No Dichotomy Between Half-Full & Half-Empty

CHAPTER 27: Arrow

A twelve-year-old Arrow sat on the pavement among six other girls, all congregated together in a tight circle. Lead clouds of smoke from cars salted the air and serious-looking adults hurried their way to work. The group of girls before young Arrow all wore big eyes of curiosity and thrill without a worry about their schoolwork as they listened to Arrow speak.

"The ball of fire curved through the tall trees of the forest and hissed with laughter as she searched for her next victim," he told and waved his hand through the air to provide visual imagery. "Every one of the villagers who lived near the forest knew it was to lock their doors and stay silent at night. But this being was clever, for she was the Soucouyant!"

Though the girls had never heard such a name before, the slithering nature of Arrow's storytelling voice brought shivers to their skin. The girls closest to Arrow clung to him and the furthest girls clung to them, which made the circle tighter.

"Sacha, Sacha," one girl called with a trembling voice. "This Souco- Sa- Sicor-"

Arrow smiled. "Soucouyant?"

"Yes. Have you ever seen her in real life before?"

He set a finger to his chin, exaggerating his thought process. Though the premise had already drawn the girls so they didn't notice his theatrics. "Yes, I have. Want me to tell you how I defeated her?"

"Yes, please!" The crowd cheered.

As if to give room for his performance, the girls loosened their hold on Arrow and he stood up to straighten his dress. After an extra loud clearing of his throat, he extended his arms proudly and began. "You girls know that no matter how strong I am, Imma prioritise safety."

The crowd nodded in agreement.

"So of course, I did what was to be done—I locked my doors and closed my curtains and went to sleep. But then, I heard laughter." He stopped to look behind him suspiciously, and the girls' eyes followed his direction. "I jumped out of my sleep paranoid, even though I'd taken the steps to protect myself. But remember, the Soucouyant is clever. She had squished herself tiny and actually made herself fit through my keyhole."

"Oh, no!" One girl exclaimed. "Sacha, what did you do?"

"What did you do?" The other girls joined in.

"The Soucouyant was scary, of course, but I was faster. I grabbed my bow and arrow just like this—" He picked up his neon-coloured archery set from the floor and readied it for a shot. "And got a bullseye just like pow!" He fired and it landed next to a girl.

She leapt up in fright. After realising that he did not hurt her, she beamed at Arrow. "You're amazing Sacha." This started a rain of compliments over the already quite arrogant tween.

"I wish I was just like you."

"Sacha, you're so brave."

"If you were a boy, I'd tell my daddy that I'd marry you."

Unfortunately, a third and unwanted voice broke through the showers of high-pitched glee. Arrow had a love-hate relationship with the owner of the voice. He wore ragged three-quarters with a shirt painted with dirt. Not to mention that his nappy hair sat uncombed upon his head, with shame lacking at every strand. Although the look was hurtful to most girls' eyes, Arrow liked it. But he was sure that he did not like Amari as a person, just his appearance.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong. All wrong," Amari said. He broke through the circle of girls with a brick in his hand. He had most likely come from playing the Break-A-Brick game with the other boys in town. Arrow didn't understand why such a game was popular among the opposite sex. The only rule was that you had to throw your brick really hard, and if it broke, you won. A lacklustre way to test strength.