The Red Moon

Ch-6: A different problem

John wore the scarf and his smile told me that he felt very comfortable in it. He placed is hand on it and then looking at me, said,  " It feels warm ".
I felt extremely happy and I started to clap and jump around.  Then I looked at uncle, who was sitting on the other side of the table.
He was starring at the scarf in utter disbelief,  when he found me starring at him, he quickly wrapped the scarf around his neck. Then  his eyes widened in surprise. He looked at me and said, " It indeed feels warm ."
My joy knew no boundaries.  I clapled my hands and jumped around for a while, and then after sometime,  I went back into my room . I was even more excited to give this scarf to Xia whom I was supposed to meet at our school's Christmas function on the Christmas eve.
As time passed by,  things begun to change . The changes gave me pleasure,  except for one thing . A new problem crept up for me. Although it was not a problem,  but only Frederick's way of claiming what he thought belonged to him, yet to me, as an 8 year old girl it looked like a serious problem.  If I think of it now, I only feel stupid and I feel like laughing at myself.
As I have told earlier, me, John,  Fredrick and Richard returned home from school together.  For some distance , Xia also came along with us. No not 'us',  actually 'me'. Though it was a very short span of time for which we walked together,  yet this walk was very significant.  It announced the beginning of something very exciting in my mundane life.  It also released me from the worries about Fredrick . Had this time not been there , Fredrick would have probably still remained as a burden fir me, not just me, but to all the residents of ' Red Moon'.  Fortunately  for him, things did not end up like that.
Now Xia had a firm believe in unnatural things. Now natural or unnatural, I can't say, but let me give you a few examples.  Well, she believed in things like fairies, werewolves,  vampires, people living on the moon for centuries, true love,  eternal love,  mermaids, sea monsters, mermaids, jungle beasts, ghosts, souls who want to take revenge and all sorts of things like this.
For the first year, when Xia used to dive into her world of fantasy,  John used to listen to all the stories of her with keen interest just like me. Richard heard all these silently but he did not show any  expression on his face regarding any of his feelings that aroused in him relating to the stories.  Neither did he say anything.
Now , the next year,  it almost seemed  as if Fredrick , Richard and John had entered into an unwritten competition to serve me.  Everyone of them demanded an upper hand over me.  Everyone of them wanted to have a claim over me. Everyone suddenly wanted to become my elder brother.  I felt exceedingly strange.
If it would been have a year ago, Fredrick would have paid a deaf ear to Xia's story of the prince from Earth, who fell in love with the moon Princess, and their heart touching painful love story, how it begin and how it ended. However,  now when Fredrick heard about the princess on moon, he immediately said, " There is no oxygen and people who go to moon from earth carry oxygen cylinders with them. This is basic science, do you not know this? "
He looked at me with a confused look and he really thought that I believed every word of her story.  I never really did that. I knew what was what,  yet her stories used to fill my heart with wonder. Moreover,  I was her best friend. How can I tell her that her stories lacked scientific approach?  It really sounded so mean.
Now anyone who opposed  Xia's beliefs become an enemy to her.  So she considered Fredrick an enemy against whom she had to defend herself.
Hence, she stopped and looked behind at Fredrick. Frederick stopped to look back at her.  John and Richard gained there positions behind me.
Xia started in a cold voice, " Why does it  bother you?  Why are you even listening? "
" Anybody who crosses you will be able to hear all this rubbish.  This is human nature to hear the wrong before the right,  because the tendency is to correct others before correcting oneself."  As he said this,  Frederick crossed Xia with his left hand in his pocket and  his right holding the strap of his bag that went  past over his right shoulder. Then stopped and turned back to look at Xia.
Xia hung down her head, her face covered by her shiny black hair that tangled in front. In her deepest voice she replied back,  " Do you like adding a scientific touch to every store you hear?  You cannot take a story as a story, right? "
Fredrick tilted his head to the right side and said , " Meaningless stories are useless."
Then he turned back and marched away . John and Richard followed him in silence.
I went up to Xia and put my hand on her shoulder.  She was sobbing. She raised her head to look up at me.  Tears dropped down from both of her eyes, over the sienna coloured chubby cheeks of her.
" Why are people in this world so cruel? Why do we need to destroy our delicate feelings?  They say everyone is free to live with their own opinions. My feelings and my thoughts,  they are mine. His thoughts and his feelings, they're his. Then why does he want to imposed them on me? " she said,sobbing.
She kept sorbing and rubbing tears from her eyes. I reached for her eyes with both my hands.