General POV
The auditorium awaited while plunged in the same darkness. Everyone radiated waves of nervous excitement while Jamie's were something on another level.
His nerves began mounting again. His earlier relaxation evaporated, left with the crumbling reality that he's next.
His clammy hands were clenched together shakingly. The list is surname-wise. If Dennis has gone now, it's his turn next.
The chatter of the crowd felt distant. So did everything else. All that floated in front of his eyes were his grandpa and his words: I find talent hidden underneath those layers of confusion and self-doubt. Don't rest until you unearth it.
What talent did he have?! Aside from panicking and self-doubt?!
Hell, he didn't even want to be entangled in this entire thing in the first place.
Wait, an obscure part of his mind spoke. Entangled. All of this is interconnected. They aren't happening in isolation.
His role in the Montgomery's tradition and this house sorting. They're leading to something.
His hands paused. He isolated his current worry in his mind. But what does it lead to?
Could this sorting perhaps lead him to his future? His talent?
That's it. It all clicked in. Maybe, this sorting perhaps wasn't something to run away from (well, neither is the family tradition).
But hey, if you're getting a lead to go somewhere you would take it, wouldn't you? Something's better than nothing.
Jamie wouldn't exactly call it optimism that gushed through his veins. It's like resignation to his fate, but through that resignation he'll find this passion again.
That fire in him. It's like swimming down in the depths, before rising, rising and breaking the surface. A long swim down.
At that very moment, the lights came back on. As the amber lights fixed upon Dennis, the light in his amber eyes were fixed upon no one other than Jamie.
He slightly gasped but Dennis' stubborn look before nodding assuredly, seemed to tell him that it's gonna be fine. His eyes, they held a sort of firm belief. In him.
The cheering broke their momentary eye contact and Jamie felt a soft hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it." Maya's eyes swam with concern. "Just go with the flow."
"Congratulations Dennis. And now we have Blackwater, Jaime."
With eyes on the stairs, he climbed down with wobbly legs. He ignored the fact that hundreds of eyes could see him as he got onstage, following Ms. Pompfrey.
She pulled aside the curtain and beckoned him. When she dropped it, he let out his first sigh of relief. And gasped.
There was actually a makeshift tunnel entrance there which snaked its way behind the curtains and finally led on stage. If he stood on his heels, he could touch the tunnel's roof.
He felt the hard, hollow space. Plastic. But perfectly pieced together as if it's a puzzle.
"That's where you go in, dear." Ms. Pompfrey smiled. "Yeah." Jamie nodded.
He held the side of the tunnel, and with one nervous glance at Ms. Pompfrey, got inside.
*
A warm glow illuminated the tunnel as Jamie walked along. It was a relief that the makeshift tunnel didn't give that stuffy feeling like its real counterpart. But he couldn't help taking deep breaths.
YOU ARE READING
The Sun and the Moon
General Fiction'I knew the moment you came into my life; I would never let go of your hand.' For Neil it was almost intuitive that he and Dennis would become each other's secret-keeper, partner-in-crime and pillar of support. Yet, all of this will be put on test a...
