Opening Chapters

Sometimes a song just takes you back, way back. Especially when the song is from a movie you recently realized was shot in a place you used to visit every summer as a child. The song’s really old, as old as my sister who can finally get a license this year. She’s quite excited, I’m apprehensive. Not because of her. Because of the concept of driving in itself. It terrifies me, having to control the movement of an entity so much bigger and heavier than me. It’s a good thing I didn’t aspire to be a pilot I think sometimes. This time though, the song reminded me of a particular summer, eleven years ago. This place that the movie was shot in, I had a love-hate relationship with it. My mother’s ancestral home was there, so we used to go every year during our summer vacation to see our grandmother and our aunts and uncles and cousins (of which we had many, some being nice while some were unbearable). There were cousins who would relentlessly tease us, they were incredibly mean and...

It was one of those days, where he was waiting for her to show up. Five more minutes she had messaged, the grammar nazi that she was, typing out the number. He wondered if she would be able to find him. The park was huge and he wanted to meet her somewhere the happy kids wouldn't bump into them, somewhere where a stray football wouldn't land into their laps while they talked. He was meeting her after so long. Well, not really that long. But it felt long. So much had happened in the few months they had been apart. So much had changed. They themselves had changed, perhaps without recognition even. He had come to the city a few days ago, but he couldn't bring himself to call her. What if she didn't answer his calls? What if she refused to meet him? When he had finally gotten over his fear and called her, she yelled at him for delaying the call after being in the city. If you knew I'd reached, why didn't you call me? I thought you weren't calling becau...

I rose early today. Or rather, I hadn't gone to sleep at all. I couldn't sleep. My mind was ill at ease. It has been for a while. My thoughts kept wandering into the dark corners I did not want it to go to. But it was relentless. Every time I closed my eyes and thought I could finally rest, I’d jump up again. It was still dark when I finally decided to leave my eyes open for the rest of the day. I peeked at the window from my bed. The sky was starting to have a tinge of light blue, that beautiful blue when the sun rises. There is a reason why I love that colour, blue. All the different shades of it. The sky, the oceans. The sense of wonder that radiates from anything that is blue. I waited for a bit more and eventually decided to rise and brush my teeth. My routine used to include me fumbling for a cigarette before my brush, but things changed. I could use one now, when I think about it. The only thought that keeps me away from that little white stick is what I had t...

What's in a story? She asked me. I looked at her and watched her hair blow in her face. Her hands continually brushed them away from her mouth as she looked out into the ocean. I followed her gaze into the infinite blue. Any story in particular? I asked her. She looked at me and laughed. No, silly. I loved it when she called me that, silly. Just a story, she said. A tale, an anecdote, whatever. What about it? I wasn't quite understanding where she was getting at. Story-telling. It's an undying art. It would be revered in every society, every era. It might have been Shakespeare's plays, it might be those stories about that celebrity breaking up with that one because of something that happened. They are all tales, and we love them, don't we? I don't know, I said. And I didn't. It was interesting to wonder. Human beings have been telling stories even before words existed, what with cave paintings and all. Words came and we learned to tell stories thr...

“What is the point of life?” “Love.” “That makes no sense.” “Why not?” “You cannot live for love.” “Sure you can.” “Or rather, you can live without love.” “I don't know if that is the general rule, but for most people, you need love. That’s why people meet other people, seek approval. That’s why people settle down and get married and have kids. Humans domesticated animals for love.” “No. People settle down and get married and have kids for reproduction. To keep the human race going. And humans domesticated animals for free labor; creatures that won’t be able to say anything back.” “Not true. Why would we domesticate cats then? I could say dogs, but there are dogs that used for certain purposes. But dogs do that because they want to. Because they love us. But why cats? They don't do anything for us. They sleep, eat and occasionally let us mere mortals pet them. The only thing rewarding about the cat, is the love. So, my friend, I must politely disagree with ...

Shortly after the summer of 2008, Mr Bennett--overcome with debts and other financial problems--decided that there was nothing more he could do. Rather than wait out the recession and do what he could to keep his family comfortable, he took the cowardly man’s route and jumped off of the 23rd floor of the office tower. Needless to say, the Bennett family was put through even worse hell, and hence had to relocate from their pricey Renaissance villa to a mildly-better-than-mud-houses apartment. Mrs. Bennett found that she had to sell all of her precious poodles and her daughters, Roslyn and Fiona chose their own ways to react, which happened to be on two ends of a spectrum. Fiona, being the older, felt she had to take the responsibility. Shedding her spoilt girl image, she went into work as a waitress and a babysitter. Roslyn on the other hand, felt angry that her partying years had been taken away from her and did what girls normally do to rebel: throw tantrums and do the stupidest th...