't be opened for her. She walked guiltily behind her perfect friend. It was not the first time, she made her friend angry and frustrated. Her friend was too good for her and she was too much to handle for her friend, she reflected.