The melting man

Uninvited Guest

Her heart was pounding. She was sure she had seen the doorknob turn. It hit her, she was in the flood boats. There. Was. No. Doorknobs. There was only door handles. She was confused was this another dream. She was now completely unsure of herself. She had always been uncertain of herself.

"Archie, is that you?" She called out to no one in particular. She was scare. Her reality had lift her the day she went on that school excursion. It was a terrible idea to go in the first place. Why did you go? Ayesha, her best friend asked.

They always do this. Decide on something and regretting it later. That is what life is, is it not? Life is full of regrets. You know what they say, spuit ko altyd te laat. True to the words of the people who walked this place before us. We always think we are smarter then them. Practical is always better then theory. They have what we were too young to even think we need it. They had experience. Our youth put a veil in front of our eyes so that we cannot see. It puts headphones on your ears and we do not hear their words. In the end it is just the stupidity of youth. No one can blame us for that.

The doorknob turned. It turned back into a door handle. It happened in front of my eyes. The doorknob turned three revolutions. Euclidean still fresh in my mind even though I do not remember when last I had opened my books. I prayed that I passed this year. After the third revolution it turned into a handle. I tried to move from where I had been standing but I could not get my legs to move at will.

The uncomfortable feeling of black smoke filling your. Then I saw it the warmth of the black smoke, I opened my mouth involuntary and took it all in. People said you can drown in people eyes but they did not know that this is not drowning. It is similar but it is not the same. The water has to touch the person to drown them. Smoke inhalation kills way before the flame touches the corpse of the person in it's presents. Archie Smith was going to be my course of death. He would make it look like an asthma attack.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I am not doing anything to you. You refuse too move on. You refuse to accept the truth. You refuse to speak it. You refuse to acknowledge it and if you still wish to do nothing about it you will remain stuck. You will stay stuck in the same place and you will not find the peace your soul needs. You need to open your eyes. You need to open your mind. You need to open your heart or they will grow without you. You will be stuck here with me forever amen".

Archie started phasing into the background once again using his creepy clown magic and I found myself staring into the space he now left vacant. The hair of my body is still standing upright creating mini forests'. My eyes begun to focus to the reality of Mrs Williams teaching us how to prove that angles of a triangle is equal to one hundred and eighty degrees. It seems as though she had caught me not paying attention to her lesson because her lips were moving and the words traveled to my ears. "Karin if you blink too long, you sleeping."

You could not argue with the women. She was a nightmare. Maths teacher's would always make you prefer your darkest dreams than the wrath of their punishment and it always included public humiliation that was given in her classroom. The math teacher always knows your weakness. She called me to the front and I took each step of the walk of shame with my eyes glued to my buccaneer school shoes. No point in acting brave, not even boys are that foolish. I bit pushed my upper lip onto my nose a habit I had picked up from my uncle.

I received my sentence and I did my time. Two laps around this block of school that would be three pairs of containers back to back. I had entered the classroom cling to my breath like my life was about to end as my classmates laughed at my misery. Math does not discriminate between good or bad students, we all hate it here. I dragged myself back to class. The math class always had single seats no room for stupid distractions. My desk was next to Mihle and behind Ayesha. I chose the row against the wall by the door.

There was a note on my desk when I returned to be seated. I stared at it reminding myself to blink a lot more. The letter was written on a blank page, which was unusual because everyone stationary includes line pages no one uses blanks and it said "I'll meet you at your launch spot bring Ayesha with you. I have information. TLT" 

I passed the letter to Ayesha. She was totally unfazed by the whole thing. Despite being my best friend Ayesha and I were never on the same wavelength. We struggled to understand each other but made it work somehow.

The rest of the maths period took painfully slow. My mind was already distracted which made it hard for me to focus on the shapes and numbers in front of my yellowish face. I had equations in front of me that did not match the circles on the worksheet. I tried my best to focus on my work but my mind kept backtracking to the very real blanked paged letter in Ayesha's long sleeved shirt pocket. Her dokkie long enough to cover her pocket. Lately with everything that has been happening I had not think it be real.

The class ended and I refused to leave for interval and remained seated at my desk. Ayesha had dragged me out. Clearly she did not have lus for me and my drama. I was not going to get in her way when she was clearly in some kind of mood. Even though I could not help myself I just had to complain the whole way. Ayesha had just avoided me and my feelings on meeting this mysterious stranger. She was being rational about the whole affair not remembering that nothing in my life was rational anymore. We cannot be rational.

Once we reached our spot. She sat down like it was just another second interval. I was appalled by how she normalised it all. She acted like I was not being haunted by a painted man on a canvas. Of course she acted this way her life has nothing to do with my situationship with the melting man and whatever problem he has with how I chose to live my live. All his talk about truth and acceptance is really killing my vibe. Why is my life all of a sudden of hard? Where's my sunshine, rainbows and cupcakes, huh?

"Life ain't cupcakes and rainbows for anyone".

Did I just say that out loud?

"No, you did not and it does not take a sangoma to see what your face says".

Mihle, of course, "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to discuss how we are going to be examining the dead bodies"

I felt bail rising in my throat and I was afraid that if I spoke that vomit would come in place of the words. I could not look him in the eyes how dare he do something like this and plan to involve Ayesha and I.

"Karin, stop being so dramatic I thought you were the most excited about the dead bodies"

Oh my god Ayesha, I do not believe my ears I never expected this from her. I always joked about being friends with a couple of psychopaths but I never once meant what I was saying. I always thought that the things that happens on that reality crime TV show "unusual suspects" could never happen to me.   

"We already started with the life science project we just needed to talk to you about, since you part of the group. It was in the letter…"

"…The one I left on your maths desk. We need to talk. The task is due soon like as soon as the water dries up we need to visit the morgue. Right Ayesha?"

Ayesha just smiled and nodded happily. She hated this subject and just wanted school to get out of the way. She was more than ready to close this chapter of her life and start a new one. I hated her for it. For wanting to leave everything behind. To brush it off like it was not just four years of her life. She would just move on.