1st day
"Ben agreed that I should come to his house today. I mean, he did not invite me personally, but he left this note," I said to Carla that was completely distracted. "Are you listening to me?"
"Yes. Let me see the note." I did what she asked. I stretched my arm so that she could get the note on the couch where she was sitting. I ended up falling on the floor, causing laughter in Carla. She rose from the sofa and sat on the floor next to me. "In my house. 4:30 p.m. But only this? But where's the address?" Carla said after reading the note.
"Ben is not stupid. He should imagine that I knew where his house is."
"But of course that he imagined. He lives only one block from your house. Certainly, he must have noticed one of its thousands of times that you made me come along with you in front of his house, to see any sign of Ben over there. He must have thought that you are a psychopath."
"Carla!" I threw the pillow on her. "Will you go with me there?"
"What I will do there?"
"Give me support."
"Do not even think about it. I do not have anything to do there. I'm not even in the same class as you."
"But you are in the same school grade, and the schoolwork is the same."
"You are wrong. In our class, your mother asked us to play a game. She has overcome this time."
Carla did not want to get in the house of Benjamin, but she accompanied me to the gate of his house, this helped me a lot already. I do not know if I would have been coming here if she had not obliged me.
The Ben's was only one block of mine. I lived near him, but far enough to me to do not have any contact with him. Carla said goodbye even before I pressed the button on the interphone.
Carla lives in a neighborhood next to mine; she had always depended on the bus to come to my area. One spend that she was keen to keep so that our friendship never would end.
I stood still in front of Ben's house for ten minutes; up to, I get the courage and press the button on the interphone. It was 4:40 p.m. That meant that I was a bit late.
I press the button for at least three times, up until I a woman attended me. A sweet and tired voice spoke with me:
"Good evening! Who is?"
"My name is Gabrielle. I have schoolwork with Ben...Oh! Benjamin," I said a little ashamed. How could I have been so intimate by calling him that?
The woman on the other side opened the gate giving me passage. The yellow house of two floors seen after of gate rails gave me a better vision of how it was beautiful. There is a garden around the house. The grass was well trimmed, and instead of the stairs, there was a small ramp leading to the entrance of the house. Seemed to have been adapted to the current situation of Ben.
I ambled up to the house entrance. Ben's mom opened the door to me. How did I know she was his mother?
Her presence was constant in school, due to everything that Ben did wrong. I could not help but notice her in the school corridors talking to her son. Just like Ben, she also seemed downcast. She is thinner, and she is with some gray hairs too. It looked like she did not care what color her hair was.
She received me with a smile and invited me to enter. The heavy rock sound was echoing through the house. I hardly heard her speak.
"I'm sorry for this whole buzz. It's Ben," She said. "I'll tell him that you're here. Please, sit down," She said pointing out to the beautiful reclining sofa and red retractable seat.
I politely did what she asked me. The sofa was soft and comfortable. I stayed there for a while admiring the beauty of the place. In fact, for a long time, up until that the silence reigned. I had the impression that someone turned off the stereo abruptly. Ben's mom returned with her face even sadder.
"You can go to him already. It is just through the kitchen when you will see a closed door, just enter."
I found strange the fact about Ben; he does not have the bedroom upstairs. Maybe the reason is the ladder. A large ladder made of marble that gave accesses upstairs.
I tucked the strap of my backpack into my shoulder and went to Ben's bedroom. In the door, there is a small board upside down hanging by a nail. It seemed that it was hanging like this purposely. Out of sheer curiosity, I turned the board for me to read no matter what it was writing it: Here lies Benjamin Oliveira. 10/21/1997 to 12/31/2014. Now let me rest in peace. Do not disturb me.
All those words seemed had been handwritten. By hands from who I could already imagine. I imagined a lonely and depressing Ben sitting in his wheelchair writing all those words; a chill ran up my spine. My hands suddenly got cold, but I refused to leave him in this loneliness. I put my hand on the doorknob; I turned it and opened it.
Then, I saw him. Ben was on his back near the window, his elbow resting on it.
"Hi," I said, trying to draw attention to me since it seems like that he did not mind the noise of the creaking of the door opening. I heard him snoring. "I came because of school work. You marked," I said, trying making him remember, but this did not make much sense since I was here at his invitation.
"Okay! Let's get this over with," Ben said, turning the wheelchair finally to me.
He moved the wheelchair to a desk of the color red. Ben got a flash drive that was on the desk and threw to me. I did not think that he would do this and did not have to time enough of my brain did the quick thinking function and caught flash drive. Ben threw the flash drive so hard that almost reached me. The flash drive passed close to my face, reaching the wall.
"You just had to get," Ben said with indifference. "I guess I'm not the only invalid here."
