Friday 24 November 2017

AND THEN THERE WAS NO CUP


I looked out through the window to the classes in the West, I saw people crying and weeping that they had it bad. They were angry at the chaperones for giving them half-filled cups of Gatorade. They wanted the old chaperones back. The same chaperones they all wanted to leave just a few months back. They were used to full bottles of wine whenever they were thirsty. It was strange to me but I was not in the position to say anything. I just shook my head and looked away.
In the East, the people were wailing. They killed the chaperones and got themselves new ones. The new ones were too weak and irresponsible that they were overpowered by the noisy back-seaters who were now running the class and trying to take over the whole school. They were not content with the fact that their cups were half-empty. Everything was depressing and they were used to it already by now. They wanted the old chaperones whom they had ousted in the first place. How had they been mistaken to think these new chaperones could stand up to the back-seaters. I turned away in disappointment.
Now I am looking at the place I am standing, as the ground slowly transforms into a lake so familiar – a lake in the Niger Area. We were in the worst situation possible. Our former chaperone was so incompetent that he almost emptied our stainless cups. We could almost see our reflections in the bottom of the cup. At least others had clean water but we had to manage vinegar. And it was so bad that even before the vinegar got to our intestines they had evaporated. So, it was safe to say we had no options. We needed a new chaperone. It couldn’t get any worse. . .right?
The new chaperone was really great at first. He brought discipline which lasted for what seems now like a split second. He only paid attention to his favorites in the class. The people who looked like him and spoke the same language as he did. We did not care much as far as he did his job. Then all of a sudden, he started missing school. Then he disappeared for a long time and left the class to his dwarf friend whom no one respected in the entire school. The back-seaters then took over and ran riot on the school unchecked. His favorites made excuses for him while the rest of the class raved and ranted. Bedlam was the normal we had to get used to. So much for the discipline we were promised
After some time, some rumored he would never return. Some even thought he had died in the land so far away. Some of the students wanted to take over but his favorites threatened to fight the whole class if they did. Then the other students wanted to leave but weren’t taken seriously because they didn’t have a united front.
The chaperone is back from the land so far away and he is unapologetic. Now here we are sat, heads in bandages, holes in pockets and hearts in cracks, wondering what we were thinking when we chose him as our chaperone. And to make matters worse, we now had no cups.

***Gatszky***

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