A Curiosity Lost In Space

Ali, a 13-year-old boy, lived in a small village. He has a mundane routine he has to attend to: wake up, wash up, eat breakfast, go to school, return from school, do homework, read then sleep. He did not necessarily follow that order, but he did get the things done at the end.

But, on the 17th of May, an external force was to change the course of his life: he would ascertain truths he was intentionally blind to.

✧✧✧  

Ali was on his way to school. The soft rain droplets teased his pitch black hair and left it sparkling. As he always attempted to do the impossible, his light brown eyes dared to challenge the sun in a stare-down. Of course, his eyes were almost burned, and when he looked ahead of him to not stumble on any twigs on the muddy road, all he saw was white. He blinked several times, and his blank eyesight returned to its normal state. He looked to his left to wave at Mr. Ahmed, the man taking care of their farm, as he did every day. Ali's old watch with stained glass did not shine in the sun as he liked to imagine. While he looked at it, studying its structure, he realized he would be late for school.

He rushed to the building he hated the most, sullying his already muddy black shoes in the process. When his Father had bought him such shoes, all Ali wanted to do was not wear them so that they would keep their natural glimmer. But, since it was the only shoe wear he had and still did, he had to wear it and face the ugly truth that nothing stays as it is.

In two minutes' time, he was in front of his school building, panting. Breathlessly, he entered the closing gates. He glared at the guards and thought, 'It's not like there is so much order to the point that you guard an already pointless system!'

Ascending the stairs, on the second and last floor, he turned to the first class to his right. He hated coming late since everyone would just stare at him more than they already did. Head lowered, he made his way to the desk at the end of the class. The sight of it made him want to cry, but he dared not to—he dared to ignore his feelings and find sound logic.

Red marks of 'Why do you still come back,' 'We ALL hate you, boy,' 'Lazy head,' and 'Weird space boy' were cruelly splattered, covering the desk's surface. He got out the towel he had with him and wetted it with water from his bottle. He was wiping it, and salty tears began to mix with the water. He always hoped he would never use his towel for this—that it would be his to use after performing his ablution before prayer—but his idle wishes never came true.

Thankfully, no one got to watch him in his misery because the teacher entered and quieted the students down.

✧✧✧

It was finally lunch break, the time when he would seclude himself from the rest of the school. He had his own special place to sit at—an empty space under a majestic oak tree that faced the school's old fencing. A book in hand and a self-made sandwich in the other, Ali had forgotten everything in his possession, and his mind went back and forth between unalike dimensions.

He imagined a fairy coming to him. He never had a liking for them, but if one were to tell him he would leave this horrid place, shrink and be in its size, he would not reject the offer. To him, dragons flew in the sky, just as free as the birds nesting above him. A giant made its way to the school crushing everything and everyone. And it was an elf, who spoke in a different language that only Ali could inherently grasp, that took him on a flying ship, its sea the angry atmospheric waves that were sick of people's bad deeds.

And it was the school bell that took him out of his fantasies. It was the school bell that haunted him every night in his dreams.

He seriously thought of what would affect the wind currents' strength. In his young, physics-liking mind, he thought of many possibilities that many adult minds would never even deem existent.