Writing Destiny

Chapter 3

Aleator rubbed his eyes. Maybe he hadn't sobered up after all. The alcohol from last night had really messed up his head.

What kind of exam gave you a single sheet of paper that was blank? Blank! 

There were no instructions - nothing to tell him what to do. He looked around at the other students, and furrowed his brow. They all seemed to be getting along fine, their hands were flying across the page as they scribbled down who-knows-what.

After a few minutes, he gave a sigh of frustration and raised his hand. The tight-lipped invigilator arched her pencil thin eyebrow as she saw him from her desk. Aleator tried his best to plead with his eyes, he knew if he widened them enough, and slightly pouted by pushing out his lower lip, he could get his way.

Eventually, the invigilator pushed herself off from her desk and marched over to Aleator. 

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

Aleator pointed to his examination paper, "I think there's been a mistake."

The invigilator peered at the paper but shook her head. "There is no mistake, you have the right paper."

"But what am I supposed to do with it?"

"I can only answer questions about the rubric of the examination and nothing else," with that answer, the invigilator turned sharply on her heel and strutted off.

There is no rubric! Aleator glared, imagining that he could burn holes into the back of her head as she walked away. 

Man, angels aren't supposed to think like that. Stop that. Now. he mentally chastised himself.  He returned his eyes to the blank piece of paper, took a deep breath to calm himself down and then rubbed his temples.

Concentrate. Aleator tried to remember what this last examination was all about. What did his dad tell him this morning?

He remembered his dad saying something about this being the most important exam in the morning. What was his dad talking about in the car? A few words popped into mind, but none of them formed a coherent sentence: destiny, paper, careful.

Aleator felt like bashing his head against the desk a few times. Maybe then he would understand what to do. He just didn't think the invigilator would really appreciate the noise that his head would make. I am so screwed. 

Finally he gave up, and he slumped across the desk, closing his eyes in the process for a nap. There was no point trying if he didn't know what to do right? So he might as well pass the time doing something productive.

Maybe some sleep would help him think more clearly.

When Aleator finally opened his eyes again, he looked at the clock at the front of the examination hall with dismay realising that there was still half an hour remaining of the examination. The people around him were still writing furiously, and his piece of paper was still blank.

I should put something down. Aleator decided to pick up his pen, he placed his hand holding the pen onto the piece of paper and then closed his eyes again. If there were no instructions to this, he was just going to do what he wanted and he allowed his hand to drift across the page and draw whatever it wanted.

"Put your pens down now," announced the invigilator at the end of the examination. "Please remain silent whilst your papers are collected."

Aleator opened his eyes to view his masterpiece: a black mess of squiggles. He sighed internally, there was no way the academy would let him graduate this year.

After all the papers were collected, the invigilator had one more thing to say, "The result of this examination will be revealed in nine months' time."

Nine months?

Then the cogs in his brain began to turn, and Aleator realised what he had just done. He finally remembered why this was his most important examination and why his dad had talked about destiny in the car. 

Aleator had just written someone's destiny.