Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 07: You Are Unique

(Revised 03/08/2022)

It was raining softly outside. The trees waved as the wind slowly pulled and pushed them, their leaves falling. The window was closed, but he could feel the soft breeze of the wind. It was a beautiful sight. The soft sound of rain accompanied by occasional thunder would calm anyone in distress.

However, Tom was anything but calm. Drapes were scattered across the room, nearly indistinguishable from his blanket. The pillows and bolsters were nowhere to be seen. His fur a mess, the wolf curled up beside the nightstand in the corner of the room, holding his wooden staff tightly. He panted heavily, trying to draw deep breaths but unable to do so.

He pulled his legs even closer to his body and kicked the blanket away. He gripped his head, so hard the insides of his ears began to discolour. His eyes were shut tight, his teeth bared. Tears were falling from his eyes, his t-shirt already damp from it.

His sobs turned into cries, and he punched the back of his head to the wall, screaming as he did so. The pain was welcome, anything was welcome to save him from his own self.

He kept crying in agony, writhing and clawing at his head. The lamp on the nightstand fell and shattered apart, pushed by the erratic movement of his tail.

I see you, ringed inside his head, fragments of his memories playing inside his mind. You're worth nothing but disappointment.

He screamed as loud as he could.

The soft sound of rain was marred by a scream in torment.

Please, go.

Then there was silence.

The wolf sobbed into his arms, draping himself in fake assurance. He took a deep breath amidst his sobs, a symbol of his surrender and forced indifference.

It was almost 4 in the morning.

-

"Put that one over there."

Theodore put the rubber lines under the exhibition panel. Martin and James slowly lowered the panel, and they clicked into place. They three huffed in satisfaction as they stood back up.

"Okay, is that everything?" James asked, walking towards him and picked up his water bottle.

Tom looked around, then said, "Yeah, all done."

"Finally!"

Taking a few steps back, the grey wolf looked at the installed panels, satisfied with his group's work. Today was the D-day for his group's social project and they were looking forward to spending the day finalising it. They hoped to attract a lot of crowds and maybe sell some merchandise in the meantime.

His group was having a mini-exhibition with the theme "You Are Unique" in the Humanities Faculty building lobby today. Pictures drawn by his friends adorned the panels, some mere sketches, others full paintings. He counted the paintings. There were 17 paintings spread over 5 panels. He also participated; his seemingly lame and plain sketch sat on one of the corners of the panel. There were also two wide mirrors on the opposite sides of each other, each with opposite labels above them.

"Looks good?"

Tom turned to James. The tiger was sitting on the floor, looking at the panels with a satisfied look on his face. "Looks good." He turned his tablet off. "It's going to be crowded later, you reckon we'll need more blank canvases for the signature board?"

"Tom, we have 5 of them." James put his bottle down. "That's more than enough."

"Oh, yeah... but—"

"Tom, you're stressing yourself out. Just calm down." James stood up and put his hand on the wolf's shoulder. "We've been this far, Mr van de Hoek's gonna give us an A, I know it."