The Book of Winshire

Chapter Sixteen

Henry was pressing on something in his hands tightly, but then he started folding it through the lines that it got when he crumpled it earlier. He was trying to be as creative as Zack. The latter bloke had made a golden flower out of his cig case inner wrapper. So Henry tried uncoiling Hughy’s wrapper like how his mate was doing, and folded a few small corners to form the petals.

Edith looked at the flattened case in Zack’s hand. She felt a little strange. Of all she had ever known, Zack could not last a day without at least half the box filled with fags. She knew Zack was a hard-core smoker, and that he regularly needed one half or two boxes full of cigarettes a day. She, too, knew that he was one strong smoker as well. Therefore, the sight disturbed her in every ways.

‘Why is the box empty?’

‘Oh,’ said Hughy. ‘Zack’s been trying to stop smoking since a few months ago. That’s why it’s empty. He hadn’t bought any, to restrain himself.’

Zack shrugged, it wasn’t like he did mind to explain, anyway. He glanced at his mate, surreptitiously thanking him for being the unofficial spoke person. ‘Yeah,’ he idly admitted.

But Hughy didn’t understand the gesture, so he scoffed. ‘I’d bet he couldn’t last soon.’

‘All right, I take back my mental gratitude for you just now.’

‘You need to say it out loud every time I’ve done something for you, or I’ll do this, every time you fail.’

 Zack rolled his eyes. But that occurred to him looking at her. ‘Do you smoke?’

‘I don’t have time to martyr my life. I’ve already had this excruciating chest pain to tolerate with.’

‘So you used to smoke.’

‘How limited is your intellectual proficiency? I also undoubtedly liked to sleep with my body facing down.’

‘Was that a yes to his question?’ asked Hughy.

She blinked at them in irritation, her lips pursuing. ‘The only box I own is the one that is full of unopened letters from Jeremy.’

Zack harshly exhaled when she made a face at Hughy. ‘You chose your books over his letters?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Those are to be opened at certain times. Definite moments were written on the casings.’

‘I just.’ Hughy exchanged glances with his mate.

‘I should throttle you.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Example One: There’s an envelope of Open When I’m Happy. Example Two: Open When You Relinquish. Example Three: Open When People Leave.’

Henry watched them with furrowed brows. He had been busy with his attempt to perform a flower from a black chocolate bar wrapper to understand the situation right now.

‘I don’t know how you do it,’ he sighed. He placed a model of paper plane on Edith’s lap. ‘So I decided to make a ship!’

Zack fell on to the mattress, laughing hard. He little rocked himself when he sat again, proud because Henry could not fetch his skill.

‘That doesn’t even look like a ship,’ criticised Hughy. His pal puckered his lips. ‘It looks more like shit.’

‘Yeah, shit. The shit that you decorate your room with,’ said Zack. ‘Huh, Hugh?’

‘Well on that one, either of you, Zack and Hugh, can compromise better, huh?’ Henry crossed his arm and leant his back against the wall. Those negative comments actually snatched Hughy’s attentions like they were polar opposites of magnet.