Jonatan sat in his seat at the back of the classroom, staring out of the window. His classmates laughed and talked with each other while the teacher lectured on something that seemed endlessly boring.
Jonatan looked at the birds outside the window and admired them, even though they were just brown and ordinary, not the kind of bird one normally stops to look at.
It wasn't their appearance he admired, but more their movements. How they hopped so lightly and undisturbed.
They just hopped around the branch, and suddenly, one flew away.
The bird's sudden panic made Jonatan look around for what caused his only entertainment to fly away.
He looked around for a janitor or another bird, but his eyes fell on the bushes. Something was moving in them.
He looked closer at the bush and saw something thin and scaly under the bush. A snake. He had never seen a snake at his school before. Jonatan could feel his curiosity growing.
There was something that felt wrong. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it seemed like the snake was growing upward and getting thicker.
"Excuse me, Mr Adamson, are you with us? Or are the bushes more entertaining?" Suddenly, all eyes were on him, and Jonatan could hear some giggles.
He had gone from invisible to the center of attention, and he didn't know what was worse.
"Sorry, Miss Johnson, I just got a bit distracted," said Jonatan, looking down at his hands.
"It's fine. Just make sure you're paying more attention," she said and went back to teaching. Jonatan stared fixedly at the board, but his mind was elsewhere.
What was in the bush? Should he tell someone? He agreed with himself to tell his mother.
When the bell rang, everyone started packing up. But Jonatan took longer, staring out of the window. But what had been in the bush was now gone.
He hurried out of school and home.
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His mother was unpacking the groceries onto the kitchen table.
"Hi, dear," she called to him.
"Hi, Mum," he replied. Jonatan ran into the kitchen.
"Dear! We're going to visit your grandfather today, so you need to hurry and get ready," she said, busy with the groceries.
"Yes, Mum," he said, stod stil for a bit and then added, "I think I saw a snake at school today." His mother stopped and smiled at him.
"Snake, you say? Are you sure?" Her voice sounded suspicious.
"Yes! I saw one in the bushes outside the window," said Jonatan. His mother chuckled at him and returned to the groceries.
"It was probably just something you imagined, dear." Jonatan tried to say something to his mother, but she interrupted.
"But now you need to hurry and get ready. We're leaving as soon as I'm done putting these things away. Ok?"
Jonatan sighed and said, "Yes, Mum," and went to his room to get ready.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but he had been so sure of what he saw.
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Jonatan's grandfather lived in a psychiatric hospital, so they had to take the train to get there.
They took the train from Luton station to London main station. The train stopped at platform 3, and they had to hurry over to platform 7 to catch the train to Crawley.
Jonatan's mother tried to push through the large crowd of people getting on and off the trains, Jonatan followed as best he could.
Jonatan tried to stay right behind his mother, but suddenly the crowd began to push and shove. He got a hard shoulder shove and fell.
Jonatan quickly got up and looked for his mother but couldn't see her anymore. Panic slowly began to creep up on him. He found it hard to breathe.
He tried to find a way out, and got himself up and walked toward the track to get away from the crowd in the middle. He got to the tracks and looked for his mother.
Then he heard his mother shout after him and looked in that direction. He saw his mother waving to him from further down the track past a bunch of people.
The loudspeakers announced that the train on platform 4 would arrive in half a minute.
He hurried toward his mother when suddenly he felt a pair of strong hands pushing him onto the tracks.
He hit the tracks with a thud and looked toward the person who pushed him, only catching a glimpse of their green eyes.
"Green eyes?" he thought, but then he heard his mother scream and saw the train coming toward him.
He closed his eyes, he heard the train horn, and then everything went silent.
YOU ARE READING
Portumia
FantasiaThe front-page is made by a tiktoker named @vlkee_ Jonathan Adamson is a quiet normal boy living with his mom in Luton. However, when they are on their way to Jonathan's grandpa in the psychiatric hospital, Jonathan gets into an accident that may no...
