Mr. Tan

Chapter 40: This Unpredictable Thing Called Life

It's been a week since I performed at Nigel Compton High's Talent Show. I've made peace with the fact that I came in 2nd place. To be honest with you, its something that I never really made a big deal about. As you can tell, I'm not very competitive. In life you win some and you lose some and that's just how it is. That following Monday after I performed I got a lot of praise walking down the hallway from staff and students alike, all except Jordan. He felt it was necessary to brag about him winning 1st place at the talent show, saying things such as "I can't wait til I'm famous so I get out of this town", "watch out Hollywood, here I come" or the most annoying "I will be a household name". At 2nd period, our history teacher Mr. Wayne confiscated his notebook when he caught Jordan so-called practicing his autograph for when he became a "household name". He had it coming and it was funny to see Mr. Wayne knock him down off of his high horse. Mr. Wayne is a short and fat middle aged light skinned black man who was usually mild mannered. When he found out that Jordan was doodling in a notebook rather than paying attention to his lecture, he snatched the notebook off of his desk and refused to give it back to him until class was over. For the remainder of the class period Jordan just sat there pouting with his arms folded across his chest, glaring at Mr. Wayne. Mr. Wayne ignored his obnoxious ass as he continued with his lecture on world war 2. Anyway, there I go digressing, again. Today was Saturday, sunny and mild and Earl didn't go to work today, in fact he had been on the phone off and on since I woke up this morning. He was stressed about something, I just didn't know what cause he wouldn't tell me. Since it was such a nice day, I took Duke out for a walk and then decided to play fetch with him outside in our backyard. It was around 1:00 in the afternoon when Earl came out to the back porch. He was in a cut off blue plaid button down he often wore around the house and a pair of light blue jeans that had permanent grass and dirt stains on them and ripped at the knees. He held a lit cigarette between two of his fingers while carrying a half pint of some sort of brown liquor in a clear bottle. 

"Ay yo baby", he called out to me. Ya got's a guest. 

I was kinda surprised cause I wasn't expecting any guest today. After taking numerous of test, I was just ready to chill out today and have plenty of down time. I stayed up late doing my homework last night cause today I didn't want to be bothered doing it. In reality I wasn't even dressed all that proper in my opinion. I had on a pair of black track pants with a matching hoodie and a white spaghetti strapped top on underneath. I also had a green camouflage trucker cap crammed over my short hair. I didn't feel like putting on regular shoes so I had on pair of pink house shoes worn over rainbow socks. 

"Who is it?", I asked, looking up at him, the rim of my cap shielding my eyes from the sun. 

Earl wore a smile on his sun kissed face. 

"You'll see", he replied, ducking his head back inside behind the screen door.  

I walked up the back steps with Duke behind me, his toenails clicking onto the wood steps. I made it towards the front of the trailer to find Earl in the kitchen making whoever my guest was something to drink. I could tell by the crows feet in the corners of his eyes that he was grinning.