"What?" I asked in shock with what I just heard. "What is your problem?"
"When was the last time you changed your glasses? Haven't you seen it yet?" He said, pointing to his legs.
"I'm not talking about this. You almost hit me."
"Yeah, but I think I missed the aim." I opened my mouth with anger. Was he talking seriously? Alternatively, had he a side of black humor?
"Did you want to hit me with the flash drive?" Ben winked at me. Damn it! I blushed. For a brief moment of fury, I have forgotten how Ben was handsome, and he reminded me of that in seconds. I forget the little purposeful "accident" that Benjamin wanted to cause me, and I spoke what interests me. "Do have you chosen any song? I already have some" I took my flash drive from the pocket of my jeans. We can listen to the song that each one chose. Therefore, we could pick a song on a democratic way, in which the two could sing comfortably.
"It's serious? Are you interested in doing this shit of homework?"
"I need this grade."
"You are the daughter of the English teacher. I have certainty that you don't need this grade." Ben knew that teacher Elizabeth was my mother, this has not been new to anyone, but I thought that he had never noticed me before, except for him to mock me once together with one of his asshole friends. It meant that something Ben has seen in me, nothing special but was enough to my thought, I was not so invisible.
"My mother is more rigid, exactly because I am her daughter. I need to rehearse that song soon."
"Do you sing?
"No."
"How you intend to get a good grade?"
"My mother will evaluate the pronunciation. She will not evaluate if I am good enough to sing."
"So you can start singing."
"What?"
"I want to evaluate your pronunciation."
"I will not sing to you."
"So what did you come to do here?"
That was the right question to ask. To conclude the schoolwork I would have to sing, and one of the persons that would be in the classroom would be Benjamin.
"One step at a time. First, we chose the sound and after we start with the singing."
"Okay! Let us start with my songs. Get my flash drive," I did what he asked, although he has not spoken, please. The truth was that I do not want to see Benjamin fallen trying to catch the flash drive on the floor.
He asked me to put the flash drive in the USB port of stereo. Once again, I did as he asked.
"Now just turn on the stereo."
I lowered to push the button since the stereo was on the shelf that was of the height of Ben's wheelchairs. As soon as I pressed the button, a horrible song came out of the stereo almost blowing up my ears. Ben had purposely left the stereo turn on in highest volume. The "song" had offensive and obscene words. Nothing made sense in the lyrics. I do not know if I really could call that of the song. Ben laughed at my expense while I looked for the power button. I was too nervous to see it. Then I solved my problem. Otherwise, I took the flash drive of the stereo. I have not been more interested in doing the schoolwork with Ben. His single goal was he irritated me.
"Not funny!" I said frowning. I clenched my fist demonstrating my irritation.
"I think I got the wrong flash drive," he said while a mischievous brightness overflowed in his look. It must be in the first drawer. There! He pointed to the red nightstand.
I went to the place indicated by him. I opened the drawer, and I almost fell when I saw a bleeding hand inside it. I touched that thing unintentionally, the blood glued to my hand, causing me panic. It was all very unreal, so, before I started shouting would have perceived that was only an idiotic joke.
He exploded into laughter. I felt like an idiot. Not that I was not accustomed to people laughing at me, but was just two of us there. Benjamin was laughing at me. I felt even more stupid. I just wanted to get out of there, as fast as I could, and so I did.
I let Benjamin to coke with his laughter, and I quickly left his room. I was already in the kitchen when his mother stopped me.
"What happened? I heard screams," She asked, she seemed worried. I did not want to answer. My mind was a mess. "It was Ben. I am going to talk to him. Wait for me here."
Ben's mother went to the bedroom and of course that I did not stay waiting for her. I located where the intercom was, I push the button, opening the gate. I ran to the gate as if I were a fugitive. I earned my freedom, and I called Carla.
"Are you upset about what he did or why you found out that your old Prince Charming is an idiot? Better, he is an ogre. Who knows he is the Shrek in person? Did he already belch in front of you?" She said and laughed how if everything had been funny.
"Carla!"
"Where are you now?"
"I am on the way home."
"What he did when you left?"
"He did not do anything. I think that was his intention. He wanted me to leave."
The first thing I did when I got home was a take a shower. I managed to remove the red viscous liquid that had stuck in my hand. It was some mixture prepared by Benjamin to make it look like blood.
In my thoughts, I already imagined Ben in various ways, but this one never crossed my mind. I already invented thousands of conversations between Ben and me, but I never could believe that the real talk would be this way. I waited so long for a moment alone with him. I just did not expect that was so disappointing.
In my thoughts, he was gentle, and now I was surprised with the opposite. Who are you really, Benjamin?
Now what I will wish tomorrow was that Ben would not go to school...